HOW DO DOGS UNDERSTAND US?

Thursday, August 13, 2020

It took months to train the pet dogs in the study to stay absolutely still.

PHOTOGRAPH BY ENIKP KUBINYI

By Rachael Bale, ANIMALS Executive Editor

As many dog owners will tell you, you can get your dog excited about almost anything as long as you say it in an enthusiastic voice, at least for a little while. When I would say to my adopted corgi Sherman, “Time for your medicine!” in my “it’s dinnertime!” voice, he would jump up, wag his tail, and look at me expectantly. But he soon learned what the word “medicine” meant, and even my cheeriest voice wouldn’t make him budge. (Corgis are both very smart and very, very stubborn.)

This is because dogs’ brains, like humans, make sense of the tone of spoken language and the meaning of the words separately. Before Sherman learned what “medicine” meant, the emotion in my voice was what he used to understand me.

Researchers proved this scientifically back in 2016. They trained 13 dogs to lie stock- still in an MRI machine (above) and then scanned them, discovering that dogs process tone and language in two different parts of their brains, just like humans. In other words, what you say to your dog— and how you say it—matter.

The scientists next wanted to know if dogs’ brains go through the same steps as humans’ to make sense of tone and meaning. And after more MRI scans, they got their answer. Their newly published research shows that dogs first analyze the emotional component of language and then they process words’ meanings—again, just like humans. This sheds new light on how human language may have developed, Virginia Morrell reports. And why dogs are such good human partners.

Even though my bait-and-switch no longer works with Sherman and his medicine, it makes me happy to know just how well he really can understand me.