New research shows dogs understand what humans say and how they say it

DOGS are already considered a man’s best friend. But now research shows our furry friends understand us better than we think.

Dogs really are a man's best friend

DOGS are already considered a man’s best friend but now ­research shows our furry friends understand us better than we think.

The study, published in the journal Current Biology, found dogs can process a speaker’s gender, emotional tone and the way sentences are phrased.

University of Sussex School of Psychology associate tutor Victoria Ratcliffe, who conducted the study, said the research shows dogs may be processing more verbal cues than we think.

“Dogs react to both verbal and speaker-­related information and these components appear to be processed in different areas of the dog’s brain,” Ms Ratcliffe said.

“These results support the idea that our canine companions are paying attention not only to how we say things, but also to what we say.”

Previous studies discovered dogs have hemispheric biases — left brain versus right — when they process the sounds of other dogs.

Ms Ratcliffe and her supervisor David Reby used this research to investigate whether dogs used the same parts of their brain to process human speech.

“This is particularly interesting because our results suggest that the processing of speech components in the dog’s brain is divided between the two hemispheres in a way that is actually very similar to the way it is separated in the human brain,” Dr Reby said.

La Trobe University Psychology Associate Professor Pauleen Bennett said: “Dogs know more than we give them credit for. This research backs that up.”

Dog lover Alanna Di Troia said her Australian silky terrier Shih tzu cross, Coco, understands what she says.

“Coco hates having baths, so if anyone even mentions the word “bath” he runs and hides,” she said. “I think every dog can understand what their owner says.”