Your dog can understand up to 160 ‘words’

WHEN you come home from a long day at work and confide all your worries in your pooch, he or she looks back with such understanding eyes. But do they actually understand you?

Ralp the Border Collie was illegally sold at 4 weeks old

“NED, my boss is a complete turd,” you tell your dog as you walk in the door after a hard day at work and Ned looks back with understanding eyes.

But does Ned have any idea what you’re talking about?

Most dogs are able to understand 160 words according to YouTube science channel HeadSqueeze. And by ‘words’ we aren’t just referring to the literal meaning, but also gestures and signals such as whistling.

It’s also not what we say but often how we say it that gives our four-legged friends a clue as to what we mean. For example, if you start reading the back of a cereal box to your dog in a deep cranky voice, chances are it will feel intimidated and back off. While if you read the exact same box in a cheery voice, it will jump all over you in excitement.

This is because your dog has memorised your tone and body language and uses this to determine when it is in trouble or being praised. Some dogs can retain as much of this information as a parrot or even an ape.

When it comes to objects and commands, dogs learn these by simply associating sounds with the object or command, so when you use the same word over and over again to refer to an object or action the dog will eventually correlate the two.

However, all animals are not equal. Border collies, German shephards, poodles and Golden retrievers are the smartest, while bulldogs and Afghan hounds are not so bright. This is simply believed to be because the smarter dogs are the newest breeds and humans have been able to program them since they arrived.

So feel free to confess your deepest sins to your best friend, but maybe do it in a happy voice.

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