Talking to your dog might not be that difficult.
New research has shown that man's best friend It can actually understand human words like “play” and “outside” when communicated via a soundboard with pressable buttons.
“This study puts to rest many people's doubts about whether dogs really understand what buttons mean,” Lead researcher Federico Rossano said University of California, San Diego's Dr.
“Our findings are important because they show that Words matter to dogsAnd they respond to words, not just to cues.”
Cost-efficient interactive floor mats, which sell for about $40, typically include cues about food, water, going outside and going to bed, as well as discipline and love.
According to the study, dogs showed their most “contextually appropriate” responses related to playtime and going outside.
The researchers visited 30 homes with dogs to observe their interactions with the boards and conducted a remotely guided experiment with another 29 owners.
“We're just scratching the surface with this study,” Rosano said. “Future studies will explore how dogs actively use these buttons, including the meaning and systematicity behind the sequence of button presses.”
Dr. Melissa Berthet of the University of Zurich also sees the possibility that dogs may be alert to audio cues.
“They really needed to show that,” he told The Guardian“And now I think the community of scientists is looking forward to the rest of the exciting results.”
However, the study states that, Now in the journal PloS OneThere was negative response from other academics.
It was described as “nothing of the sort” by Clive Wynne, director of Arizona State University's Canine Science Collaboratory, who insisted that the tests only show how dogs interact with verbal cues.
“There's nothing remarkable about it,” he told the outlet.
The report comes on the heels of an unrelated study that studied whether two chimpanzees captured in the video, They appear to be capable of human speech,
