Dogs' ability to understand us is ever growing

As they gaze up at us, our pet dogs often seem to know just what we’re thinking.And their position as man’s best friend is getting stronger all the time – because their ability  to understand and predict human behaviour  is actually growing with each generation, according to animal psychologists.A study from the University of Abertay in Dundee shows that a dog’s ability to understand humans is innate and does not depend on training.It is a result of breeding and genetic selection, so it will only get more advanced in the future.Scientists observed how 24 dogs, ranging from the highly trained to the totally untrained, reacted to people’s unspoken commands, such as pointing at a location for the dog to move to. They found the dogs’ training levels made no difference to their responsiveness.Dr Clare Cunningham, who led the study published in the journal Animal Cognition, said: ‘We found that training levels didn’t make any difference - no matter how well trained they were, it did not make their ability to pick up cues better or worse.‘What made the difference was whether they were familiar with the human who was giving the cues.‘As they get to know particular humans, they pay more attention to them and this may mean they can read and even predict human behaviour with more efficiency as familiarity grows.’She added: ‘If such abilities can be passed on from one generation to the next, then over time we will see them getting better and better and better at predicting human behaviour.’The unspoken commands included pointing to or gazing at a location for the dogs to move to, and recording how they reacted.Dr Cunningham, who co-wrote the paper with her colleague Mari Ramos, said: ‘Dogs have been selected through the domestication process to accept humans as social partners and as such, are very good at attending to their behaviour.‘If such abilities can be passed on from one generation to the next than over time we will see them getting better and better and better at predicting human behaviour.’(dailymail.co.uk)ANN.Az