How to tell if your dog is really listening to you

If you are worried that your dog is not paying attention to what you are saying simply look at where he is staring. Dogs look to the right when they recognise familiar commands because they process the sound in a specific part of their brains which remembers that the sound is important.

                Researchers at the University of Sussex discovered that dogs respond to speech in much the same way as humans do, processing recognisable sounds in the left hemisphere of the brain. In contrast, unusual noises or speech, are processed in the right hemisphere of the brain. However, due to cross-wiring in the brain, if a dog turns to the right it means the left side of the brain is processing the words and vice versa.

                Associate Tutor Victoria Ratcliffe of the School of Psychology at the University of Sussex said the results support the idea that pets are paying attention "not only to who we are and how we say things, but also to what we say." She added. "Although we cannot say how much or in what way dogs understand information in speech from our study, we can say that dogs react to both verbal and speaker-related information and that these components appear to be processed in different areas of the dog's brain."

                Researchers looked at how dogs responded when their owners told them to ‘come on.’ When presented with familiar spoken commands, in a usual tone, dogs showed a left-hemisphere processing bias and turned to the right, indicating that they recognised what was being said. However, when the command was said in a different tone and speed, the dogs could no longer process it as a familiar sound and so looked to the left.

                Scientists point out that the study does not show that dogs understand what their owners are saying or have any language ability. However, they believe the ability to process the familiar commands in a specific part of the brain may have evolved as a response to human speech during domestication. Dogs who could quickly pick up what their owners were saying, and distinguish it from unfamiliar speech, were likely to be more useful to early man.

Question 1 (2 points) Indicate whether the following statements are true or false and write down which part of the text justifies your answer.

a.  Dogs and humans’ brains work similarly.

b. The right hemisphere controls familiar voices

c. Dogs are attentive to our discourse and its content

d. Dogs are claimed to understand their owners’ words

Question 2 (2 points) Answer the following questions in your own words.

a.   How do dogs react when they hear their owners?

b.   How can a dog’s understanding be improved?

Question 3 (1.5 points) Find words or phrases in the text that correspond in meaning to the words and definitions given.

a.   watch, look (paragraph 1)                                        

b.   orders (paragraph 1)                                 

c.   defend, back (paragraph 3)

d.   develop (paragraph 5)                                                              

e.  probable (paragraph 5)

Question 4 (1.5 points) Complete the following sentences without changing the meaning.

a. Unusual noises or speech are processed in the right hemisphere of the brain

We ……………………………

b. Victoria Ratcliffe said: “ the results support the idea that pets are paying attention not only to who we are and how we say things, but also to what we say.”

   Victoria Ratcliffe said that...

c. The study does not report that dogs understand what their owners say.

    Dogs...

Question 5 (3 points) Write a short essay (120-150 words) on the following topic:

Advantages and disadvantages of having a dog at home?