Dogs Can Understand Human Language

It has been debated for several years if dogs can understand what people are saying to them. Numerous studies have been conducted to test the theory. Scientists such as Victoria Ratcliffe and Brian Hare all have done extensive research into the mind of dogs. Because of this research, people have a better understanding of how dogs process language and the way they interact with humans. Dogs are able to understand a human’s words based on the scientific and psychological studies from the study of Rico the collie, Dr. Victoria Ratcliffe’s work, and Brian Hare’s contributions.
Dogs are able to understand human’s words and actions because case studies have been conducted that prove the hypothesis. One scientific study that was done on a collie named Rico. He was known as the dog that could understand and respond to 200 words accurately. This put him relatively close to a toddlers’ skill of understanding words. In the study, Rico’s owner tested his hypothesis at a young age. An article by By David Derbyshire states, “Rico first began fetching …show more content…
Brian Hare. a professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University designed a study to test this. “Researchers made images of the brains of 13 dogs using a machine that records brain activity. The dogs were trained to lie down in the machine for seven minutes. During that time, they listened through headphones to their trainers’ voices”(Friedell). Brian was surprised by the results of the experiment. It concluded the same as Dr. Ratcliffe’s case study. The brain imaging showed that dogs process words using their left side of their brains. He also concluded that they use the right side of the brain for understanding and depicting tone and pitch. This study shows what all dog owners want to hear. This scientific study is one of many that has proved dog's ability to perceive words and has changed the way scientists view