Can dogs really understand our language? The answer is a definite yes. As we know, dogs understand human language. They can recognize object names, not just commands, without specific training. They understand when we’re talking to them or to someone else, whether we’re telling them a lie or giving a sincere compliment, and they judge us, sometimes thinking we’re silly and doing things that make no sense to them.
Just like children learning to speak, dogs also learn to understand the language of the humans they live with. Similarly, they can get confused if spoken to in a different language they’ve never heard before or if objects are suddenly called by different names. But as intelligent as they are, with practice, they can learn different languages and thus be bilingual or multilingual, responding to “leash” as well as “guinzaglio” or “correa.”
Distinguishing and Learning
A study conducted by researchers from the Department of Ethology at Eötvös Loránd University found that dogs’ brains have the ability to detect the naturalness of language and distinguish between languages. The experiment stemmed from the real-life experience of Mexican ethologist Laura Cuaya, who moved to Hungary with her dog Kun-Kun to continue her post-doctoral research. “I had only spoken to him in Spanish before. So, I wondered if Kun-Kun had noticed that people in Budapest spoke another language, Hungarian. We knew that even preverbal children notice the difference, but nothing about dogs. So, we started a brain imaging study to find out.” Kun-Kun’s and 17 other dogs’ brain functionality was monitored while listening to readings of “The Little Prince” in Spanish and Hungarian. This enabled researchers to compare how unfamiliar languages activate different brain areas, distinguishing differences while also learning.
Adults Are Better Than Puppies
This study demonstrated for the first time that a non-human brain can distinguish between two languages. By comparing brain responses, researchers found distinct activity patterns in the dogs’ primary auditory cortex, indicating they can also distinguish between language and non-language stimuli. Surprisingly, the older the dogs were, the better their brains distinguished between the two languages. This tells us that not only can dogs be trained to recognize commands and words in different languages, but they also have the ability to understand and learn from common human language they hear around them at any age.
