![]() Worsley adds the next step is to study how dogs interact with people they haven’t known for very long the dogs in the study had been with their owners for at least five months. For example, dog owners can learn that certain pet behaviors, like pressing noses against an object, combined with other ones, like tail wagging, could mean different things. In addition to helping researchers decode dog behavior, the study can in turn improve communication between dogs and their owners. For humans, this signaling is an important milestone in the evolution of speech. ![]() This study gives evidence that non-primate species use referential signaling to communicate with unrelated species. (Related: how dogs know the meaning of a human smile.) Understanding Our Best Friend According to the study, the most common requests are, “Give me food/drink,” “Open the door,” “Get my toy/bone,” and “Scratch me!”Ī lot of the time, dogs are piecing together parts of their repertoire so humans “know what they’re after,” Worsley says. Then, they whittled those down to 19 signals, which the dogs deployed in combinations to get their point across to their humans. Reviewing the footage, the team identified 49 possible gestural signals the pets may have used to get what they wanted. In the study, researchers took hundreds of videos of 37 dogs interacting with their owners in England. “They are performed with intent,” Worsley says. (Related: how humans communicate with a particular species of bird.) They also have to be “mechanically ineffective,” meaning they’re nothing more than gestures. Such behaviors must be directed at a receiver and taught by repetition. (Related: how your dog knows how you feel.)īy definition, referential signals must involve a request made with an object or part of the signaler’s body. It’s rarer among non-primates, although recent research shows that ravens practice the behavior as well. Common among great apes, including humans, it’s the same thing that human babies use to get the attention of their parents. Referential signaling is a type of gesturing meant to convey a message without using words. Photograph by Joel Sartore, National Geographic Photo Ark Dog Speak
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