Dogs understand you as much as toddlers do
Dogs are as advanced as a two-year-old child in following eye contact, a study has found.
Scientists have found the animals pick up not only the words we say, but our "intent to communicate" with them.
Jszsef Topal, of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, said: "Increasing evidence supports the notion that humans and dogs share some social skills."
"The way dogs work resembles that of a six-month to two-year-old child in a lot of respects," the Daily Mail Friday quoted Topal as saying.
Dogs even watch how we make eye contact, to work out what we mean and why we are talking to them.
"Dogs, as well as human infants, are sensitive to cues that signal our intent," said Topal.
Topal's team tested dogs with videos of a person saying, "Hi, dog!" in different tones of voice and using different levels of eye contact.
The dogs can "read" the eye contact and enthusiasm as well as youngsters, the team found. Dogs know when they are being spoken to - and can even make a guess at what you are thinking.
Topal said that the results will undoubtedly confirm what many dog owners and trainers already know.
However, whether or not dogs rely on similar pathways in the brain for processing those cues isn't clear yet.
"Our findings reveal that dogs are receptive to human communication in a manner that was previously attributed only to human infants," Topal said.
"However, it is the first study to use eye-tracking techniques to study dogs' social skills, he noted.
The research was published online in the journal Current Biology.
