Dogs Read Gestures Like 2-Year-Olds

(July 14) -- Have you ever considered your dog as an extra child? You may not be that far off.

New research shows dogs are similar to 2-year-olds in their capacity to understand simple pointing gestures, Discovery News reported.

Two recent studies show dogs may understand human nonverbal communication better even than chimpanzees. Due to domestication, dogs have become attune to visual signals from humans, including head-turning and gazing.

One study compared dogs and toddlers in how they reacted to gestures, including finger-, elbow- and knee-pointing, to direct subjects to hidden food and objects. Dogs performed as well as 2-year-olds in correctly interpreting the gestures, but were not as successful as 3-year-olds.

Gabrielle Lakatos, who directed the study published in the July issue of Animal Cognition, said that important changes in understanding occur between the ages of 2 and 3, primarily language-learning, that exceeds canine capacities.

The other study, published in the May issue of Animal Cognition, shows that dogs do not require the same learning curve as children. Marta Gacsi, who led the study, said, "dogs showed no difference in the performance according to age, indicating that in dogs the comprehension of the human pointing may require only very limited and rapid early learning to fully develop."

Another factor that may contribute to dogs understanding human cues with "next to zero learning time," as Discovery News described it, is pet owners use of baby talk -- or "motherese" -- with both their children and dogs.