Clever boy: Your dog knows up to 215 words

NEXT time you notice the dog peering over your shoulder as you do the crossword, don’t be surprised – they have a better vocabulary than you might imagine.

A study has found that the intelligence of man’s best friend goes way beyond learning ‘sit’, ‘stay’ and ‘walkies’, with some pets recognising more than 200 words.

Researchers gave 165 owners a list of words and asked which their dog consistently responded to in a specific way, such as coming running, wagging their tail or looking for an object or person.

The average number of words and phrases dogs appeared to understand came in at 89. One clever pet which did dog agility and was used for scent tracking responded to 215 different words.

Even the worst performing animal responded to 15 words, with the study finding at least 90 per cent of pets reportedly knew their own name, the word ‘no’ and ‘good girl’ or ‘good boy’.

Those dogs with the best grasp of human language were herding dogs like collies, which were bred to help and understand people, and companion dogs like chihuahuas. Professor Sophie Jacques, who led the study from Dalhousie University in Canada, said: ‘Dogs have been bred to live and work with us so of course they can recognise the verbal cues we give them. But they also react to very unique phrases like “you’re so pretty” or “I’m going to get you” during play-time. So individual owners who say very different things can end up with dogs which respond to more complex language than “sit” and “stay”.’

The study, published in the journal Applied Animal Behaviour Science, found half of the average 89 words dogs know are commands, such as ‘sit’ or ‘no jumping’, as these are easy to pick up.

Around two in five participated in ‘sports’ such as obedience training, and 18 per cent were working dogs such as sheepdogs or search and rescue animals.