Does your dog understand when you say ‘fetch the ball’?

A new study in Hungary says yes

BUDAPEST, HUNGARY >> Many dog owners believe their pets understand and respond not only to commands such as “sit” and “stay,” but also to words referring to their favorite objects. “Bring me your ball” will often result in exactly that.

But science has had trouble determining whether dogs and other animals genuinely activate a mental image in their minds when they hear the name of an object, something that would suggest a deeper grasp of language, similar to the kind that humans have.

A new study in Hungary has found that beyond being able to respond to commands like “roll over,” dogs can learn to associate words with specific objects — a relationship with language called referential understanding that had been unproven in dogs until now.

“When we are talking about objects, objects are external to the dogs, and dogs have to learn that words refer, they stand for something that is external to them,” said Marianna Boros, a cognitive neuroscientist and co-lead author of the study conducted by the Department of Ethology of the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.

The study, which has been peer reviewed, was published last Friday in the science journal “Current Biology.” It involved 18 dogs and a non-invasive EEG procedure using electrodes attached to dogs’ heads to measure brain activity and register brain waves.

Dog owners participating in the study would play an audio clip in which they said the name of their dog’s toy — like “ball” or “frisbee” — and then they would show the dog an object. The researchers measured the dogs’ brain activity when the object in the recording matched the object that was displayed, and also when it differed.

“We expected that if a dog really understands the meaning of the object’s word, it will expect to see that object. And if the owner shows a different one, there will be a so- called surprise reaction in the brain,” Boros said. “And this is exactly what we found.”

The study found a different brain pattern when the dogs were shown an object that matched the word, compared to when it didn’t — suggesting the animals conjured a mental image of an object based on hearing the word for it.

Lilla Magyari, also a cognitive neuroscientist and co-lead author of the study, said that while other animals have been shown to have some degree of referential understanding of language, those animals have typically been highly trained to do so.