London - For many a besotted dog owner, their pet is considered their baby.
And now researchers have found that their canine companion could be just as smart.
Tests have shown that dogs have the same level of intelligence as a typical five-month-old infant.
As babies’ brains develop they learn to notice the actions of other people.
It had been thought that this was a trait exclusive to humans and primates such as monkeys and apes. But now the results of a study show that dogs do it also. In the Milan University research project, the authors tried a test usually carried out on five-month-old babies on dogs and found that the animals performed just as well.
In the test, 50 dogs were placed in a room with a researcher and their response to an experiment was recorded.
First, the dogs watched as the person interacted with the globe. Then, when the position of the globe and watering can was switched, the dogs again watched the person with the globe in the new location.
When the person then switched to interacting with the watering can, however, the dogs’ attention also shifted to the watering can.
Like children, the dogs spent more time watching the person to whom they were used to watching in the experiment, rather than watching the spot they were watching at first. When an inanimate object was used with the two objects, the same response was noted.
And in a third experiment, dogs looked longer at the person interacting with the new object in the familiar location rather than the familiar object in a new location.
The researchers said this shows that dogs can recognise goal-directed behaviour, which means they know where to look and how to respond to people when it seems like something important might happen. - Daily Mail