Dogs understand and know what people want

Chimpanzees may be closest relatives to humans, but they don't understand us like dogs.

Research published in the latest issue of the scientific journal PLoS ONE shows that chimpanzees are less concerned when people point their finger at an object, while dogs are very attentive and know exactly what people want. Juliane Kaminski, cognitive psychologist at Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig (Germany), said: 'There is evidence that the selection pressure during domestication has changed dogs. let them adapt perfectly to a new environment, human environment ' . Even 6-week-old puppies already own this ability without much practice.

In the study, Ms. Kaminski and her colleagues compared the ability to understand the human hand gesture between chimpanzees and dogs. A person points to an object that is out of reach but within the animal's reach. If chimpanzees or dogs get that object, they will be rewarded with food.

Dogs are very attentive and know exactly what people want

Chimp ignores human gestures even though they are very motivated to receive rewards, and dogs have won the test. Chimpanzees do not understand human intentions in that task. Not that they lack the ability, but may not develop a tendency to notice people when trying to achieve goals. This confirms that hand gestures are a special form of human communication but dogs have challenged this hypothesis. Therefore, Ms. Kaminski argues that the scientific community needs to delve into the mechanisms behind dogs' ability to understand human communication forms.

According to Kaminski, wolves do not have this skill either: 'Even wolves raised in human environments are not sensitive to human communication like dogs' . Previous studies have shown that domesticated cats also pay attention to humans and can understand pointing, but not as good as dogs.