Why does the dog tilt its head? A study explains the significance of this sweet habit

    Man's best friend has a lot of adorable habits, but this one is certainly the cutest and funniest

    He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him

    Man's best friend has a lot of adorable habits, but this one is certainly the cutest and funniest





    Have you ever wondered why your four-legged friend tilt your head to one side, making that funny face that seems to be trying to understand what we are saying to him? A team of researchers from the University of Budapest has tried to investigate this habit of domesticated dogs: according to scholars, it could be an instinctive reaction to acoustic stimuli and a way to better hear the requests of humans. In other words, the animal tilts its head in reaction to words or objects that activate memories in its brain - such as its favorite toy or its own name.

    Only a few dogs are able to learn the name of objects (for example toys) after a few repetitions, while most animals do not have this ability: this is why animals capable of recognizing the "linguistic labels" attributed to objects are defined gift word learner (GWL) - the researchers explain. - Before conducting this study we expected that GWL dogs would tilt their heads more often than normal dogs, as this action is linked to the recognition of a known auditory stimulus. And indeed our hypothesis turned out to be correct.

    In the training program, aimed at both GWL and normal dogs, aimed at teaching the names of two toys, GWL dogs tilted their heads much more often than normal dogs - 43% compared to 2%. This is because GWL dogs learn to recognize new words faster, and this could be considered a stronger attention signal and / or more developed memory, which allows animals to associate listening to a word with an image in their mind. . 40 domestic dogs were selected for the study, 33 of which were trained in a normal way and 7 trained to recognize the names of the objects indicated by their sound.



    In the first experiment, all the dogs that were taught the names of two new toys were observed: each dog always had the same pair of toys available throughout the experiment. During the test, a volunteer asked the dog to fetch one of the two toys from the next room calling it by name: after hearing the request, the dog entered the room, chose a toy and brought it back to the volunteer. The test was repeated several times a month for a total of 3 months.

    The second experiment it involved only the dogs who learned the names of the toys, and who therefore "passed" the first experiment. The procedure was similar to that of the previous experiment, but involved the use of new toys that the volunteers showed the animals. The number of objects varied from dog to dog, based on the animal's learning ability - the range was between 2 and 13 new toys. In turn and randomly, each toy was requested from the dog twice.

    Also the last experiment involved only GWL dogs and took place a few months after the conclusion of the second test. In this case, the animals had seven days to learn the names of 6 new toys (phase one) and another seven to learn the names of 12 other objects (phase two). The test procedure was similar to previous tests, with one volunteer requesting an object in the other room.

    Why does the dog tilt its head? A study explains the significance of this sweet habit

    Here are the various stages of the experiment (@ Animal Cognition)

    This is the first study on the subject that has limited itself to studying the movement of the head of dogs in relation to auditory stimuli: even if the results reached by the researchers are exciting, further studies are needed on the subject - also by differentiating the abilities. listening for the various dog breeds: most of the dogs used in the experiment, in fact, were Border Collie.



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    Fonte: Animal Cognition

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