How Many Words Can A Dog Understand
Since the domestication of the dog, owners have attempted to train their much loved pets with simple commands. Today, most owners at teach their dogs sit, down, wait; at the very least. With more comprehensive training dogs can perform a number of specialized tasks such as detecting drugs, assisting police and assisting people with special needs. We know that dogs can understand simple commands, but just how many words can a dog learn?
How Many Words Can a Dog Learn?
There is much debate over just how many words a dog can learn. Most people only teach their pet about 20 words, but it is believed that dogs can learn over 100 words with proper training. In fact, one study shows that an average trained dog will understand about 160 words. One of the smartest dogs ever studied was a border collie, named Chaser, that learned over 1,000 words. The researchers stopped at 1,022 words after 3 years because they had no more time to complete the study.
You can watch a video of Chaser in action here:
Did you know?
The border collie is thought to be one of the most intelligent breeds of dog. Other studies of this species have found that they can easily learn over 300 words.
Dogs are also capable of reading human emotion and copying human behavior. This shows that they don’t just learn through commands.
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