Known to respond to command words such as "sit", dogs have now been found to conjure up mental representations when they hear known words referring to objects such as a ball, according to a new research that analysed their brain activity.
The researchers said it did not matter how many object words a dog understood — known words activated mental representations anyway.
This suggested that the ability is generally present in dogs and not just in some exceptional canines knowing the names of many objects, they said.
