There are many animals and creatures that are able to understand what we say. There is also our beloved dog, "man's best friend". All of us who own a dog (or several dogs) know this well: just look at how they react when we say "walk?" or something like that.

Research and a study published in Applied Animal Behavior Science show that dogs understand an average of 89 different commands. Simple things like "sit," "down" and "play."  But that's an average. Some come to recognize more than 200 different words and phrases. This is a "simplified" vocabulary equivalent to that of a two-year-old!
 According to the study, 90% of dogs recognize at least 10 common words and phrases. The dog's name (which almost everyone knows). Others like "sit," "stay," "come," "okay," "no," "down," "wait," and so on.  The researchers used continuous recognition of particular words and phrases to determine a certain level of language comprehension. Our four-legged friends seem to differ greatly, not only in quantity but also in the types of words they respond to.

It is obvious that this is not just up to us. Scientists have collected very different dogs. They found that the breed and tasks of the dog affect the number of words it recognizes. Professionally trained dogs can understand more words than untrained dogs.

Continuing on this research, the tools adopted in this one could map many of a dog's skills and even act as a "professional advisor." That is, it could evaluate in advance the potential of each canine "candidate" for different professions (rescue, search, police, etc.).

This study shows that understanding the mind of a dog and how its perception of our language works is useful information that can be applied to the brains of other animals. Including us!