Dogs are awesome. We all know that. One of the interesting things they do is that cool little head-tilt when they hear something they seem to be curious about. Researchers were curious about this, too, and decided they needed answers as to why dogs do this. In all, 40 dogs were looked at, 33 “family” dogs, and seven “gifted” ones.
The “gifted” dogs tilted their heads “significantly more than typical dogs.” When asked to “retrieve a toy by name,” the “gifted” dogs tilted their heads 43% of the time, where as the “family” dogs did it 2% of the time.
The researchers concluded that “dogs tilt their heads in a number of situations,” but “only when they hear something that’s very relevant to them.” It all comes down to “sound perception,” and it could be a simple as “trying to listen more closely” or when they’re “a bit confused”…just like people.
(Photo by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images)
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