The scientists found that—when asked to retrieve a toy—
gifted dogs cocked their heads 43% of them time over dozens of trials, compared with just 2% of the time in typical dogs, they report this week in Animal Cognition. (Although gifted dogs tilted their heads much more often, they were just as likely to retrieve the correct toy regardless of whether they made the motion.) The animals even had a favored side, just like humans favor their left or right hand. This was consistent over months of recordings, regardless of where the owner was standing in relation to the dog. “If a dog was a left tilter, it would stay a left tilter,” Sommese says.All of the border collies in the study were familiar with the words being spoken, he notes, but only the gifted dogs who had correctly attached a meaning to each word consistently exhibited the tilting behavior. That means head tilting isn’t just a sign of familiarity with particular sounds, Sommese argues. If it were, all 40 dogs would be equally likely to do it. The team thinks it could be linked to mental processing—a sign of high attentiveness or concentration in the gifted dogs. The dogs might be cross-referencing the command with their visual memories of the toys, for instance.
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