Season 1: Episode #18: "Do Dogs Understand Us?" w/Shany Dror

Today's Topic: Do dogs understand us?  For many, this may seem like a dumb question, as some dog parents believe that their dogs can literally read their minds.  But if they can understand us, how do they do it, exactly?  For example, can they understand the literal words coming out of our mouths, or are they using other cues from us and the environment to predict and/or understand what we are trying to tell them or want from them? To help us answer this question, we invited Shany Dror, a Ph.D. candidate at the Ethology Department at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary, and the project manager of the Genius Dog Challenge, to the pod, not only to tell us what the research says about the comprehension capabilities of average dogs, but also that of some of the smartest dogs in the world!

Guest Bio: Shany Dror is a Ph.D. candidate at the Ethology Department at the Eötvös Loránd University (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary. The Genius Dog Challenge is part of her research that focuses on understanding basic language-related concepts in family dogs and minotaur pigs. She completed her Masters at the University of Hohenheim (Germany), where she examined the use of honeybees as a means for deterring Asian elephants from crop fields.  Her earliest childhood memories are of observing animals in admiration.  She grew up in a kibbutz in Israel, spending most of her time in the stables.  For her, this research is a personal passion, fulfilling her childhood dream of trying to understand dogs.