The Ultimate Dog Vocabulary Quiz

He believes that trained dogs know about 160 words. That's more than the average three-year-old kid!

They did this in the 1970s when they trained chimps to use and read sign language.

The parrot, of course! Polly want a cracker?

They introduced new items with their corresponding names and had Rico fetch the items. Rico caught on 70 percent of the time.

It's called fast-mapping and it applies to humans as well. Children do this often in their language acquisition.

The horse, it seems, was just responding to subtle, unconscious cues from people. He couldn't do math at all!

The learner, whether human or animal, associates sounds with items or concepts. "Bottle" is a sound the baby hears, which he associates with the drink he loves. Similarly, "No!" is a sound he hears, which he associates with something forbidden.

Dogs only understand concrete concepts, such as toy, food, bowl. They don't understand abstract concepts, like love, hate, happy.

They say that language acquisition is defined by an understanding of syntax and therefore dogs do not understand language.

Many researchers believe that it is possible that, rather than understanding words per se, the dog is actually reading body language for cues to behavior.