The New York Times today reports on a Hungarian study that suggests that what we say and how we say it matters to dogs, who respond to our words and our intonations. Dog people are addicted to behavioral studies about dogs, they soak them up, share them, quote the findings. Just look at the Amazon dog best-seller books.

I am skeptical of many behavioral studies about dogs. I doubt that any researcher on the earth ever got a grant to write about dogs getting dumber or lazier or less adorable. Like dogs themselves, I sometimes get the feeling that scientists, for all they pretend otherwise, become what we need them to be.

Every year, we learn that border collies know thousands of words (the total seems to rise every year) and can speak seven languages. My border collies don’t seem to change that much, the words they yearn to hear are “get the sheep,” and “get the sheep” again.

Social media is flooded with stories about dogs who can foresee death and diagnose illnesses, but I know many hospice nurses who can do the same thing and nobody writes much about them. It seems we can never get enough support for the things we want and need to believe.

This study finds that the brains of dogs react sharply to words and tones that connote praise or approval.  They made dogs endure MRI’s and other forms of testing to find this out, and the Times reported this as if it were the discovery of a new planet.

I don’t know about you, bu this is not a shock to me, nor it is something any trainer or breeder or rescue worker or vet couldn’t have told them in a minute.

For me, what it most important to understand about dogs is that they live in a different universe that we do. They can hear 10 times better than we do, and see things we cannot see. They are constantly absorbing the stories of the world, many of them beyond the limited range of people.

The key for me is to accept what I do not know, not to keep insisting that I do know.

Dogs are not like us, they do not think in words, they process countless images and communicate through pictures and instincts. They are an utterly alien species, and few human beings understand them or how they think. In our arrogance, we assume they must think and feel like us because we love the so much.

It seems the point of so much behavioral research into dogs is about finding evidence that they are just like us, they have our emotions, fears, jealousies. How many times have I heard someone who meets my dogs and says with all seriousness, “my Scout will be so jealous when I get home!” I don’t wish to be the one to break the news that such pettiness and envy is not a dog trait, it is human trait, a human projection (like the many millions of people who insist their dog was abused because it isn’t trained well or looks shy or timid.)

The Hungarian survey found that words of praise generate positive  responses in the brains of dogs, even when they are spoken in flat or neutral tones. Positive words spoke in a positive tone prompted strong activity in the dog’s brain reward centers. “Good boy” and “however,” said in a positive or neutral tone all got the same response.

I’m not sure what we are supposed to take from this discovery. This information will not come as a surprise to a single one of the thousands of positive reinforcement trainers who work with dogs every day, without expensive MRI machines.

What does this mean for you? For dogs owners, say the study researcher, it means that dogs are paying attention to meaning as well as words, and you should also. Dogs pay attention to our body language and our eyes and even our smells.

You can decide for yourselves if this information is new or valuable to you, I am always conscious of the words and tone I use with my dogs, especially when I first begin training them. I see  how they response to praise and to correction. I see how my moods clearly affect their behavior. I think our culture pushes us to look outside of ourselves for help in understanding our dogs, when the answers are right there, if only we could be our own gurus.

I have never used a behavioral study or training book when it comes to training my dogs, and I have done well. I remember what E.B. White wrote about how his grandfather housebroke all of his dogs: “He separated them from the house for a day or two.” Cesar Milan’s housebreaking chapter is 36 pages long.

Perhaps I’ve just read too many studies, and watched the best-seller dog list with too much envy. Dogs don’t seem to have changed that much, for all we seem to have discovered about them. They have survived by become what we need them to be – unlike raccoons, who have not yet figured this out – and we are comforted by the idea that they are just what we need in our disconnected world.

We have all been taught that we are too dumb to train and understand our dogs, but I don’t believe that. We do need a new and wiser understanding of animals, but that does not come from behavioral studies or training books, it comes from our willingness to respect them and respect ourselves and learn how to listen and to talk to them as well as at them.

It comes also from looking at ourselves, and what we truly need and want from our dogs. And why.

I think the idea for me is to be my own behavioral  researcher. I’m not getting much from the professionals.

And I don’t need an MRI for that.