Short Breaks Help Dogs Learn New Tricks Better

A new study has shown that dogs require time to encode and recall human communication cues. So the next time you are trying to teach your dog a new trick, try the "Do as I do method" but give your dog time to process the information.

Domestic dogs can pick up on communication cues by humans. Researchers say that living with humans may have favored dogs' ability to learn by imitation.

A recent study had shown that dogs have the ability to understand human perspective. This study showed that dogs are more likely to steal in the dark.

The present study, conducted by Claudia Fugazza and Adám Miklósi, from Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, found that dogs have cognitive ability that helps them encode and recall information after a short delay of time, according to a news release.

In the study, eight adult dogs were trained by their owners in the 'Do as I do' method. These dogs were then made to wait for some time (anywhere between 40 seconds to 10 minutes) before they could imitate their owners' actions.

Researchers found that dogs' recalled the human action better when they were given a break; about ten minutes delay for a familiar task and a minute delay for a new task.

"The ability to encode and recall an action after a delay implies that the dogs have a mental representation of the human demonstration. In addition, the ability to imitate a novel action after a delay without previous practice suggests the presence of a specific type of long-term memory in dogs. This would be so-called 'declarative memory,' which refers to memories which can be consciously recalled, such as facts or knowledge," the authors concluded.

Another study had found that humans and dogs share a deep relationship, much like a parent-child relation.

The study is published in the journal Animal Cognition.