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| Scientist proves dogs can count |
A Brazilian scientist has used a tried and trusted technique to show dogs can count.
He placed treats in a bowl, hid it with a screen and let the animals watch as he removed or added some.
The dogs studied the contents longer when the screen was taken away if a trick had been played leaving more or less treats than expected.
A similar method has been used to show babies as young as five months can count.
The study was carried out by Robert Young, of Pontifical Catholic University of Minas Gerais in Belo Horizonte.
He tested 11 mongrels and found they paid little attention when one plus one resulted in two treats. But they looked more closely when one plus one left three.
The research is published in the journal Animal Cognition and reported in New Scientist.
Meanwhile, Sophie Yin, of the University of California, has proved dogs use different barks for different situations by analysing the sound spectrograms of more than 4,600 barks.
She found dogs isolated from their owners use high-pitched single barks, longer 'superbarks' are used for strangers and high-pitched cluster barks are used during play.
Body language is also very elobrate communication.