Dogs Do as You Do, Not as You Say

Italy's school for water rescue dogs, the Scuola Italiana Cani Salvataggio, has trained hundreds of animals in canine heroics. The dogs work on Italian police and coast guard boats, and with fire departments and the navy. They can even jump into the ocean from a hovering helicopter to save a person. They're pros at taking commands from humans. So researchers wondered if the dogs could help them understand what kind of command works best: Words? Or gestures? Biagio D'Aniello, a biologist at University of Naples Federico II, and his coauthors recruited 25 pairs of dogs and their owners to study the question. These included 10 golden retrievers and 15 labs. (Four other dogs were cut from the final analysis because their owners—not the dogs themselves, the authors are quick to point out—screwed up the commands.) In a bare room, owners gave their dogs four verbal directions: "sit," "lie down," "stay," ...