How smart is your pup? Study finds the average dog knows 89 words

A recent study has found the average dog knows about 89 words. So, yes, your pup is definitely as smart as you think they are.

Conducted by researchers at the Department of Psychology & Neuroscience, Dalhousie University, Canada, the study surveyed 165 dog owners to find out the different words their dogs respond to and seem to understand.

Researchers Catherine Reeve and Sophie Jacques surveyed a variety of dog breeds for their study and found that on average, each dog responded to 89 words or phrases.

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Among the pool of pups surveyed, dogs were found to respond to as little as 15 words, with one outlier pup responding to a massive 215 words.

In their paper, Reeve and Jacques report that half of the words dogs responded to were commands like "sit", "stay" or "roll over".

The researchers also noted down facts about owners, as well as their dogs to determine if this had an impact on how many words a dog knew.

While it seems characteristics about dog owners had no impact, "a dogs' professional work status, how quickly they reportedly learn new tricks, and their breed type did," the study claims.

The study reports that according to breed, herding dogs like Australian Shepherd, Border Collie and German Shepherds, and toy-companion dogs including Bichon Frise, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel and the Chihuahua, were found to respond to more words and phrases than other breeds.

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The study also included the list of words and phrases that dogs responded to most, which we've listed below.

Most popular words and phrases dogs respond to

'Mum'
'Sit'
'Heal'
'Roll over'
'Wanna go home?'
'Bye'
'Where's [insert name of object]'
'Go get it!'
'Home'
'Bone'
'Walk'
'Are you hungry?'
'Dad'
'Who's that?'