If you talk to a mutt, do it 'right'

If you are worried that your dog is not paying attention to what you are saying, simply look at where he is staring.

Dogs look to the right when they recognise familiar commands because they process the sound in a specific part of their brains that remembers that the sound is important, according to researchers at the University of Sussex.

Researchers looked at how dogs responded when their owners told them to "come on". When presented with familiar spoken commands, in a usual tone, dogs showed a left-hemisphere processing bias and turned to the right.

However, when the command was said in a different tone and speed, the dogs could no longer process it as a familiar sound and looked to the left.

Scientists pointed out that the study does not show that dogs understand what their owners are saying or have any language ability.