1 It might understand more than you think． A dog named Rico recognizes the names of about 200 objects，say researchers in Germany． 2 Its word-1earning skills are as good as those of a parrot or chimpanzee． In one experiment，the researehers took all 200 items that Rico is supposed to know and divided them into 20 groups of 10 objects． 3 In the tests，Rico got 37 out of 40 commands right．As the dog couldn’t see anyone to get clues，the seientists believe Rico must understand the meanings of certain words． In another experiment，the scientists took one toy that Rico had never seen before and put it in a room with seven toys whose names the dog already knew． 4  . The correct object was chosen in seven out of 10 tests．suggesting that the dog had worked out the answer by process of removing．A month 1ater，Rico remembered half of the new names，which is even more impressive． 5 Even if they do，they call’t talk back．Still．it wouldn’t hurt to sweet-talk your dog every now and then．You might just get a big，wet kiss in return!