A recent study, which has been published in the Current Biology, has revealed that dogs prefer to obey the ones with whom it already had a direct eye contact. The same applies for those with whom the dog had associated earlier.

Lead author Jozsef Topal, of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, said domesticated dogs were more likely to beg food from those who are looking at him rather than from the one who is not paying attention to it. It is somehow similar to what one sees in a six-month-old infant. He also cries for food before the one who is paying attention to him rather than the one who is not.

Topal said, “These results support the notion that dogs are sensitive to the cues signaling humans' communicative intent in a way that is analogous to preverbal human infants”. It is not the first study which has said that domesticated dogs has some similarities of an infant.

A canine-intelligence expert Stanley Coren also said that dogs have many developmental abilities which match with infants. Not only this, the Topal’s study has also revealed that dogs are able to understand about 165 words of humans at a time.

In order to reach the conclusion, Topaz said he got a domesticated dog. At first, he said “HI! Dog” at a high pitch while making a direct eye contact with the dog, and second time he said the same words, but in a lower pitch and without making direct contact with the dog.

Topal said he found the dog to be associating well when he had a direct contact with it. This shows that the eye-tracking techniques work with dogs also. Generally, this technique is used at a time when one has to study infant’s behavior.

So, if you are interested to gain your dog’s attention then this trick would surely work and would help you make him listen to what you say.