Why do dogs tilt their heads?

Why do dogs tilt their heads?
Dogs have a seemingly endless list of endearing characteristics and behaviors, and their curious head-tilting at the sound of human voices is no exception. Despite our close relationship with canines, little research has been done on their head-tilting behavior. When conducting a study on dogs' ability to learn words, scientists came across a potential link between dogs' memory and head tilt, according to a new paper published in Animal Cognition .
"We investigated the frequency and direction of this behavior in response to a specific human verbal vocalization," says the study's author an animal science researcher at Eötvös Loránd University in Budapest. "We did this after realizing that it often happened when dogs listened to their owners."
In the study, the Hungarian researchers analyzed the head tilt patterns of "talented" and "typical" dogs. Owners asked their puppies to fetch a specific toy in another room after being prompted with the name of the toy - a command like " Bring rope!" for example. While most dogs struggle to memorize the name of only two toys, the seven "gifted" dogs - all of them border collies - could remember at least ten different toy names that would be taught by the researchers.
The team found that the dogs that were particularly good at remembering toys would tilt their heads when hearing a command more often than the dogs that were not so skilled. When they compared the dog's response to a command from its owner, the gifted dogs tilted their heads 43% of the time, while typical dogs did so only 2% of the time. It is possible, the scientists concluded, that a puppy's endearing head tilt could be a sign that he is paying attention or even matching a name to a visual image in his head.
The researchers also found that dogs generally tilt their heads in the same direction regardless of where their owner is. The so-called "right tilt" and "left tilt" may be a matter of individual preference - something the scientists say they want to investigate further. Previous studies have found that the right side of dogs' brains is more active in processing positive words and praise, which could play a role in the direction of the tilt.
"Can we use head tilt to predict aptitude for word learning, or attention, or memory?"
The recent work offers important clues about the connection between cognition and animal behavior, but the study authors agree that the research is still in the early stages. For now, dog owners can take comfort in knowing that tilting their puppy's head may be an adorable attempt to better understand us.