If dogs could speak, would we really want to listen?

WACO, Texas — Jay Bush, the owner of Bush's Baked Beans, needs to rush out and buy a copy of the journal Science.

On his television commercials, Bush says the recipe for his company's famous baked beans is a family secret that he has told to no one except his canine companion, Duke.

"And he has no intention of ever revealing the secret family recipe," Jay says with Duke looking as though he would talk if the right offer comes along.

According to an article in the current edition of Science, dogs are much smarter than scientists have thought.

Dogs are so smart, according to studies conducted in Germany, that they have a talent for learning human language.

Many dog owners already believe their dogs are smart and can understand what they say.

Why else would dog owners immediately start talking to their dogs when they come home?

"There you are," humans greet their canine companions. "How are you? How was your day? Did you miss me? Yes, you did, didn't you?"

If people thought dogs couldn't understand what they said, why bother talking to them?

Even people who don't own dogs know that dogs appreciate a little flattery.

"Well, hello there," a human will say when greeting a strange dog. "What's your name? Aren't you a pretty dog? Yes, you are."

For the most part, dogs happily accept these greetings, hoping that the strange humans will ask the magic questions, "Are you hungry? Do you want something to eat?"

In the Science article, Julia Fischer, a scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, describes a 9-year-old border collie named Rico as perhaps "the Albert Einstein of dogs."

Rico not only can fetch an amazingly large number of objects by name, the dog also utilizes the process of elimination to fetch objects whose names he has never heard.

The findings, according to Washington Post writer Rob Stein, "are the latest evidence that animals are capable of more complex communication than had been thought, and that dogs, in particular, are particularly astute at comprehending their human companions."

What's more, according to