Dogs have been our companions for much of the human history and that protracted connection is being exhibited by our free-roaming wanderers.

New studies have found that the majority of untrained strays successfully follow direction gestures by humans. Dr. Anindita Bhadra, of the Indian Institute of Science Education and Research, Kolkata, India, and her team, studied stray dogs across several Indian cities. They approached 160 solitary stray dogs for this study.

In the experiment, they used two covered bowls, one with food while the other with just the whiff of food. Another experimenter, unaware of the contents of the bowl, pointed towards one of the bowls.

Dr. Bhadra added, we were amazed to find how dogs could follow human gestures whom they were meeting for the first time and we’re making the decision based on momentary pointing.

This experiment suggests that dogs may have a natural ability to understand various human gestures that go beyond training.