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🤓 OMG! Science Confirms Dogs Can Do Math
At Least When Treats Are Involved
Bryan Reisberg
September 18, 2025
Science Confirms: Dogs Can Do Math
Move over, calculators—your dog might be crunching numbers in their own way. A new study out of the Canine Cognition and Human Interaction Lab (CCHIL) suggests that dogs can distinguish “more” from “less,” and they’re surprisingly good at it when food is on the line. Researchers put pups to the test by offering them two piles of treats and letting them choose. The question: do dogs rely on ratios, like humans often do, or are they simply judging the raw difference in numbers?
Traditionally, scientists have leaned on something called Weber’s Law, which predicts that the ability to spot differences depends on ratios. For example, humans are just as good at telling 2 from 4 as they are at telling 10 from 20, because both pairs share the same ratio. But when the researchers reanalyzed the data with dogs, they noticed something strange: the ratio wasn’t really doing the heavy lifting.
Instead, the dogs consistently made their choices based on numerical difference—the simple subtraction between the two piles. Six treats versus four? Easy win for six. Twelve versus ten? That tiny two-treat edge wasn’t nearly as convincing. Across three separate data sets, the finding held: dogs’ sense of “more” was driven by difference, not ratio.
For pet parents, this quirky discovery has a cheeky twist. If you split one treat into multiple pieces, your dog may actually feel like they’ve scored the jackpot. Science says you’re not tricking them with math—you’re tricking them with subtraction.
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