Research shows that dogs are capable of understanding quantities much like humans. And although they may not be able to count to ten or subtract and divide, they are able to notice when you give them less food, or don’t meet the daily treat or walk quota.

The study, published in Science Magazine shows that dogs can process numbers and that this mechanism is innate, not trained. They, along with other animals, possess the ability to roughly understand quantities and counting, known as “the approximate number system’.