( CNN ) -- Sit ! Shake ! Quit barking ! Get off the couch ! Go find your toy ! Ever wonder what your dog is thinking as it gazes at you while you are barking commands ? Duke University 's Canine Cognition Center in Durham , North Carolina , is one of the few labs in the country focused on how dogs think . `` We 're excited about describing the psychology of our dogs , '' says professor Brian Hare , the lab 's director . `` Different dogs solve different problems differently . And what we want to understand is : What is it that either makes dogs remarkable as a species or what is it that constrains the ability of dogs to solve problems ? '' To test the dogs ' ability , Hare and a team of graduate students put dogs through a variety of games similar to those you might play with young children . `` We do n't want to look at cute pet tricks . What we want to know is , what does the dog understand about its world ? '' Hare said . Hare has been analyzing our four-legged friends for about 15 years . He says dogs have figured out how to read human behavior and human gestures better than any other species has , even chimpanzees . `` The way they think about their world is that people are superimportant and they can solve almost any problem if they rely on people , '' says Hare . Children start relying on adults ' gestures when they 're about a year old . That 's about the same age that dogs start to recognize and rely on humans , too , Hare says . When both I and Hare tried to direct Hare 's dog Tazzie to a cup that had a treat in it , Tazzie took his master 's cue and went toward the cup . I was a stranger to Tazzie , so the dog did n't rely on my information . `` He 's grown up with me , '' says Hare . `` We do lots of stuff together . He 's never met you before , so he 's saying , look , if they 're both telling me where to go , I 'm going to trust the guy who I 'm with all the time . '' According to Hare , this proves dogs are complex social animals who understand they have different relationships with different people . `` They really narrow in and pay attention to you and they want to know what it is about the world that you can help them with , '' he says . Researchers at Duke are studying dogs to better understand their limitations . If they can identify why dogs make mistakes , they believe they can help them improve . That could mean making dogs better at working with people with disabilities or better at working with the military . `` They are a very different species and they think about the world differently than we do . And we need to figure out what are the constraints on how they solve problems , how is it that they think differently from us . And I think that we 're going to be able to have a much , even richer relationship with dogs than we already do if we figure all that out , '' says Hare . The professor says even though domestication has made dogs smarter , they are not perfect . Still , they 're so smart , he says , that they can understand the principle of connectivity . `` They know they 're connected on a leash and [ dogs reason ] 'Well , now I have to listen , because if I do n't do what you say you can stop me . Where if I 'm ... not on a leash , well , yeah , I know the command but I do n't have to listen to you now , ' '' explains Hare . And just like children , dogs also understand that if you turn your back , they can misbehave , especially after their owners have told them not to do something . `` Your dog takes the food you just told it not to take , and you 're really upset because your dog disobeyed you , and you think that your dog is not obedient . Well , no , no , no , your dog was obedient but it realized that it could get away with it , '' says Hare . At the end of the day , dogs may rely on humans , but they also use their skills to manipulate their owners and the world they live in . And even though dog owners like to think they 're in command , the professor says it may actually be Fido who is really in charge . Watch Anderson Cooper . 360° weeknights 8pm ET . For the latest from AC360° click here .
Brian Hare and a team of graduate students at Duke University study how dogs think . Domestication has made dogs more intelligent , but they 're still not perfect , Hare says . Dogs are social and understand the different relationships they have with different people . Hare : `` They can solve almost any problem if they rely on people ''