I'm just curious what you all think about this. I really believe my dogs do understand certain words. Words like treat, for instance. I'll look at Snowball and say "Wanna dog?". No response. "Wanna kiss?" No response. "Wanna treat?" BANG! Makes a run for the kitchen where that big cold box has all her treats.

So do you all think they understand the word or just the tone of voice?

Of course they understand words, they're our fur people aren't they? My Halo understands several words like "go out?," "go potty," "get your sock." "nummy?" and "bed time." She also thinks her other name is "She," when we are talking about her.

I swear my dog is half human. He understands too much. lol. Sit, stay, go out, go for a walk, hot, cold, good, bad, good bye, car ride, dinner, water, bone, treat, cookie, toys, daddy, mommy, lets go gardening, puppy, baby, ladies (we visit a retirement centre, loves the ladies, lol), snow, rain, lay down, get up, stop in, be good, and a lot more. He is collie/Shep. and just turned 7 years old. He is my best friend and I love him like there is no tomorrow.

My dog does understand a lot of words. In fact he is bilungual now also. He is an exeptional dog. When the supper time comes, he does know the time, if by chance we are late he gets very vocal telling us it is past time. He also knows when our newspaper is delivered, he is ready to go and get it. I do give him a treat for bringing the paper in.
There is a lot more to that dog, I never had one that smart.
They say there is one in a lifetime.


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Anita,O

Yes definetly matter of fact when my hubby and I want to take the dogs for a walk but are not ready to walk out at that moment, We have to spell it. As soon as you say walk they are ready! Thats my babies!!!

Besides the common commands that Brownie knows, i think he knows much more than that.

When i mop the floor, and i say,"I am mopping." Brownie will jump onto our cushions and wait till i am done with the whole house and waits for the floor to dry before he jumps down from the cushion.

Also, when it is his sleeping time, i will say,"You know the time, right?" And off Brownie goes jumping into his sofa bed to sleep.

Also, when i say,"Walk-walk", he goes to the door to get ready to go for a stroll.

It is amazing to know that our dogs actually understand what we are talking and even get to learn lots of commands or languages during their years with us.

Bravo to our dogs!

Hi everyone

I hv read fr many books that say dogs only recognised the tone and do not understand human language. However my 6 mths old silky terrier proved me wrong. I remember there was once my neighbour who owns 3 yorkie bought some rawhides and she gave 1 to my girl however one of her yorkie made a lot of nosie when the rawhide was given to my girl. My girl was happily bringing your new rawhide to my house and I told her to return to my neighbour's dog my girl just u-turn upon hearing my instruction and return the rawhide to the yorkie. Don't u agree with me that my girl understands human language. Even my neighbour was shock when my girl return the rawhide. Of course my girl kept staring at her rawhide when the yorkie was chewing.

Hi Lengleng http://petshub.com/ubb/smile.gif

I believe they do pick up words. Each one of my girls understands the name for each room in the house, the difference between inside and outside, on and under. Of course, anything to do with food like hungry or treat sends them into a frenzy. LOL Tone of voice is recognized as well, just like the books say. All my girls recognize their own name, but if I say the name in a happy tone they bounce right on over. If I say the name in a stern tone, they slink over. LOL If I use their full names, no matter what tone, they know they're in trouble. Sweetie Louise, Skateboard Wheelie, or Snowball Crystal. LOL Sweetie and Skateboard are perfect girls. They've had 16 and 14 years to get that way. Snowball is the puppy (although 3 times the size of the other two). Usually when Snowball is getting to the point where she's on my LAST NERVE, LOL, I usually say in a whisper or low tone, "Snowball Crystal, you're pushing my buttons today!". That's usually enough to straighten her out and she behaves better after that.

Dave

Yes! I believe dogs do understand certain words. For instance, my dog's ears will stand straight up when he hears the words, "treat, frisbee, squirrel, hungry"
He either runs right for his food bowl, or towards the backdoor. I think all dogs deserve to recognize the word "treat." They deserve the occasional indulgence just like humans do! Check out http://www.coloradobarkery.com for unique flavored gourmet treats!

not only do they understand words, they are more human than most of us

Dogs are very intelligent creatures. I truly beleive that all our animals are alot smarter than we give them credit for.

Since we are sharing doggie do's here. I had a poodle/spaniel mutt that I loved dearly. You could tell her to go lay down and change the tone each time. She would go crawl under the chair and laydown. To test this theory of is it the tone, I started spelling "out" to see if she would understand. It took a few days, but when I spelled it she learned it was the same word. She would "bow" by stretching her front legs forward and I started spelling "bow" She learned that two.

As for the bi-lingual part, I don't doubt that at all. Many Police Dogs in the US are imported from Germany, and most of the trainers for these dogs have to learn the German word or command at first. Eventually the dog does learn the American word or term, but just like we don't understand a different language, in the beginning, neither do they.

Great topic.
Thanks

Nightmare

http://signaturegallery.homestead.com/files/poodle.gif

Hello everyone!

Keep all of you updated. Brownie knows the word "Bark" and "Talk". My goodness, ever since he knows these 2 words, he has been very very 'talkative'. http://petshub.com/ubb/wink.gif

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Well, over the course of time since I posted my original question, Snowball's 'vocabulary' has increased. LOL She now knows EVERY part of her anatomy from butt to belly to nose to paw to foot. She knows shoulders and hips, teeth, ears, head neck, back. Everything. As crazy as that sounds, you should see her during her regular check ups at the vet. Every part the vet wants to check, all she has to do is say it and Snowball either positions herself so the vet can get to it, or Snowball presents it to her on demand (like paw). My vet's really impressed. LOL

I've recently discovered the advantages of massage for the dogs. I'm not the best at it yet, but I've found that giving that big, white beast her massage every night has a very calming effect on her. She sleeps more soundly, is less excitable or tense. Thunderstorms don't bother her any more. July 4th celebration was handled better than I thought. Snowball really looks forward to it as well.

I have raised at least two dogs that clearly understand spoken words. One even learned how to spell and will go nuts if you say "W-A-L-K". That same dog only required one lesson to be housebroken. He went in the house once. I took him to the mess and explained calmly in plain English that he shouldn't go in the house, and then took him to the door. He never went in the house again. That dog is a boxer-shar pei mix.

I also have a Shiloh shepherd who clearly understands spoken words. He will respond to commands either by spoken word, or by hand signals, and it often doesn't take any more than one training session to teach him a new command either way. He also understands that the same word means different things when used in a different context. For example, if I tell him "Up" during his bath, he knows I want him to stand up so I can wash his belly. If I say "up" while we are out for a walk, he knows that I want him to stand up and give me a kiss.

Shiloh breeders have asserted that Shilohs can understand 100 words or more, used in sentences. From my own experience with mine, I wouldn't find that difficult to believe at all.

A picture of my Shiloh is below. He is 18 months old, 120 pounds and 29 inches at the shoulder.

http://www.druglibrary.org/chopper/2194271942.jpg

Dogs don't understand the spoken word in the sense that we do.

For example, if you tell a dog to sit, it doesn't know that the sound is actually a word that means to plonk your bum on the floor, it is just a sound which it associates with the act of sitting. Yes, dogs recognize more than just tone of voice but, in the end, commands aren't words to them, they are just sounds. My dogs respond to non verbal sounds like whistles and such. They simply associate a particular sound with a particular action or object.

I could have taught my dogs to stand by using the word, "sit" after all. They wouldn't know any different.

If a dog hears a certain sound, performs a particular action and gets rewarded for it, the dog will repeat that action whenever that sound is heard, whether it be spoken word or otherwise.
so from a dogs point of view it is, "Oh, if I hear that sound, I'll do this and they'll give me a treat/fuss".
Dogs have even better hearing than us so it isn't difficult for them to differentiate between the sound of different words. This is what makes people believe the dog actually understands the concept of verbal language as we speak it.

I ask my dogs to do many things by using body language alone and not words.

>Dogs don't understand the spoken word in the sense that we do.

I can't remember where I saw it, on one of the news sites, but there is some recent research that tends to dispute that idea.

Dogs do not understand the human language.

They do not understand words in the same sense as we do. They do not communicate verbally like us, they don't need the ability.

They recognize sound and that is it. That is all they need. Any sounds that dogs make are generalised and don't mean a specific phraise. Dogs bark, growl, whine, howl for loads of different reasons. They certainly don't have enough sounds to make a language as we have.

I don't know where this other idea came from you mention but I can't say it is reliable at all.

I know that dogs aren't supposed to understand words like we do and that if we say sit then they don't know to put their bum on the floor. however you weren't born knowing the english language either. I bet if at 6 months of age your mum told you to sit you wouldn't have known what it meant. My dg that lives with my mum knows walkies, and walk. We used to say you know what because she would go crazy if you said walk but she learnt that to and now even knows what a 'w' means! She gets fed at 5pm every day and when I used to live there and was at school there was a show that I used to watch every day at 4.30pm. When the grandfather clocked chimed at 4:45pm she would come and sit near me and wag her tail. When the clocked chimed 5pm she would start howling and give her paws. Even if it was the weekend as soon as 5pm chimed she would become very vocal! she also knows what we mean by saying 'that's someones yard' cause she walks off a leash and my mum and dad live near bush and they are getting new neighbours all the time. She is not allowed to run on other peoples lawns and understands this very clearly. She is allowed to go and run down to the bush by herself and sometimes we would forget her and she would be sitting at the front door for ages waiting to get back inside. Mum said to her once 'just bark when you want to come back inside' and now she does every time! My other dog also knows words out of the human language like 'get a toy' 'get the paper' 'in the car' 'gentle' and if you ask him if he wants a treat he begs straight away! I don't know how they do all of this if they don't understand the human language, I don't care what the experts say

I forgot to add something, when I feed my dog and he wants to play instead I'll say to him 'we're not playing, now come and eat your breakfast/dinner' and he drops his toy and walks over to his food bowl and starts eating!

I forgot to add something, when I feed my dog and he wants to play instead I'll say to him 'we're not playing, now come and eat your breakfast/dinner' and he drops his toy and walks over to his food bowl and starts eating!

My grandson's dog understands and will execute commands like, "Go get your ball." When he looks around and can't find it, we can tell him something like "It is upstairs in the bathroom" and he will immediately run upstairs to the chosen room and get it. And he apparently understands the difference in instructions between the two bathrooms and four bedrooms on the upper floor.

No, there was no training involved. He just seemed to pick it up on his own from regular conversation around him.

Like rsbunny mentioned, I also know a dog that can apparently tell time. The dog would come to me, obviously wanting to go for a walk. If I told him that I would take him for a walk at 4 o'clock, he would be back, promptly at 4 and he would not want to take No for an answer. He didn't have any chimes or other obvious signals to tell him when 4 o'clock had arrived, either.

The first time he did it, my thought was that it was simply a coincidence that he came back at the right time. But he did it repeatedly, at different times. I wasn't giving him any cues, either, because I was usually working on the computer where I wasn't paying any attention to the time.

Haha, dogs have an inbuilt time clock. They can't tell time in numbers as we do, they just know at what part in the daily cycle they usually go for a walk and such. My dogs will come to the run door and wait as soon as the right time of day comes for their walks. There is no clock in sight for them because they are outside.

Also, no dog can understand the human language. That is just taking things way too far. My dogs have learnt to associate sounds with certain things without any actual training, this doesn't prove a thing.

I often ask my dogs to wait and then jokingly say "go on then". Once I say that, they shoot of like rockets so I decided to try and fool them.
I asked them to wait and said the ready steady thing like at school races and such and then I would say "Go". They didn't respond. They only know it as "Go on then" which is one sound to them. If they understood the human language, they would know that the word "Go", being part of the original sound meant to go but they don't and my dogs certainly aren't thick.

What can I tell you, canislupess? My grandson has a dog that has apparently picked out individual words from ordinary conversation not directed at him and figured out what they meant. He apparently knows the difference between "Jeremy's bedroom" and "Serena's bedroom" without being taught. That's not just my opinion, but has been noticed by everyone who has seen the dog.

I grant you that may sound crazy, but he either does it, or there is a huge string of funny coincidences.

He's probably noticed that serena's bedroom is mentioned before it is entered and the same for the other and associated it as such. You don't have to train him to do that, he just has to be watching when you refer to the rooms to others and remembers the sound used for each room.

He's probably noticed that serena's bedroom is mentioned before it is entered and the same for the other and associated it as such. You don't have to train him to do that, he just has to be watching when you refer to the rooms to others and remembers the sound used for each room.

Nice theory, but no such thing occurred. I have looked for such simple explanations myself. None of them held water.

But, even if that did occur, then he picked it up just by listening to ordinary human conversation that was not directed at him in any way. That's pretty remarkable, in itself. It shows he can parse out what the words mean, even when they are contained in random language.

Our Mist looks up if you casually mention her in conversation as well. She looks up because she knows that sound is only used normally when her attention is required. She doesn't even understand it as a name.

No dog is able to automatically know what words mean, even a human child can't do that. They have to learn to associate sounds with actions and objects before they are old enough to understand it as an actual word. Dogs aren't intelligent enough to get beyond the sound stage. They don't possess the ability because it isn't something they need naturally.

lol. my pits when we say wanna bath she will go and jump into the bathtub, all of my pits love water, every summer we buy them a pool to play in....lol.....but yes dogs can understand words, we tell her we want a kiss and she gives us one, go to bed she'll go get in our bed also when we come home and something has happened like chewed up something we will ask each dog if they were bad and if they shake they had a part in the destruction... but yes they do understand words

I agree with canislupus(sp?) on this one. It is akin to when I hear I dog yelping. I 'know' that this is pain, or surprise (usually), but in no way does it mean that I know understand dog.
But I do like to think of my dog as understanding me, and not just responding- it kind of justifies my personification of him... :)

Soleil

I agree with canislupess as well. My golden retreiver Bogey knew every command in the book - sit, stay, heel, fetch, whatever - as well as "get the ball," "go for a walk," "where's the kitty?" and several others. But one day, as he was fervently searching for a lost tennis ball (he LOVED tennis balls) my dad stubbed his toe on a corner and yelled out "SH*T!!!" Bogey immediately stopped looking for the ball and sat. My sister and I thought that this was very funny and would yell out the word at random moments, and the dog would sit (we got in trouble for it but it was too cool not to do). We finally decided that the expletive sounded almost exactly like "sit" and he heard the general sound and sat.

I'm not saying that dogs are totally incapable of understanding what the hey we're saying. My Chihuahua Quincy was dubbed "Walter" by one of my mom's friends, and he learned that this was his alternate name in a few days. He also knew we were referring to him when we said "the wa-wa" and knew that one of our other dogs (a Chinese crested) was known as "the elephant". But I don't think he knows that an elephant is also a large pachyderm from Africa and Asia. He just connected the general sound of the word with what he knew to be the other dog, like Bogey with a naughty word and the command to plant his keyster on the floor.

Dogs are very smart, but if they were THAT smart, it would just be creepy.