When Were You Convinced Your Dog Could Understand English?

[JessicaM]

Of course they understand English. . How would they know voice commands like sit, stay, shake, down, roll over, wait, go on (feeding) calling their names.. or even where's the ball? And they search the house for a good 10 minutes trying to sniff it out. Walk. Beach, swim, kisses... I dont use any hand signals... I have one clever pap who does all of these and I get a reaction out of her all the time. The others know bits and peices lol

[minimax]

Of course they understand English. . How would they know voice commands like sit, stay, shake, down, roll over, wait, go on (feeding) calling their names.. or even where's the ball? And they search the house for a good 10 minutes trying to sniff it out. Walk. Beach, swim, kisses... I dont use any hand signals... I have one clever pap who does all of these and I get a reaction out of her all the time. The others know bits and peices lol

They don't understand english as a language, they understand the sounds and associated commands you've taught them. If they understood English they would understand words they hadn't been exposed to.

A friend has two dogs that know commands only in Afrikaans, because their previous owners trained the dogs this way. If you pronounce the word even slightly incorrectly, they don't understand it (and they prefer if you have a South African accent :laugh: ). So they don't understand Afrikaans as a language, they understand the sounds they were trained to understand.

[Leah82]

They don't understand english as a language, they understand the sounds and associated commands you've taught them.

That's kinda what I was getting at, all dogs know commands to some degree but it's pretty funny when they pick up words on their own and even funnier when they respond correctly to something you've said to them completely out of the blue :)

[JulesP]

One of my fav moments was when I was teaching Poppy to retrieve. We had got to the step of putting the dumbbell on the ground but she just would not pick it up at all. In frustration I put my head in my hands and whispered 'pick it up for mummy' and she did!!

[Dame Aussie]

Reminds me of my Mum telling me that my grandmother had come into her one day and told her that the next door neighbors dog understood Turkish :laugh:

[mita]

When we have to spell words so as not to get a reaction..

Words like park, car, training, dinner, ball

This. We can't even make a "b" sound without Lili noticing :laugh:

Let's hope they never learn to spell, or we are going to be in trouble.

It's happened already. My dad used to go fishing on his launch. He'd take our Cardigan Corgi, Biddy, who just loved being on the boat. But he daren't use the word 'fishing' the night before. If he did, Biddy would go sit next to his car... & would stay there the whole night.

So he started spelling it...f-i-s-h-i-n-g. Even when talking on the phone to his friends, when arranging details. But it wasn't long before, the penny dropped for Biddy. Yep.... f-i-s-h-i-n-g was fishing. So down to the car she'd go.... for the long night's wait.

[tdierikx]

They don't understand english as a language, they understand the sounds and associated commands you've taught them.

Theorectically speaking, isn't that how we all learned our languages?

T.

[Leah82]

It's happened already. My dad used to go fishing on his launch. He'd take our Cardigan Corgi, Biddy, who just loved being on the boat. But he daren't use the word 'fishing' the night before. If he did, Biddy would go sit next to his car... & would stay there the whole night.

So he started spelling it...f-i-s-h-i-n-g. Even when talking on the phone to his friends, when arranging details. But it wasn't long before, the penny dropped for Biddy. Yep.... f-i-s-h-i-n-g was fishing. So down to the car she'd go.... for the long night's wait.

That's pretty funny, I'm assuming f-i-s-h-i-n-g then changed to 'Do you want to do that thing where we catch animals that live in water with transparent wire and a hook?'

[corvus]

They don't understand english as a language, they understand the sounds and associated commands you've taught them.

Theorectically speaking, isn't that how we all learned our languages?

T.

No. :) Language was what undid Behaviorism in the end. Skinner couldn't explain how children learned language using learning theory alone. My 2 1/2 year old niece is learning language at the moment. It's very cool. She puts words together spontaneously to try them out. "Holi...house?"

[Little Gifts]

Reminds me of my Mum telling me that my grandmother had come into her one day and told her that the next door neighbors dog understood Turkish :laugh:

I know a cat that moved itself from an English only speaking house to a Cantonese only speaking house with no problems! Even it's diet changed! It was called something like Fluffy and they called it Jook (phonetic sound of the word - not sure how it is really spelt in English).

[tikira]

Tip always seemed to know "where is" too. He was quite helpful when I would be looking for my coffe dup. He would check the kitchen bench, the computer table and the bedroom bedside table for me, an occasionally would bark when he found it (I think that was luck though :laugh: )

He always knew "there's birds in your yard, do your job" and even if asleep in the bed or on the lounge would tear out at Jack Russell speed and do his job.

I miss my boy, but at least the memories sometimes make me smile now.

Di

[Kirislin]

Do everyone else's dogs become especially attentive when you whisper to them. Mine always look at me really intently and concentrate really hard.

Edited July 24, 2013 by Kirislin

[luvsdogs]

I've always thought they could understand language. Then a number of years ago Jonica Newby was one of the guest speakers & she said, after research, it was official, dogs can understand language.

Edited July 24, 2013 by luvsdogs

[Kirislin]

We understand their language to a point. We know a warning bark from a play bark. I recognised my whippets voices from a distance once that they were calling for back up. They had 2 roos bailed up and I couldn't see them, only hear them but I knew they were calling for help. Everyone got out of that one unharmed, including the 'roos.

Another time one of my whippets barked at a dog that was about to cock its leg on my furniture, I was alerted by her tone that I would describe as her telling him off, or complaining to me (dobbing him in), even though she was afraid of him.

[mita]

Another time one of my whippets barked at a dog that was about to cock its leg on my furniture, I was alerted by her tone that I would describe as her telling him off, or complaining to me (dobbing him in), even though she was afraid of him.

We had a Sheltie that'd do that. Anything she decided was wrong ... like the cat being in the wrong place... she'd give a special bark to tell people to come fix it. Even the neighbours got to know it. We used to say she meant 'Work!'

It proved brilliant when we had our 22 yr old little dog, that'd get lost in her own garden or in the house. Shelley just had to be told, 'Find Grandma!' And she would. Next thing we'd hear 'Work!'

[Little Gifts]

Yep, one of ours has a dibber-dobber bark and we call her The Fun Police! And Mita your story reminded me how when my heart girl was young she had a tendency to run and run and run and not realise how far away she'd gotten from us. We'd say to my sister's dog Wolf "Go get Stussy" and she go and round her up and bring her back to us.

[gila]

It's always fun when you can hide known commands in a full sentence to make other people think your dog understands English. Last night I casually said to Spencer, "Hey Spence, can you do me a favour and go get my socks?". And he did :D

[Dame Aussie]

Yes, Lili has always "disciplined" Mosley, ever since he was a baby, a growl and a grab around the muzzle when he did anything naughty :) good girl :)