Does you dog or pet understand you?

[huligun]

As in speech. Does your dog or cat know what you are saying to them?

My dog understands a lot of things, especially the things he likes. If i say walk or leash he gets crazy excited. If I am having trouble finding his leash i ask him where is your leash and he helps me find it. He bounces and wags his whole ass while he looks. If I tell him he is in trouble he expresses a shameful look and gets all pouty. If I ask if he wants to visit his friends or girl friend he goes apeshit and jumps on all the furniture. He is a tough guy pit bull. If he has a toy I tell him to kill it and tears it up, growls and flips it in the air.

He talks to me too, and I usually understand what he wants. My gf thinks she taught him to say momma.

 

[yortbogey]

i think it's more of a tone /& phrase sorta thing along with body~language that dogs pick up on....

 

[mofeta]

Yeah all my dogs understand a number of words.

My old, old Queensland Heeler is blind. He does pretty well though because he knows where everything in our house and on our land is. When we go someplace strange though, I can guide him verbally. He knows 'look out' means he's going to run into something and he stops. He knows 'back up', 'go left', 'go right', 'hole', 'bump', 'cactus'.

 

[huligun]

i think it's more of a tone /& phrase sorta thing along with body~language that dogs pick up on....

Oh yes, I know this is true, but I have whispered to him words like friend or walk and he always gets so excited. When I tell him to kill it I usually say it with a playful growl. If he hasn't got something in his mouth already he will find something like a shoe and flip it in the air. Funny he knows what not to chew up.

 

[huligun]

Yeah all my dogs understand a number of words.

My old, old Queensland Heeler is blind. He does pretty well though because he knows where everything in our house and on our land is. When we go someplace strange though, I can guide him verbally. He knows 'look out' means he's going to run into something and he stops. He knows 'back up', 'go left', 'go right', 'hole', 'bump', 'cactus'.

When I say stop my dog stops. He doesn't move a muscle. And if I see him staring at another male dog I tell him don't even think about it and he quickly acts like he has lost interest. If he is too far from me I say oh my god you are in so much trouble. That works every time and he comes running back to me.

Because he is a pit, and we live in the city I have to be very aware of my surroundings. I would die if I had to put him down for killing another dog or something.

 

[DIDM]

most anything I say regularly he understands

a lot of what they understand though is inflection. Try asking your dog if they want to go for a walk in a mean angry voice. This is where it gets interesting, cause they get a real confused look on their face like the word and the tone don't match. My dog will look at me like, WTF? they as soon as he sees he isn't in trouble the crazy jumping that always starts a walk begins. My dog will jump up to eye level he is so excited to go for a walk.

 

[TribalSeeds]

Yea, my dog understands, he just doesnt listen!

 

[Bobby Stainless]

Very much so.

Unfortunately, I had to put him down last night after a long bout with bone cancer.

 

[rasputin]

Definitely. Tone is important but consistency is key.

Sorry for your loss, Bobby.

 

[huligun]

Indeed. I am especially sorry that lost your good friend Bobby

 

[Meraxes]

my kids dont understand me, typical hairless apes. dogs however f'n rule

 

[rives]

Sorry to hear about your compadre', Bobby. Hard for you to come to terms with, I'm sure, but no doubt better for your buddy.

My goof-ball buddy here has a vocabulary of about 10-15 words. While inflection in definitely important, he understands those words from other people, too.

 

[huligun]

In human vocabulary inflection trumps all. You can say the nicest thing with incorrect inflection and turn it into something insullting for example.

 

[silver hawaiian]

Sorry to hear bobby I feel like I'd heard a while back, in another thread, that you'd mentioned she'd gotten sick.. (If that wasn't you, my apologies )

A good friend of mine, had a dog a long time back, once said, "I loved having a dog, but I'll never do it again. It's that hard for me when they pass, I'd rather just avoid the whole experience."

We've got a 3 year old Boston and a 6-month Boston puppy, but I think about that statement a lot. Lots of love & comfort to you man..

 

[silver hawaiian]

On another note, I saw a Nova documentary on dogs and their intellectual capacities, behavior, etc.. There was a dog on there who could be shown a toy in one room, and then he'd run into the next room over, and bring back the same exact toy.

They then began showing pictures of objects (rather than an actual replica/duplicate of the objects), and the dog was also able to run to the next room and grab the object itself.

Pretty f*ckin' cool. There was also a gal who bred wolves, in successive lines, both to breed in- and out- the aggression/temperament trait..

Worth an hour of your [stoned] time. It's available on Netflix, FWIW..

Nova - Dogs Decoded

 

[teemu shalanie]

love my dogs they are the only ones who do understand me, lol
TS

 

[pearlemae]

A study was done on dogs social cognitive skills versus chimps and three year old humans. the dog was able to recognize signs three time faster than the chimps and twice as fast a the children. The task was to find a food morsel under one of two buckets, both smeared with food on the outside so the nose wouldn't help. The easiest sign to give would be to tap the bucket, next is to just point, and the hardest is to just shift your eyes to the target while the dog is watching you, to see if he can read your eye movement.
The hypothesis being, that all dogs read one an others body language even if they have never met. So after years of domestication, wolfs when tested did poorest on the test so its not ingrained in all canus species, dogs have learned to read us.I have a Standard Poodle he'll circle my chair stop right in front of me and look down at his comb then back to me back to the comb until I give him his nightly combing. Dogs have us figured out for sure..remember dog spelled backwards.

 

[huligun]

Here is something..... My dog goes crazy and tries to kill wild animals. He never bothers little dogs or cats, but oppossum rats and skunks are fair game and marked for death. I don't let him attack wild animals but he is so quick. If I don't see the animal in time he hills it. He wants to get a coyote we seen but I was able to stop him. Why dont he think the coyote is just a dog? It looks more like a dog to me than many of the dogs we encounter. He just knows. He got a skunk one time and was that ever a mess.

 

[Field&Stream]

Animals are beyond smart, smarter then most humans I know.

 

[Builtaforest]

try visualization of the "act" you want your dog to do and mentally "send it" to his/her head

stay calm, reactionless, and have patience

they must be at attention