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Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

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Re: Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

#11

So where are all the people who apparently think that pets can't understand basic vocabulary? It's treated like some wild revelation when it comes up in articles like this, but anyone who's ever had a dog or cat knows what the reactions are like when words like "walk" or "bath" or "tuna" get mentioned. For particularly attentive dogs you can even end up with the euphemism treadmill from "walk" to "W-A-L-K" to substit…

A relative had a dog who understood "b-i-r-d" spelled out....

Re: Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

#13
post #10

Hmm, I'm not that sure. I did a month of quiet Yoga (no talking whatsoever) and brought my dog with me for the ride. I came to realize that the words are mostly there to help me, she doesn't care. If I switch the word and say it with the same energy/body language, the result is the same. I don't even need words anymore, body language is more effective with my dog.

[deleted]

Re: Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

#14
Perhaps off-topic, but we had a dog that knew swearing when she heard it.

Most dogs are well-attuned to both positive and negative emotions. In particular, when a human starts yelling and throwing things, they get the hell out of dodge. So it's obviously not a surprise that a dog would beat a hasty exit when their human emits a flurry of exasperated expletives.

However, our dog took it a bit further. Before kids, my wife and I had a habit of swearing in our normal, neutral conversations. It took a while before I noticed the pattern but eventually I found that even a light and airy "well, fuck" essentially inaudibly under my breath would quite reliably cause our dog to sigh heavily, get up, and saunter out of the room with considerably more than a whiff of indignation.

Re: Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

#15

So where are all the people who apparently think that pets can't understand basic vocabulary? It's treated like some wild revelation when it comes up in articles like this, but anyone who's ever had a dog or cat knows what the reactions are like when words like "walk" or "bath" or "tuna" get mentioned. For particularly attentive dogs you can even end up with the euphemism treadmill from "walk" to "W-A-L-K" to substit…

Lots of people think animals are dumb beasts. My neighbor threw a party with a bunch of people in his PhD program. Our dogs hang out and we left the gate open between our properties so the dogs could go back and forth.

One of the PhD students was amazed that if you threw a ball over the fence the dog knew how to go around the fence and through the gate to get the ball.

Re: Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

#16

So where are all the people who apparently think that pets can't understand basic vocabulary? It's treated like some wild revelation when it comes up in articles like this, but anyone who's ever had a dog or cat knows what the reactions are like when words like "walk" or "bath" or "tuna" get mentioned. For particularly attentive dogs you can even end up with the euphemism treadmill from "walk" to "W-A-L-K" to substit…

My dog growing up learned "W-A-L-K" after a while, and we switched to Pig Latin.

Possibly by the time he could have learned it, he was pretty old.

My current dog knows the basic ones like, "walk", "outside", "lunch", etc.

Re: Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

#17
post #10

Hmm, I'm not that sure. I did a month of quiet Yoga (no talking whatsoever) and brought my dog with me for the ride. I came to realize that the words are mostly there to help me, she doesn't care. If I switch the word and say it with the same energy/body language, the result is the same. I don't even need words anymore, body language is more effective with my dog.

Dogs can absolutely learn sign language for basic commands. There are books about it. We had some success with ours. The main difficulty is you do have to use some kind of sound to get their attention if they're not looking at you. (Perhaps a clap would do.)

Re: Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

#18
post #10

Hmm, I'm not that sure. I did a month of quiet Yoga (no talking whatsoever) and brought my dog with me for the ride. I came to realize that the words are mostly there to help me, she doesn't care. If I switch the word and say it with the same energy/body language, the result is the same. I don't even need words anymore, body language is more effective with my dog.

  The researchers aimed to rule out variables such as a dog responding to their owner's cues — like, the owner putting on shoes to go outside — the identity of the human saying the word, or memorizing the location of buttons on the board.

Re: Think your dog can understand words? This scientist says you might be right

#20

So where are all the people who apparently think that pets can't understand basic vocabulary? It's treated like some wild revelation when it comes up in articles like this, but anyone who's ever had a dog or cat knows what the reactions are like when words like "walk" or "bath" or "tuna" get mentioned. For particularly attentive dogs you can even end up with the euphemism treadmill from "walk" to "W-A-L-K" to substit…

I can believe it with dogs, but my cat of almost 20 years has never indicated any understanding of or interest in human speech. She sometimes reacts to tone of voice, sometimes to specific noises (like treat baggie crumbling when opened), but not any particular words. Half the time she could care less about the tone or noises as well. That seems pretty in line with my general understanding of cat "psychology".
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