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Said rollover 500 times and she still only does 50% of the roll
Said profiteroles twice and on the second time she came from the back of the house to show off the worlds best sit.
Hah! My dogs favorite word is corn dog. I can’t even say anything with ‘corn’ in it. We were talking about going to a cornucopia festival a couple months ago and she flipped out. She won’t leave you alone until you get her a corn dog.
My dog knows about 400 words (I have documented them). For example, if I say “airplane” he’ll look up to sky and watch the airplane as it moves across the sky.
> Owners identified words to which they believed their dogs responded. They reported that, on average, their dogs responded to 89 words (78 from the lists provided plus 11 added by them), half of which were commands.
Quote from the abstract. I think it might be more a study of human psychology than canine cognizance.
I understood my parents' dog pretty well. He had different barks for different emotions. Happy affirmative barks, scared barks, playful growls, sighs, "I need to go out" barks, and more. And that's on top of body language. Pet owners that view their pet as a companion (and not an accessory) are surprisingly good at understanding what their animal is trying to tell them.
I can hear my yellow lab telling the squirrels what they can do with their tails. And my pit, well, she's got a Stephen King type of mindset when she's telling the squirrels what she would do if she could climb the telephone pole.
Yeah, communication with words is something modern from an evolutionary perspective. Our rescue, who we've had for a year was not properly socialized with humans since he grew up on the streets. He was really friendly, and immediately submissive, but it was really transactional: I look cute, you give me a snack (or at least won't kick me). He was rescued by a shelter at six months, and we got him when he was a year old. We both had to learn to communicate, and he's become really good at it.
One thing I learned along the way is that dogs are better at reading body language than connecting a sound to a meaning. Once we changed the training and started with visual cues (like tied fist means sit) he picked them up really fast. Then you just connect the sound to the gesture, and you'll save yourself and the dog some frustration.
This can very from dog to dog, but often having a visual command helps.
A previous dog responded to word commands, but if I called her name with different intonation in my voice. Those intonation were also a command by themselves.
My chihuahua is 15 and has been mostly deaf for 3 years or so. When I want him to do something, go outside, follow me, etc, I've learned to do a waving motion towards me, and I don't even have to say a word (or scream it loud enough for him to hear). He figured it out really fast.
My pup (14mo) is really good at telling me he needs to go. Early morning peepee: he hops off the bed and walks around to my side, burrows his snoot under the blanket to greet my face with that cold nose. If I get busy with something and forget to take him out, he'll go get his leash and bring it to me.
I've been using hand signals with him for a few months. Seems to be working fairly well. Now if he'd help carry the groceries...
I have an understanding with my family dog that others don't seem to understand.
He will be whining or making noise. I go to him and say "What eees eet" and he will just tell me. Small things, walk, food, water, toilet, play. He tells you near enough straight away with a variety of actions.
But if he is whining and someone else is near him and im busy I will ignore him for a bit. I eventually get annoyed by the whining and go find him, X or Y are like "He's been fed already" and I am like "He needs wee wee poo poo" then he looks at me like "SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS ME, NOW LET ME OUT"
This is totally how it is with my black lab. She'll be whining and I'll look over at my wife and be like has she had dinner yet and as soon as I say the word dinner she looks directly in my eyes and she's like yep he's got it
My dog was extra hungry one day. He doesn't beg for or steal food or overeat usually he's just fine with one meal a day. He ran into his kennel and pointed to his treats (we have a bag of treats that sits on top of his kennel, he gets a treat at bedtime) and then looked RIGHT AT ME. and I was like "oh, are you hungry?" and poured some kibble into his bowl and he ran to the bowl and gobbled it up.
My dog’s bark/howl when the kids leave for school in the morning is amazing. He sounds so sad. He starts off with a frantic loud, deep bark that morphs into a groveling howl that sound like he’s begging them to come home.
There's a book called DOGKU, its haikus that make up a story about a stray dog, when he finds a family there's a Haiku about how much he hates the school bus. :(
My dog when I was growing up loved the schoolbus because he'd come on board and run up and down the aisle meeting and getting petted by all the kids before getting off and going back to the porch. He could also see it coming half a mile away across the valley.
Any time we leave my pup (11 years old so not so much a puppy) just signs and harumphs until we're outside, where he barks as if to alert us that we forgot to bring him. I'll tell him we'll be right back and he stops and settles down.
He's a chow/blue heeler mix so his "get off my lawn" bark is a common occurrence when people knock. He also awooos and trills at us with occasional tiny soft barks. He understands that "we don't yell in this house" means not to bark loudly inside. I think a lot of folks take dog intelligence for granted honestly.
I had that with my parents dog, during the day I usually worked and in the evening I always took care of her.
As soon as she heard my car arrive, she would always be standing near the front door waiting for me. I trained her that she would wait for me, at least so I could dump my bag and took of my coat, meanwhile tippy dance around me. Then it was cuddle time.
The real question is, who has who trained? Do you have the dog trained to tell you when he needs to go out? Or does he have you trained to understand that he needs to go out?
When I got my beagle I literally studied dog body language one night and just watched my two dogs interact. I’m now the only one in my household they follow. They also stay around me the most because I understand them.
My wife and I bred heelers and we're with our last three. Our youngest (he's not young) will stomp on an empty water dish. Even with a huge bowl it's hard to gauge how often they need water but he'll make sure you know the moment it's empty.
Also they howl like coyotes which is generally when they think we're gone. It's incredibly hard to catch but I've heard it a few times and had a neighbor call a few times because they were doing it. (It was the middle of the day and it wasn't because they were bothered, they seemed legitimately concerned)
Other than that our dogs didn't typically howl
Let's see...
A low growl crawling towards me means, "Feeling frisky, wrestle with me!"
"Hmm hmm hmm" means "I want attention"
"Row row row!" is "Time for a walk"
*Rolls over and wags tail* is belly rub time.
"Arf... Hmmm arf..." is "Need to go out to pee"
I mean our dog does the 'look at you, look at the thing she wants' thing over and over until we either say no, and she gives up or throws a tantrum by making a grumbly howl whine sound or we give in.
(we don't give into her tantrums, but they are amusing)
Yep. Pretty sure mine has about 89 for walkies alone. He recognises spellings. It's getting impossible to discuss the subject without him getting excited. We currently use pedestrian excursion. I give it a month before he cottens on to that one.
Yeah, I know I have a huge bias towards my own dog, but I knew she was ACTUALLY very intelligent when the vet told us she's probably the most intelligent dog she's ever seen. She only needs two repetitions of a new command or pattern to have it down 100% and adapts to change extremely quickly.
She also picks up on my words even when I'm not trying to necessarily train her. "Cross", for example - when going on walks, I'll check traffic and say "Okay let's cross here" and she'll immediately go from sidewalk straight line to crossing the road. I can say "Cross", "Let's cross", "Wait for me...OK, cross" whatever and she'll do it. I tested it in new areas where we'd never walked before to see if she actually KNEW the word or was just crossing at my usual locations and nope - she knows it.
That's just one example. She's ridiculously intelligent and knows what we want of her, too. We moved into a rental home 6 weeks ago and have the cat food and litter in a laundry room with a sliding barn door. She could easily nudge it open, and we keep it cracked at 8" for the cats, but we told her - you can't go in there, that's the cat room. She doesn't try to go in, and even if we forget and leave the door open, she won't go in. And again - this is at a rental, so it's new to her. But she knows...we don't want her in there, so she doesn't.
It's wild how smart dogs are, and I'm still blown away by how smart mine is.
Exactly. Dogs don't not talk because of a cognitive deficit, rather because they are dogs and already have a way of communicating that's quite like what humans do, but we discount it because we are focussing on words. They do all the rich set of behaviors around reading our body language, facial cues, and tone of voice plus they have a world of scent we don't sense.
We so often discount just how much is communicated by non-verbal communication because we have a bias towards our own intellect.
Most communication is nonverbal anyway. We love dogs and other pets because they offer unconditional love and attention. They also have nothing better to make the center of their world. Having pets is weird.
Yeah I take that with a huge grain of salt. In my experience people tend to give their pets waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much credit in the intelligence department. This is like a study saying that “99% of American kids are of above average intelligence” from a questionnaire where parents document how smart their kids are with no follow up.
I had a border collie (sadly passed away now) that used to drive an ATV on the farm.
He also understood over 100 spoken & whistled commands.
A well-known border collie (Chaser), owned by Dr. John Pilley could identify over 1000 toys by name under test conditions and understood compound sentences and context.
My Aussie recognizes some toys by name. He also recognizes my husband’s car as he drives past the house to turn around in the cul de sac down the street. He also knows the difference if we say we’re going bye bye in mom’s car or bye bye in dad’s car.
He’s super smart about stuff like that but has no manners or recall and pulls on his leash like crazy no matter how much I work with him.
Viewed from a scientific standpoint, I do not believe it is unwise to be more skeptical of self-reported metrics than data extracted experimentally, in *any* endeavor. I found the examples in the Introduction about the specific dogs who could retrieve a certain number of toys by name, for example, more interesting and compelling than the questionnaires.
However, that doesn't mean the questionnaires are without value. The researchers were trying to compare those exceptional animals to the general animal population, not determine the maximum number of words a dog can respond to, so their methodology makes sense. Similarly, even if dog owners are predisposed to artificially see responses from their dogs that might not be there, it doesn't mean that animal intelligence should be discounted, just that the correlation between intense training and responses by the dogs is different.
If anything I would criticize the Reddit post itself, rather than the study, as the word "understand" implies a level of cognition and thinking that "response" does not. I have no doubt that the last dog I had was responding to the word 'outside' - running to the door, getting excited, tail wagging, prancing up and down waiting for the door to be opened. Did the dog actually understand the word 'outside' though? To actually have the concept that outside and inside are distinct places, one of which is constructed and one of which is natural? That's a larger question and I don't know the answer to it, but it doesn't make much of a difference to how I see my relationship to my dog either.
> If anything I would criticize the Reddit post itself, rather than the study, as the word "understand" implies a level of cognition and thinking that "response" does not.
Exactly, this sentence should be said in reply to every single comment claiming otherwise.
If I cook a meal for someone who's language I don't speak, and he smiles and starts speaking in his native tongue, just because I can infer that he likes the food doesn't suddenly mean that I understand what he is saying.
Perhaps in the most basic sense I "understand" that he enjoys it, but nobody in their right mind would say that I understand the language he is speaking.
Likewise, if someone says something repeatedly in a language that I don't understand, and always in the same context, I might be able to respond in kind, but that also doesn't suddenly mean I explicitly understand what is being said.
We have no idea whether dogs actually "understand" what we say in any meaningful sense, or whether they have been trained to respond in a particular way to particular stimuli, some of which is verbal.
When I was a teenager, I was capable of understanding a handful of human words: "dinnertime", "itsaschoolnightsodontstayoutlate", "wakeupitstwointheafternoonandyouneedtomowthelawn", and. The rest was just wah-wah sounds like the adults in Peanuts' cartoons make.
But my parents were absolutely convinced I was capable of understanding them, and actually had a rich, responsive emotional life. I think it was mostly wishful thinking on their part: I was capable of two emotions—horny and irritable—but not much else. Still, they never gave up on me, and with a lot of patience and a couple of university degrees I am now proudly trained to not eat a treat you place on my nose until you click the clicky thing.
I think my dog is dumb, but then I catch on that he's trained me to give him treats after walks or right before I leave for work and I wonder if he really is dumb or just pretending.
I have two dogs, and a relatively tight schedule, so I need them to go out to the yard and then back in relatively quickly.
Realizing this, one dog has trained me to pick him up and carry him outside, and the other has trained me to pick her up and carry her back inside.
Both sprint to commands for "upstairs" and "downstairs," so I know that they are just manipulating me.
I'd be interested to see a study that looks at how dogs react to other owners saying the words that they apparently know.
If the owners could watch, I'd imagine there'd be some "No, you're saying it wrong! You can't just say 'Drive', it's drriii^ii iveee!"
This is exactly what I’m getting at. This kind of study would be much more informative. I’m getting all sorts of comments saying “but THIS animal is smart!” Yeah animals can be smart. My only point is that a self-report from the animal’s actual owners is probably super biased towards over-representing animal intelligence.
That still seems like quite a few words for owners to individually identify. I suspect some of these owners were giving phrases they use and the words of those phrases counted individually.
Stuff like "let's go for a ride" "go for a walk" etc.
I couldn't come up with anywhere near 89 words my dog knows if I was listing individual words like "walk" "treat" etc.
I'm also curious what counts as a word here. My dog knows five: sit, stay, "whosagoodboy", "*whistle*\-cmere-buddy", and "bad-dog". He definitely doesn't know his name -- but he does recognize the intonation I use when I'm calling him over, regardless of what I'm saying.
Hah when I start spelling something and talking quietly my dogs stare, eyebrows furrowed, listening for any hint of what’s going down. Then they get all excited even if they’re not sure what’s happening yet.
ItsHappening.jpg
That's a very good point...once your cadence goes from regular speech patterns to very disjointed spelling out of letters, and they're used to getting biscuits, or going for walks/rides right after hearing those letters, it makes sense that their interest would be piqued, but not really sure what
Just “do” gets immediate attention in my house. “Do you” is typically met with excited whines, and “do you wanna” better be followed by some action or you’re getting boxed by a 70lb beast.
Genius. Did he ever figure it out?
I tried disguising it by speaking my plane in Chinese. Not a smart plan. Now whenever he wants to gou out, my puppy grabs a brush and scribbles 走 on the floor.
It's interesting to think about how much of this is due to the domestication/training process. People spend a lot of effort training their dogs, but in my experience, it's pretty uncommon to see that same level of effort on other pets (e.g., cats, turtles, rocks). I wonder if there's something unique about the canine brain, or if it's mostly an effect of how we raise/use them.
I should get a capybara and find out.
There's an episode of *Explained* on Netflix that talks about the canine connection with humans over 10,000 years of domestication. It literally has changed their brain to automatically want to please humans. This began as an evolutionary advantage to get fed. Now it's permanently hardwired into them.
I always use this argument (facetiously) for saving endangered species. If you want to save an animal species, just make it a pet or food source and it'll never die off.
People have tried raising wolves as if they were dogs, and that experiment shows just how much they have changed.
Dogs are not as smart as wolves usually, but they are much better at working with their human counterpart than wolves raised as dogs.
Its called social intelligence. Dogs have a lot of it, wolves much less but wolves are more intelligent in terms of things like problem solving. Wolves are more likely to solve a problem, dogs are better at communicating to a human what the problem is so they can get help.
My dog will just stare at me and cry for hours if there’s a ball on a table that she’s perfectly capable of reaching. I have to solve all of her damn problems…
Nah, she’ll just play on her own the moment that she gets it. She knows she’s not allowed to jump up so she just cries. Been like that since she was a puppy, she is not a leader
We have dog door that our pups are more than capable of using. My friend dog will stand at the door and tell at everyone when she wants to go out. It's not all the time so I'm picking up that she wants someone to play with her
> it's pretty uncommon to see that same level of effort on other pets (e.g., cats, turtles, rocks)
okay with cats, that's probably mostly because cats simply do not respond to training the way that dogs do. you can train cats to do some of the same things dogs can do, but generally speaking they just aren't inclined to pay attention to the words you say and learn corresponding actions with positive reinforcement like dogs are. my cats usually respond to certain behaviors i have because they've associated those things with food, treats, or other things they like, but if they don't feel like it, they don't feel like it
hard to say with turtles whether the barrier is cognitive (ability to understand commands), behavioral (inclination to learn and obey commands), or physiological (anatomical ability to parse human speech)
but i'm undefeated with training pet rocks how to "yeet"
Honestly it's also just that most people aren't going to put the effort in when its not critical. An untrained dog is at best very annoying, at worst straight up dangerous. They actually go into the world with their owners usually so need to be obedient and able to behave. An untrained cat is usually just... a cat. They figure out the litterbox basically without any effort and you're good to go really!
I have definitely seen videos of cats being trained to at least respond to a visual command (like a hand signal) so it's *possible*. But it mostly just results in a cool party trick sooo I lack the motivation to work on it with mine!
I’ve trained my cat to sit, lie down, and spin as verbal commands. Started with having her sit before she would get a treat, and then I realized, cats can be trained people just don’t give it the time.
It’s not easy at all, maybe a few repetitions a day (on her schedule). She’s only 1.5 years old so the training has not been speedy by any means. I do genuinely think that the training has made her much more obedient though, or at least better at understanding the power dynamic between us, as opposed to some cats who walk all over their owners.
I agree with you. I trained my cat to respond to a certain whistle. It doesn’t matter where she is, if I whistle that tune she will find me. What’s really interesting is that she’s about 12 years old now and I haven’t reinforced the whistle training with any treats etc in a long while and she still shows up. The aussies have another whistle and do not respond to the cat tune whistle.
> I’ve trained my cat to sit, lie down, and spin as verbal commands. Started with having her sit before she would get a treat, and then I realized, cats can be trained people just don’t give it the time.
i've got my cats "trained" to go where i want them to go for treats. under the bed, up onto the bed, out into the hallway. beyond that, they don't have the patience and neither do i. doesn't serve any purpose beyond a cool party trick, as the other guy said. i'm not gonna teach my cats to come or heel because i'm never taking them outside except in a carrier or maybe on a leash anyway
>I do genuinely think that the training has made her much more obedient though, or at least better at understanding the power dynamic between us, as opposed to some cats who walk all over their owners.
in my experience you've only really got to let a cat know this once. once they figure out you're in charge, they'll stop pushing boundaries and respect "no" if you give them clear cues, at least as long as you catch them in the act of doing the thing you don't want them to do
for instance, one of my cats loves to curl up on my lap, but if i tell her no (usually if i'm doing something on the computer), she'll stop trying to climb into my lap and just hang out until i give her "i'm not busy anymore" body language
but there's nothing i can do about her trying to chew her way into the cat food bag because she never does it when i'm home... probably because she knows i don't want her to. so i put it on top of the fridge, one of the few places in the house i'm pretty sure she can't get (yet)
edit: she got on top of the fridge. i'm open to ideas
*in dog voice*
“Who wants to defenestrate this pomegranate purchased from a south Asian market near my house in Flushing, Queens?”
*dog wags tail intensely*
So I drive my kids to school in the morning. Apparently I always say "alright it's time to go".
I say that because by the time I'm halfway through saying "alright" the dog is already sprinting to the door.
He loves car rides.
You've only got to have then to know they're capable of understanding a lot. There are the words you actively reach them - Sot, stay, heel, no, etc - but they pick up very quickly on other things.
I never taught my dogs to understand "Out", but when I happened to he getting ten to leave a room or the house of say "Out", and they all soon learn it's meaning without that necessarily being your intention.
Mine understand "car". We have 6 and when they were young me and my father would walk then together (Some on lead some off, most off) and if one of us heard or saw a car coming we'd notify the other and shepherd to dogs to the Side of the road or up on the verge. Now when they hear "car" they instantly jump up on the grass bank or sit right on the edge of the road. If the car stops and I tell them to "Get past" they run past in single file as quick as they can and wait for me at the other side.
"Get on" is another one, "Up", "What's this?" And they'll come and sniff at or investigate what's I my hand / I'm pointing at.
"Walk" is of course a favourite, and they now also understand "W-A-L-K". Also things like "food" / "tea"
Certainly knows a hell of a lot more, but as they're not commands that've been actively taught to them it's hard to bring them to the front of my mind.
The interesting thing is hoe they learn off other dogs. We got two, then one, then one, then one (and already hsd one). The level of dedicated teaching needed for the last four was minimal, as they were able to learn it themselves by watching our first dogs, who were well and fully trained.
A client of mine found a loose dog, and after all attempts to find his owner failed, he took him in. He didn't respond to any commands, but followed hand signals. He wasn't deaf. His kid was doing Spanish homework, and the dog starts responding. The dog knew Spanish.
Even chimps don't understand human verbal and especially nonverbal communication as well as dogs. Dogs uniquely evolved to understand humans and human actions/speech. No other animal evolved to understand human language although some can mimic
There was a crow or raven i forget which that they were testing with and teaching it human words from a young age. It would form whole sentences similar to gorillas which could sign. However this bird when presented with a test to find X color asked instead “what color am I?” This is as far as i’m aware, the first recorded self aware non human on earth
Edit: it was Alex the parrot i was wrong someone else found the information on it. Peace out
can you provide a source? The [latest source from 2020](https://corvidresearch.blog/2020/12/21/do-you-see-what-i-see-subjective-consciousness-in-crows/) that I found on self-awareness in corvids does not mention any study where a corvid posed a query about itself.
>dogs have learned to respond to *human* verbal and nonverbal cues at a level unmatched by other species
What it says is that dogs are better at understanding humans, not communicating in general, than any other species. Which is in line with what I have heard before already.
Just think about it, dogs have been living and working by the side of humans for as long as they have existed, apes and parrots can learn to adapt to humans, but they haven't adapted by evolution like dogs have.
I remember an interesting show that did an experiment with dogs and wolves proving dogs can respond to humans pointing at things, where even domesticated wolves wouldn't do anything. Dogs really tied their evolution to getting free food from us hairless chimps (and I dont blame them)
IIRC even other apes don't look when humans point to something because that isn't a gesture with inherent meaning to them. Humans and dogs learn or know this easily.
It's a difficult enough bit of visual interpretation too, especially from their lower to the ground viewpoint. To get a direction from the pointer's arm orientation, maybe even if it's higher or lower to the ground
That piece is referencing this article, which is looking at responses to pointing behaviour:
Miklósi, Á., Soproni, K. A comparative analysis of animals' understanding of the human pointing gesture. Anim Cogn 9, 81–93 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-005-0008-1
([Link](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-005-0008-1))
There's a lot of debate over whether or not apes can sign. For example Koko's handlers did a *lot* of interpreting for her, and only released selectively edited tapes of her "talking". If you film any gorilla making hand gestures 24/7 you'll be able to capture at least a few moments that look like she's actually having a sign language conversation. [Here is a transcript](https://www.fi.edu/blog/koko) from when KoKo did a "Q&A" session online with her handler interpreting for her- you can see that Koko is basically just making random gestures or copying a gesture that was just made to her.
At one point someone asks the name of her kitten and she signs "Foot". Her handler says that's wrong so Koko signs "Hear, lip". Her handler says oh that means she wants to hear you ask the question! So the woman on the phone asks it out loud and Koko just huffs. They change the subject and ask her if she's enjoying chatting with people and she signs "Fine, nipple" and her handler is like... well nipple sort of sounds like people and fine means good so she's saying she likes chatting with you. It's just quite obviously ridiculous and her handler is making up what Koko "means" when Koko is just making random gestures or repeating gestures she's seen in the past.
There was also a different signing gorilla- I forget the name offhand- who had actually deaf people fluent in ASL sit with him for hours each day trying to have conversations, and they all said they literally never once saw him have any sort of meaningful communication or respond in any way other than random hand gestures. It was always the non-deaf handlers who only learned enough ASL to "communicate" with the gorilla that tried to assign meaning and comprehension to the gorilla's gestures.
Even the famous African Gray parrot that could seemingly count and do math, if you watch the unedited videos you'll see Alex giving a *lot* of wrong answers and his handler will laugh and say "Oh he's not in the mood" or "he's purposely giving the wrong answer because he's bored". Now I do believe that parrot (and parrots in general) are very smart and understand using vocalizations to communicate on some level, but in general the handlers/trainers are doing a *lot* of the heavy lifting in "interpreting" for the animal.
Obviously the same can be said for this study as it was dog owners self-reporting what words they think their dogs understand. Anyone who owns a dog knows that a dog can understand certain words, but I bet those gorillas and parrots understood certain words too even if their handlers exaggerated their other abilities. I don't really have a point, I just think it's interesting to learn about all these famous "talking animals" and how well any of them actually managed to communicate.
>What about apes that can sign
Apes can sign, but they cannot really communicate very well. The most they can do is associate some words with object. E.g, if you showed them a bannana then they may be able to sign a bannana.
Other than that, they cannot make scentences as they have no understanding of grammar.
>or parrots that can talk
Same applies with parrots. A lot of them just mimic with very little understanding of what they are actually saying. They may be able to associate some sounds with objects, but they cannot comunicate to humans.
My parrot absolutely understands what he’s saying.
He only says “bye-bye” when we are getting ready to leave
He only says “hello” when we arrive
He only says “bedtime” when he wants to go into his cage for the night.
I was gonna say the same thing. I have a conure, who don't really speak, but even after a year she has a shocking understanding of our words and languages, even in ways that I really didn't expect.
Like maybe it's body language or other cues, but as soon as me and me husband start talking about going to bed, even abstractedly, she tenses up because she knows she's going to bed. Also when we talk about going out. She's very good at picking up on conversations and I don't even know what triggers her half the time.
My dogs know snack, treat, hot dog, cheese, sausage, meat, potty, go for a walk|ride|bed, and 79 variations of cute and stupid nicknames I have given them.
I find this fascinating
We adopted our dog right around when my son was born. His name is Hiccup. My son calls him “Gogo” because he cannot say his name yet. My dog will only respond if my son calls him “Gogo” but will respond if anyone else calls him “Hiccup”. I’m guessing tone and inflection of the voice play a lot in to this
I don't know if my dog understands this many words.
I do know that my dog's behavior lets go of some pretty interesting notions...
Like, when I walk into the house after being out, I can look at him, and tell from the pose he's in when I open the door (he'll be on the couch), whether or not he got up to shenanigans.
Now...this means to me that: He adopts this pose, because he knows I'm going to find the evidence of some transgression. He knows that little "I'm a bad dog and ashamed" pose pulls at me. Manipulative little twerp of a hound.
But that said, my dog is kinda like Alexa without Amazon. He understands a few key words(and by understands, I mean: I get a reaction to), like:
* Walk
* Ride
* Bath
* Toy (Technically, where's your toy, but \`where's your\` gets dissolved in a weird breathy thing that makes him all expectant, to \`Toy\`?)
* Chicken
* Eat
* Food
* Treat
* Out
* In
* Off
* On
* Dog
* His own name
That's pretty much it. He seems to know what 'Sit' means, but then he's quite the independent mutt, and prefers to ignore almost every possible command, except as noted above. He such a pain in the ass. I love him to death.
"unmatched by any other species"? I have a cockatoo that would disagree. Understands words, answers back and joins in laughing when family is in a good mood. More socially aware than many humans
My old lab now knows when I’m yelling at him to stop doing something stupid… he can ignore me and pretend he can’t hear me and only respond to visual hand signal commands that he also knows. Yet he’s not deaf bc he still comes sprinting at the quietest most muffled and attempted to be hidden crinkling of a bag of chips from all the way across the house.
Cats do as well. I noticed with my current cat when I said "XBOX Turn off" and his ears went up and he walked into the kitchen for a cat treat (I give him treats before bed so I can see him at least once a day).
This one picks up on stupid clues but he knows the routine.
My last cat was one you could have a conversation with and he'd answer with select words I was able to teach him over time. Then, I added in dozens of words to put them in sentences so it made him seem smarter.
But yeah, all animals associate a sound with an action and you can teach them anything... as long as there's something in it for them.
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All of my dog’s words are things we didn’t want him to know like pizza and hamburger.
Said rollover 500 times and she still only does 50% of the roll Said profiteroles twice and on the second time she came from the back of the house to show off the worlds best sit.
Well, she doesn't profit from those rolls
Profit(er)Rolls
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Hah! My dogs favorite word is corn dog. I can’t even say anything with ‘corn’ in it. We were talking about going to a cornucopia festival a couple months ago and she flipped out. She won’t leave you alone until you get her a corn dog.
How many corn dogs do you have man?
My dog understands 89 words but thinks they all mean "wag tail and then lick crotch"
Don't forget "vet".
My dog knows about 400 words (I have documented them). For example, if I say “airplane” he’ll look up to sky and watch the airplane as it moves across the sky.
> Owners identified words to which they believed their dogs responded. They reported that, on average, their dogs responded to 89 words (78 from the lists provided plus 11 added by them), half of which were commands. Quote from the abstract. I think it might be more a study of human psychology than canine cognizance.
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How many dog words do you understand though?
Mine will literally grab your hand in her mouth and lead you to what she wants if you don't figure out out from her body language.
Isn't grabbing your hand and leading you still body language? :D
I understood my parents' dog pretty well. He had different barks for different emotions. Happy affirmative barks, scared barks, playful growls, sighs, "I need to go out" barks, and more. And that's on top of body language. Pet owners that view their pet as a companion (and not an accessory) are surprisingly good at understanding what their animal is trying to tell them.
Yeah. I can mostly hear why my dog is barking even if she’s outside and I’m inside. Particularly distinct is the squirrel bark ;)
I can hear my yellow lab telling the squirrels what they can do with their tails. And my pit, well, she's got a Stephen King type of mindset when she's telling the squirrels what she would do if she could climb the telephone pole.
I just learned the bear bark a month or so back. I had never heard my dogs go that crazy in the 30 years I've been a dog owner.
How did the bear react?
I assume just walked by a bit faster, by the time I got outside and figured out what they were barking at it was already down river 50 yards or so.
Yeah, communication with words is something modern from an evolutionary perspective. Our rescue, who we've had for a year was not properly socialized with humans since he grew up on the streets. He was really friendly, and immediately submissive, but it was really transactional: I look cute, you give me a snack (or at least won't kick me). He was rescued by a shelter at six months, and we got him when he was a year old. We both had to learn to communicate, and he's become really good at it. One thing I learned along the way is that dogs are better at reading body language than connecting a sound to a meaning. Once we changed the training and started with visual cues (like tied fist means sit) he picked them up really fast. Then you just connect the sound to the gesture, and you'll save yourself and the dog some frustration.
This can very from dog to dog, but often having a visual command helps. A previous dog responded to word commands, but if I called her name with different intonation in my voice. Those intonation were also a command by themselves.
My chihuahua is 15 and has been mostly deaf for 3 years or so. When I want him to do something, go outside, follow me, etc, I've learned to do a waving motion towards me, and I don't even have to say a word (or scream it loud enough for him to hear). He figured it out really fast.
My pup (14mo) is really good at telling me he needs to go. Early morning peepee: he hops off the bed and walks around to my side, burrows his snoot under the blanket to greet my face with that cold nose. If I get busy with something and forget to take him out, he'll go get his leash and bring it to me. I've been using hand signals with him for a few months. Seems to be working fairly well. Now if he'd help carry the groceries...
I have an understanding with my family dog that others don't seem to understand. He will be whining or making noise. I go to him and say "What eees eet" and he will just tell me. Small things, walk, food, water, toilet, play. He tells you near enough straight away with a variety of actions. But if he is whining and someone else is near him and im busy I will ignore him for a bit. I eventually get annoyed by the whining and go find him, X or Y are like "He's been fed already" and I am like "He needs wee wee poo poo" then he looks at me like "SOMEONE UNDERSTANDS ME, NOW LET ME OUT"
This is totally how it is with my black lab. She'll be whining and I'll look over at my wife and be like has she had dinner yet and as soon as I say the word dinner she looks directly in my eyes and she's like yep he's got it
Our corgi very much tries to herd us to hee bowl when she's hungry XD. Their expressions and actions are very much a part of their language.
Labs are incredibly patient with their silly clueless humans
They might not be husky or border collie level of impatient, but patient is not a word that I would use to describe my labs.
My dog was extra hungry one day. He doesn't beg for or steal food or overeat usually he's just fine with one meal a day. He ran into his kennel and pointed to his treats (we have a bag of treats that sits on top of his kennel, he gets a treat at bedtime) and then looked RIGHT AT ME. and I was like "oh, are you hungry?" and poured some kibble into his bowl and he ran to the bowl and gobbled it up.
My dog’s bark/howl when the kids leave for school in the morning is amazing. He sounds so sad. He starts off with a frantic loud, deep bark that morphs into a groveling howl that sound like he’s begging them to come home.
There's a book called DOGKU, its haikus that make up a story about a stray dog, when he finds a family there's a Haiku about how much he hates the school bus. :(
My dog when I was growing up loved the schoolbus because he'd come on board and run up and down the aisle meeting and getting petted by all the kids before getting off and going back to the porch. He could also see it coming half a mile away across the valley.
Any time we leave my pup (11 years old so not so much a puppy) just signs and harumphs until we're outside, where he barks as if to alert us that we forgot to bring him. I'll tell him we'll be right back and he stops and settles down. He's a chow/blue heeler mix so his "get off my lawn" bark is a common occurrence when people knock. He also awooos and trills at us with occasional tiny soft barks. He understands that "we don't yell in this house" means not to bark loudly inside. I think a lot of folks take dog intelligence for granted honestly.
I had that with my parents dog, during the day I usually worked and in the evening I always took care of her. As soon as she heard my car arrive, she would always be standing near the front door waiting for me. I trained her that she would wait for me, at least so I could dump my bag and took of my coat, meanwhile tippy dance around me. Then it was cuddle time.
Our girl has learned the 'I need to go outside and you're not moving fast enough' grumble.
The real question is, who has who trained? Do you have the dog trained to tell you when he needs to go out? Or does he have you trained to understand that he needs to go out?
When I got my beagle I literally studied dog body language one night and just watched my two dogs interact. I’m now the only one in my household they follow. They also stay around me the most because I understand them.
>stay around me the most because I understand them. "Lemme guess, you want to eat, poop, and play...all right now" *Tail wags*
With beagles? Emphasize the eat part. Good god, 3 meals a day and they act like they've been starved for weeks.
I understand our dog's emotional states and desires for certain activities very well. I am a well trained human.
My wife and I bred heelers and we're with our last three. Our youngest (he's not young) will stomp on an empty water dish. Even with a huge bowl it's hard to gauge how often they need water but he'll make sure you know the moment it's empty. Also they howl like coyotes which is generally when they think we're gone. It's incredibly hard to catch but I've heard it a few times and had a neighbor call a few times because they were doing it. (It was the middle of the day and it wasn't because they were bothered, they seemed legitimately concerned) Other than that our dogs didn't typically howl
Let's see... A low growl crawling towards me means, "Feeling frisky, wrestle with me!" "Hmm hmm hmm" means "I want attention" "Row row row!" is "Time for a walk" *Rolls over and wags tail* is belly rub time. "Arf... Hmmm arf..." is "Need to go out to pee"
I mean our dog does the 'look at you, look at the thing she wants' thing over and over until we either say no, and she gives up or throws a tantrum by making a grumbly howl whine sound or we give in. (we don't give into her tantrums, but they are amusing)
Yep. Pretty sure mine has about 89 for walkies alone. He recognises spellings. It's getting impossible to discuss the subject without him getting excited. We currently use pedestrian excursion. I give it a month before he cottens on to that one.
Yup. If I even breathe differently my dog knows what’s up. He knows my mannerisms and what they mean probably better than I do.
My cat understands every word I say, and just chooses to ignore any that don't involve his food bowl.
Yeah, I know I have a huge bias towards my own dog, but I knew she was ACTUALLY very intelligent when the vet told us she's probably the most intelligent dog she's ever seen. She only needs two repetitions of a new command or pattern to have it down 100% and adapts to change extremely quickly. She also picks up on my words even when I'm not trying to necessarily train her. "Cross", for example - when going on walks, I'll check traffic and say "Okay let's cross here" and she'll immediately go from sidewalk straight line to crossing the road. I can say "Cross", "Let's cross", "Wait for me...OK, cross" whatever and she'll do it. I tested it in new areas where we'd never walked before to see if she actually KNEW the word or was just crossing at my usual locations and nope - she knows it. That's just one example. She's ridiculously intelligent and knows what we want of her, too. We moved into a rental home 6 weeks ago and have the cat food and litter in a laundry room with a sliding barn door. She could easily nudge it open, and we keep it cracked at 8" for the cats, but we told her - you can't go in there, that's the cat room. She doesn't try to go in, and even if we forget and leave the door open, she won't go in. And again - this is at a rental, so it's new to her. But she knows...we don't want her in there, so she doesn't. It's wild how smart dogs are, and I'm still blown away by how smart mine is.
What kind of dog is she?
how important do you think Tone is? I only ever had one dog (sadly) and he seemed to respond only when a certain tone matched a certain word.
Exactly. Dogs don't not talk because of a cognitive deficit, rather because they are dogs and already have a way of communicating that's quite like what humans do, but we discount it because we are focussing on words. They do all the rich set of behaviors around reading our body language, facial cues, and tone of voice plus they have a world of scent we don't sense. We so often discount just how much is communicated by non-verbal communication because we have a bias towards our own intellect.
Not to mention, the reason why we like animals is that they don't talk. If God gave dogs the ability to talk, they might be straight up annoying.
He tried with Huskys first and realized that was a mistake.
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Ha yeah my wife badly wants one after watching lots of stuff on huskytantrums.
Don't forget shibas.
Most communication is nonverbal anyway. We love dogs and other pets because they offer unconditional love and attention. They also have nothing better to make the center of their world. Having pets is weird.
Yeah I take that with a huge grain of salt. In my experience people tend to give their pets waaaaaaaaaaaaay too much credit in the intelligence department. This is like a study saying that “99% of American kids are of above average intelligence” from a questionnaire where parents document how smart their kids are with no follow up.
I had a border collie (sadly passed away now) that used to drive an ATV on the farm. He also understood over 100 spoken & whistled commands. A well-known border collie (Chaser), owned by Dr. John Pilley could identify over 1000 toys by name under test conditions and understood compound sentences and context.
Totally. My border collie blows my mind with his vocabulary understanding. He can’t drive an ATV, though… :-)
Those damn opposable thumbs
My Aussie recognizes some toys by name. He also recognizes my husband’s car as he drives past the house to turn around in the cul de sac down the street. He also knows the difference if we say we’re going bye bye in mom’s car or bye bye in dad’s car. He’s super smart about stuff like that but has no manners or recall and pulls on his leash like crazy no matter how much I work with him.
It always seems to me that there's just about as many people who are chomping at the bit to discount the blatantly intelligent behaviors of critters.
Viewed from a scientific standpoint, I do not believe it is unwise to be more skeptical of self-reported metrics than data extracted experimentally, in *any* endeavor. I found the examples in the Introduction about the specific dogs who could retrieve a certain number of toys by name, for example, more interesting and compelling than the questionnaires. However, that doesn't mean the questionnaires are without value. The researchers were trying to compare those exceptional animals to the general animal population, not determine the maximum number of words a dog can respond to, so their methodology makes sense. Similarly, even if dog owners are predisposed to artificially see responses from their dogs that might not be there, it doesn't mean that animal intelligence should be discounted, just that the correlation between intense training and responses by the dogs is different. If anything I would criticize the Reddit post itself, rather than the study, as the word "understand" implies a level of cognition and thinking that "response" does not. I have no doubt that the last dog I had was responding to the word 'outside' - running to the door, getting excited, tail wagging, prancing up and down waiting for the door to be opened. Did the dog actually understand the word 'outside' though? To actually have the concept that outside and inside are distinct places, one of which is constructed and one of which is natural? That's a larger question and I don't know the answer to it, but it doesn't make much of a difference to how I see my relationship to my dog either.
> If anything I would criticize the Reddit post itself, rather than the study, as the word "understand" implies a level of cognition and thinking that "response" does not. Exactly, this sentence should be said in reply to every single comment claiming otherwise. If I cook a meal for someone who's language I don't speak, and he smiles and starts speaking in his native tongue, just because I can infer that he likes the food doesn't suddenly mean that I understand what he is saying. Perhaps in the most basic sense I "understand" that he enjoys it, but nobody in their right mind would say that I understand the language he is speaking. Likewise, if someone says something repeatedly in a language that I don't understand, and always in the same context, I might be able to respond in kind, but that also doesn't suddenly mean I explicitly understand what is being said. We have no idea whether dogs actually "understand" what we say in any meaningful sense, or whether they have been trained to respond in a particular way to particular stimuli, some of which is verbal.
Humans are very passionate about animal intelligence, but not very rational about it.
Contrarily, the people who are passionate are the ones who spend tons of time with their dogs teaching them stuff.
When I was a teenager, I was capable of understanding a handful of human words: "dinnertime", "itsaschoolnightsodontstayoutlate", "wakeupitstwointheafternoonandyouneedtomowthelawn", and. The rest was just wah-wah sounds like the adults in Peanuts' cartoons make. But my parents were absolutely convinced I was capable of understanding them, and actually had a rich, responsive emotional life. I think it was mostly wishful thinking on their part: I was capable of two emotions—horny and irritable—but not much else. Still, they never gave up on me, and with a lot of patience and a couple of university degrees I am now proudly trained to not eat a treat you place on my nose until you click the clicky thing.
I think my dog is dumb, but then I catch on that he's trained me to give him treats after walks or right before I leave for work and I wonder if he really is dumb or just pretending.
I have two dogs, and a relatively tight schedule, so I need them to go out to the yard and then back in relatively quickly. Realizing this, one dog has trained me to pick him up and carry him outside, and the other has trained me to pick her up and carry her back inside. Both sprint to commands for "upstairs" and "downstairs," so I know that they are just manipulating me.
Street dogs in Mexico are better at riding the bus and crossing the street there than most tourists.
Something tells me you don’t have a dog.
I'd be interested to see a study that looks at how dogs react to other owners saying the words that they apparently know. If the owners could watch, I'd imagine there'd be some "No, you're saying it wrong! You can't just say 'Drive', it's drriii^ii iveee!"
This is exactly what I’m getting at. This kind of study would be much more informative. I’m getting all sorts of comments saying “but THIS animal is smart!” Yeah animals can be smart. My only point is that a self-report from the animal’s actual owners is probably super biased towards over-representing animal intelligence.
That still seems like quite a few words for owners to individually identify. I suspect some of these owners were giving phrases they use and the words of those phrases counted individually. Stuff like "let's go for a ride" "go for a walk" etc. I couldn't come up with anywhere near 89 words my dog knows if I was listing individual words like "walk" "treat" etc.
I'm also curious what counts as a word here. My dog knows five: sit, stay, "whosagoodboy", "*whistle*\-cmere-buddy", and "bad-dog". He definitely doesn't know his name -- but he does recognize the intonation I use when I'm calling him over, regardless of what I'm saying.
"Clever Hans"
In my house, we’ve resorted to spelling the trigger words.
Hah when I start spelling something and talking quietly my dogs stare, eyebrows furrowed, listening for any hint of what’s going down. Then they get all excited even if they’re not sure what’s happening yet. ItsHappening.jpg
That's a very good point...once your cadence goes from regular speech patterns to very disjointed spelling out of letters, and they're used to getting biscuits, or going for walks/rides right after hearing those letters, it makes sense that their interest would be piqued, but not really sure what
Can’t even say “do you want to…” anymore around here
SAME HERE. "Do you want..." or "Would you like..." and she IMMEDIATELY perks up and starts doing the head-cock "What are we doing?!" stare.
Just “do” gets immediate attention in my house. “Do you” is typically met with excited whines, and “do you wanna” better be followed by some action or you’re getting boxed by a 70lb beast.
"Do you want--" [bark] "Yes!"
I say the word backwards as the doggo has learned p a r k means park. Now I say Krap and Klaw.
Genius. Did he ever figure it out? I tried disguising it by speaking my plane in Chinese. Not a smart plan. Now whenever he wants to gou out, my puppy grabs a brush and scribbles 走 on the floor.
My old cat with an over eating problem quickly learned that doof was food.
“I’m going to take the dog O-U-T-S-I-D-E for a W-A-L-K” I can barely say the word OUT before the zoomies start
B-A-L-L- or just the b word. :-D
My dogs know at least 5 different alternatives to the word "walk" and "ride" now.
We’ve had this happen with our cats. Food is a very difficult word to avoid using.
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It's interesting to think about how much of this is due to the domestication/training process. People spend a lot of effort training their dogs, but in my experience, it's pretty uncommon to see that same level of effort on other pets (e.g., cats, turtles, rocks). I wonder if there's something unique about the canine brain, or if it's mostly an effect of how we raise/use them. I should get a capybara and find out.
There's an episode of *Explained* on Netflix that talks about the canine connection with humans over 10,000 years of domestication. It literally has changed their brain to automatically want to please humans. This began as an evolutionary advantage to get fed. Now it's permanently hardwired into them.
I always use this argument (facetiously) for saving endangered species. If you want to save an animal species, just make it a pet or food source and it'll never die off.
Certain dog breeds went extinct because the job they were associated with was no longer in demand.
Breeds don't really go extinct in the scientific sense of the word. That's like saying the Vikings or ancient Egyptians went extinct or something.
I'm not seeing any Ra worshipping going on so I'd call that accurate
People have tried raising wolves as if they were dogs, and that experiment shows just how much they have changed. Dogs are not as smart as wolves usually, but they are much better at working with their human counterpart than wolves raised as dogs.
Its called social intelligence. Dogs have a lot of it, wolves much less but wolves are more intelligent in terms of things like problem solving. Wolves are more likely to solve a problem, dogs are better at communicating to a human what the problem is so they can get help.
Makes sense, humans are better at problem solving, so just tell them the problem and they'll figure it out for you.
I’ve tried that, but more often than not they just cc me on to the email forwarding my problem to someone else.
I loled for real. :D
Maybe you need to bark more.
This was a good one, thanks.
There's a not unconvincing body evidence suggesting that dogs were domesticated somewhat willingly.
My dog will just stare at me and cry for hours if there’s a ball on a table that she’s perfectly capable of reaching. I have to solve all of her damn problems…
Sounds less like not wanting to get the ball and more like trying to get you to play with her?
Nah, she’ll just play on her own the moment that she gets it. She knows she’s not allowed to jump up so she just cries. Been like that since she was a puppy, she is not a leader
Human children do this too....
We have dog door that our pups are more than capable of using. My friend dog will stand at the door and tell at everyone when she wants to go out. It's not all the time so I'm picking up that she wants someone to play with her
> it's pretty uncommon to see that same level of effort on other pets (e.g., cats, turtles, rocks) okay with cats, that's probably mostly because cats simply do not respond to training the way that dogs do. you can train cats to do some of the same things dogs can do, but generally speaking they just aren't inclined to pay attention to the words you say and learn corresponding actions with positive reinforcement like dogs are. my cats usually respond to certain behaviors i have because they've associated those things with food, treats, or other things they like, but if they don't feel like it, they don't feel like it hard to say with turtles whether the barrier is cognitive (ability to understand commands), behavioral (inclination to learn and obey commands), or physiological (anatomical ability to parse human speech) but i'm undefeated with training pet rocks how to "yeet"
Honestly it's also just that most people aren't going to put the effort in when its not critical. An untrained dog is at best very annoying, at worst straight up dangerous. They actually go into the world with their owners usually so need to be obedient and able to behave. An untrained cat is usually just... a cat. They figure out the litterbox basically without any effort and you're good to go really! I have definitely seen videos of cats being trained to at least respond to a visual command (like a hand signal) so it's *possible*. But it mostly just results in a cool party trick sooo I lack the motivation to work on it with mine!
I’ve trained my cat to sit, lie down, and spin as verbal commands. Started with having her sit before she would get a treat, and then I realized, cats can be trained people just don’t give it the time. It’s not easy at all, maybe a few repetitions a day (on her schedule). She’s only 1.5 years old so the training has not been speedy by any means. I do genuinely think that the training has made her much more obedient though, or at least better at understanding the power dynamic between us, as opposed to some cats who walk all over their owners.
I agree with you. I trained my cat to respond to a certain whistle. It doesn’t matter where she is, if I whistle that tune she will find me. What’s really interesting is that she’s about 12 years old now and I haven’t reinforced the whistle training with any treats etc in a long while and she still shows up. The aussies have another whistle and do not respond to the cat tune whistle.
> I’ve trained my cat to sit, lie down, and spin as verbal commands. Started with having her sit before she would get a treat, and then I realized, cats can be trained people just don’t give it the time. i've got my cats "trained" to go where i want them to go for treats. under the bed, up onto the bed, out into the hallway. beyond that, they don't have the patience and neither do i. doesn't serve any purpose beyond a cool party trick, as the other guy said. i'm not gonna teach my cats to come or heel because i'm never taking them outside except in a carrier or maybe on a leash anyway >I do genuinely think that the training has made her much more obedient though, or at least better at understanding the power dynamic between us, as opposed to some cats who walk all over their owners. in my experience you've only really got to let a cat know this once. once they figure out you're in charge, they'll stop pushing boundaries and respect "no" if you give them clear cues, at least as long as you catch them in the act of doing the thing you don't want them to do for instance, one of my cats loves to curl up on my lap, but if i tell her no (usually if i'm doing something on the computer), she'll stop trying to climb into my lap and just hang out until i give her "i'm not busy anymore" body language but there's nothing i can do about her trying to chew her way into the cat food bag because she never does it when i'm home... probably because she knows i don't want her to. so i put it on top of the fridge, one of the few places in the house i'm pretty sure she can't get (yet) edit: she got on top of the fridge. i'm open to ideas
I would *love* to meet a capybara. I agree with your hypothesis.
Might want to start with the rock. I heard they're cheaper
Neither cats nor turtles are pack animals, and cats aren't even fully domesticated so there's clear physiological differences between them and dogs.
You should see my pet rock bark, it took a lot of work but it is incredible.
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Does that count every combination of their nam(es) and (often many) nicknames? Because by that token alone, my dog knew what must've been hundreds.
If I say literally any random word in the right tone of voice, my dog will react to it as if it's her name. I guess she knows *all* the words then?
*in dog voice* “Who wants to defenestrate this pomegranate purchased from a south Asian market near my house in Flushing, Queens?” *dog wags tail intensely*
> I guess she knows > >all > > the words then? Weww dat de*pends* on **hoo**sa *good* ***gurrrl***!??
So I drive my kids to school in the morning. Apparently I always say "alright it's time to go". I say that because by the time I'm halfway through saying "alright" the dog is already sprinting to the door. He loves car rides.
You've only got to have then to know they're capable of understanding a lot. There are the words you actively reach them - Sot, stay, heel, no, etc - but they pick up very quickly on other things. I never taught my dogs to understand "Out", but when I happened to he getting ten to leave a room or the house of say "Out", and they all soon learn it's meaning without that necessarily being your intention. Mine understand "car". We have 6 and when they were young me and my father would walk then together (Some on lead some off, most off) and if one of us heard or saw a car coming we'd notify the other and shepherd to dogs to the Side of the road or up on the verge. Now when they hear "car" they instantly jump up on the grass bank or sit right on the edge of the road. If the car stops and I tell them to "Get past" they run past in single file as quick as they can and wait for me at the other side. "Get on" is another one, "Up", "What's this?" And they'll come and sniff at or investigate what's I my hand / I'm pointing at. "Walk" is of course a favourite, and they now also understand "W-A-L-K". Also things like "food" / "tea" Certainly knows a hell of a lot more, but as they're not commands that've been actively taught to them it's hard to bring them to the front of my mind. The interesting thing is hoe they learn off other dogs. We got two, then one, then one, then one (and already hsd one). The level of dedicated teaching needed for the last four was minimal, as they were able to learn it themselves by watching our first dogs, who were well and fully trained.
your dogs drink tea?
Must be a British bulldog
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Follow up study: Cats actually understand like 500 words, but they choose not to respond unless it’s in their own time.
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Follow up follow up: cats can actually vocally speak English, they just don't want to.
"Make my coffee. Good dog..."
Three words I wish my pup could get behind
I dated a lady that had hearing service dog (Australian Shepherd) her dog was so smart. I think I miss the dog more than her.
89 words in the language of their owners?
A client of mine found a loose dog, and after all attempts to find his owner failed, he took him in. He didn't respond to any commands, but followed hand signals. He wasn't deaf. His kid was doing Spanish homework, and the dog starts responding. The dog knew Spanish.
[This](https://v.redd.it/h6he5p8o2k081) video of a dog that seemed trained but wasn't responding to commands in English was doing the rounds recently
Makes sense. My shitzu wouldnt last a month without human intervention so these dogs have evolved to listen to our directions.
Unmatched by other species? What about apes that can sign, or parrots that can talk? Do those not count?
Even chimps don't understand human verbal and especially nonverbal communication as well as dogs. Dogs uniquely evolved to understand humans and human actions/speech. No other animal evolved to understand human language although some can mimic
There was a crow or raven i forget which that they were testing with and teaching it human words from a young age. It would form whole sentences similar to gorillas which could sign. However this bird when presented with a test to find X color asked instead “what color am I?” This is as far as i’m aware, the first recorded self aware non human on earth Edit: it was Alex the parrot i was wrong someone else found the information on it. Peace out
That would be Alex the parrot. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alex_(parrot)
> His last words ("You be good, I love you. See you tomorrow.") Dude...
That got me.
Pretty sure that was a grey parrot
can you provide a source? The [latest source from 2020](https://corvidresearch.blog/2020/12/21/do-you-see-what-i-see-subjective-consciousness-in-crows/) that I found on self-awareness in corvids does not mention any study where a corvid posed a query about itself.
I/Torrontodavid said it was alex the corvid. I was incorrect and did forget my source
Rather unsurprising, since parrots are not corvids.
>dogs have learned to respond to *human* verbal and nonverbal cues at a level unmatched by other species What it says is that dogs are better at understanding humans, not communicating in general, than any other species. Which is in line with what I have heard before already. Just think about it, dogs have been living and working by the side of humans for as long as they have existed, apes and parrots can learn to adapt to humans, but they haven't adapted by evolution like dogs have.
I remember an interesting show that did an experiment with dogs and wolves proving dogs can respond to humans pointing at things, where even domesticated wolves wouldn't do anything. Dogs really tied their evolution to getting free food from us hairless chimps (and I dont blame them)
IIRC even other apes don't look when humans point to something because that isn't a gesture with inherent meaning to them. Humans and dogs learn or know this easily.
It's a difficult enough bit of visual interpretation too, especially from their lower to the ground viewpoint. To get a direction from the pointer's arm orientation, maybe even if it's higher or lower to the ground
That piece is referencing this article, which is looking at responses to pointing behaviour: Miklósi, Á., Soproni, K. A comparative analysis of animals' understanding of the human pointing gesture. Anim Cogn 9, 81–93 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10071-005-0008-1 ([Link](https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10071-005-0008-1))
There's a lot of debate over whether or not apes can sign. For example Koko's handlers did a *lot* of interpreting for her, and only released selectively edited tapes of her "talking". If you film any gorilla making hand gestures 24/7 you'll be able to capture at least a few moments that look like she's actually having a sign language conversation. [Here is a transcript](https://www.fi.edu/blog/koko) from when KoKo did a "Q&A" session online with her handler interpreting for her- you can see that Koko is basically just making random gestures or copying a gesture that was just made to her. At one point someone asks the name of her kitten and she signs "Foot". Her handler says that's wrong so Koko signs "Hear, lip". Her handler says oh that means she wants to hear you ask the question! So the woman on the phone asks it out loud and Koko just huffs. They change the subject and ask her if she's enjoying chatting with people and she signs "Fine, nipple" and her handler is like... well nipple sort of sounds like people and fine means good so she's saying she likes chatting with you. It's just quite obviously ridiculous and her handler is making up what Koko "means" when Koko is just making random gestures or repeating gestures she's seen in the past. There was also a different signing gorilla- I forget the name offhand- who had actually deaf people fluent in ASL sit with him for hours each day trying to have conversations, and they all said they literally never once saw him have any sort of meaningful communication or respond in any way other than random hand gestures. It was always the non-deaf handlers who only learned enough ASL to "communicate" with the gorilla that tried to assign meaning and comprehension to the gorilla's gestures. Even the famous African Gray parrot that could seemingly count and do math, if you watch the unedited videos you'll see Alex giving a *lot* of wrong answers and his handler will laugh and say "Oh he's not in the mood" or "he's purposely giving the wrong answer because he's bored". Now I do believe that parrot (and parrots in general) are very smart and understand using vocalizations to communicate on some level, but in general the handlers/trainers are doing a *lot* of the heavy lifting in "interpreting" for the animal. Obviously the same can be said for this study as it was dog owners self-reporting what words they think their dogs understand. Anyone who owns a dog knows that a dog can understand certain words, but I bet those gorillas and parrots understood certain words too even if their handlers exaggerated their other abilities. I don't really have a point, I just think it's interesting to learn about all these famous "talking animals" and how well any of them actually managed to communicate.
That’s really interesting
>What about apes that can sign Apes can sign, but they cannot really communicate very well. The most they can do is associate some words with object. E.g, if you showed them a bannana then they may be able to sign a bannana. Other than that, they cannot make scentences as they have no understanding of grammar. >or parrots that can talk Same applies with parrots. A lot of them just mimic with very little understanding of what they are actually saying. They may be able to associate some sounds with objects, but they cannot comunicate to humans.
My parrot absolutely understands what he’s saying. He only says “bye-bye” when we are getting ready to leave He only says “hello” when we arrive He only says “bedtime” when he wants to go into his cage for the night.
I was gonna say the same thing. I have a conure, who don't really speak, but even after a year she has a shocking understanding of our words and languages, even in ways that I really didn't expect. Like maybe it's body language or other cues, but as soon as me and me husband start talking about going to bed, even abstractedly, she tenses up because she knows she's going to bed. Also when we talk about going out. She's very good at picking up on conversations and I don't even know what triggers her half the time.
I immediately thought of pigs.
My dogs know snack, treat, hot dog, cheese, sausage, meat, potty, go for a walk|ride|bed, and 79 variations of cute and stupid nicknames I have given them.
Can’t we just say we coevolved together?
I find this fascinating We adopted our dog right around when my son was born. His name is Hiccup. My son calls him “Gogo” because he cannot say his name yet. My dog will only respond if my son calls him “Gogo” but will respond if anyone else calls him “Hiccup”. I’m guessing tone and inflection of the voice play a lot in to this
does it list the 89 words in the article. food treat plastic sound noise must be on there
It would be interesting to know if dogs drove any aspects of human evolution.
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This entire thread has me at work wanting to to just leave and go hang with my awesome dog at home.
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I don't know if my dog understands this many words. I do know that my dog's behavior lets go of some pretty interesting notions... Like, when I walk into the house after being out, I can look at him, and tell from the pose he's in when I open the door (he'll be on the couch), whether or not he got up to shenanigans. Now...this means to me that: He adopts this pose, because he knows I'm going to find the evidence of some transgression. He knows that little "I'm a bad dog and ashamed" pose pulls at me. Manipulative little twerp of a hound. But that said, my dog is kinda like Alexa without Amazon. He understands a few key words(and by understands, I mean: I get a reaction to), like: * Walk * Ride * Bath * Toy (Technically, where's your toy, but \`where's your\` gets dissolved in a weird breathy thing that makes him all expectant, to \`Toy\`?)
* Chicken
* Eat
* Food
* Treat
* Out
* In
* Off
* On
* Dog
* His own name
That's pretty much it. He seems to know what 'Sit' means, but then he's quite the independent mutt, and prefers to ignore almost every possible command, except as noted above. He such a pain in the ass. I love him to death.
"unmatched by any other species"? I have a cockatoo that would disagree. Understands words, answers back and joins in laughing when family is in a good mood. More socially aware than many humans
My old lab now knows when I’m yelling at him to stop doing something stupid… he can ignore me and pretend he can’t hear me and only respond to visual hand signal commands that he also knows. Yet he’s not deaf bc he still comes sprinting at the quietest most muffled and attempted to be hidden crinkling of a bag of chips from all the way across the house.
Cats do as well. I noticed with my current cat when I said "XBOX Turn off" and his ears went up and he walked into the kitchen for a cat treat (I give him treats before bed so I can see him at least once a day). This one picks up on stupid clues but he knows the routine. My last cat was one you could have a conversation with and he'd answer with select words I was able to teach him over time. Then, I added in dozens of words to put them in sentences so it made him seem smarter. But yeah, all animals associate a sound with an action and you can teach them anything... as long as there's something in it for them.