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Can dogs understand when we talk to them?

ElectroVibe

ElectroVibe

Inactive
Mar 2, 2013
4,136
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#1
How well do you think dogs can really understand human speech. Growing up we always had a dog, along with several cats. I never once thought to use the dog by communicating with him.

Yet I've noticed several times in books and film where this is done as if it's normal. And this is not something corny like Lassie or some children's story.

What do you think?
 
#2
To an extent, they can understand some basic components of human speech, but to a far greater extent, humans tend to project wishful thinking onto all kinds of things - particularly pets. Two recent takes on the subject below, with links to the studies underlying them included in the bodies of the articles:

Dogs don't understand human speech as well as we think they do, brain scans reveal

[Invalid or Expired Link Removed]
 
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#3
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upload_2022-2-9_10-24-6.gif
 
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#5
I'm sure that dogs can read our thoughts.
For example, when I go to the kitchen just to clean a plate, my two Saluki boys just continue to sleep on the sofa. But when I only think about going to the fridge and get something to eat, before I even move, they jump up and hop to the door, waiting for me with broad smiles and wagging tails.
Otherwise they understand what they want to understand. This breed is more like cats in fact.
 
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#7
Tari said:
I'm sure that dogs can read our thoughts.
For example, when I go to the kitchen just to clean a plate, my two Saluki boys just continue to sleep on the sofa. But when I only think about going to the fridge and get something to eat, before I even move, they jump up and hop to the door, waiting for me with broad smiles and wagging tails.
Otherwise they understand what they want to understand. This breed is more like cats in fact.
Click to expand...

I also have evidence that they can read our minds.
 
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#8
I believe dogs are sentient...they can pick up visual cues on what we're feeling. They don't understand words per say, but they can pick up on audio cues as well. Things like tone, and inflection. I've heard that dogs and cats respond to their names better if they end in a vowel sound because it's easier to pick up on them. Whatever the case, my dog is pretty awesome, and she "gets" her people.
josie.jpg
 
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#11
One time a dog was barking at my friend, until I told the owner who my friend was. I've done several things like this in order to calm down a dog.

Another time I saw the dog get up from his sleep and stare at me a moment after a particular thought came to my head that would have affected him.
 
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#13
ElectroVibe said:
How well do you think dogs can really understand human speech. Growing up we always had a dog, along with several cats. I never once thought to use the dog by communicating with him.

Yet I've noticed several times in books and film where this is done as if it's normal. And this is not something corny like Lassie or some children's story.

What do you think?
Click to expand...
Varies dog to dog but yes they can. Some dogs have larger vocabularies than others.

I have one now that not only can understand a lot of words, but he also 'talks' with a wide variety of sounds.
 
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#15
Yes, I believe they can. As someone who has owned a dog the majority of my life, like many others, I can confirm it to be true.
I think where it gets sideways for some folks is they randomly speak to their dog in unfamiliar terms, or they rapid fire commands and terms that are contradictory, thus confusing the dog. The dog understands, it's just receiving mixed signals from the owner. Dogs are also like humans in the sense that they too can and will choose what they listen to.
As another mentioned, dogs are good at discerning what we're thinking and doing. With our last dog, all I had to do was reach for the shelf where her leash was hanging and her tail would start wagging. When she realized I wasn't getting her leash, the wagging stopped and I got 'the look' until I gave in and took her for a walk. :D

-Mike
 
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#18
Also noteworthy that this is a human-made species that has been at our sides for thousands of years.

The "dumb" ones have been bred out, basically. The more astute of the species have been kept and used to produce more offspring. Thousands of generations of "pick of the litter" later and here we are.

I think I read somewhere that research says something between 20 and 100 words is fairly common for dogs to to understand.

So, to a degree I think that they can understand language. But also they have been with us almost as long as we have been us. They don't exactly have hundreds of thousands of years of genetic memory working against them either. We still have our lizard brains, and they their wolf brains. They don't, however, have the wild-heart genetics that wolves or other canids like hyenas have. Those traits have been bred out. Notice few wolves are truly domesticated. Even fewer hyenas. Probably NO other canids could be more than "trained" and surely not domesticated as pets.

Dogs are very pliable and teachable. For the most part, they are around humans from birth. They learn to read us and figure out our behaviors. We show our teeth and it's positive... they learn that. What does it mean when a dog shows their teeth? How many cats even grasp the concept when we point to something? Dogs get it.

Anyway that's my "watch a lot of tv" thoughts from my think-im -sciencey- brain.

Carry on.
 
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#20
basscooker said:
Also noteworthy that this is a human-made species that has been at our sides for thousands of years.

The "dumb" ones have been bred out, basically. The more astute of the species have been kept and used to produce more offspring. Thousands of generations of "pick of the litter" later and here we are.

I think I read somewhere that research says something between 20 and 100 words is fairly common for dogs to to understand.

So, to a degree I think that they can understand language. But also they have been with us almost as long as we have been us. They don't exactly have hundreds of thousands of years of genetic memory working against them either. We still have our lizard brains, and they their wolf brains. They don't, however, have the wild-heart genetics that wolves or other canids like hyenas have. Those traits have been bred out. Notice few wolves are truly domesticated. Even fewer hyenas. Probably NO other canids could be more than "trained" and surely not domesticated as pets.

Dogs are very pliable and teachable. For the most part, they are around humans from birth. They learn to read us and figure out our behaviors. We show our teeth and it's positive... they learn that. What does it mean when a dog shows their teeth? How many cats even grasp the concept when we point to something? Dogs get it.

Anyway that's my "watch a lot of tv" thoughts from my think-im -sciencey- brain.

Carry on.
Click to expand...
That's always my first thought when someone wants to get a dog that has some 'lupus' in it; why do you want the throw away millions of years of evolution?
 

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