Vocabulary

I am always amazed at the amount of words Katy understands My Oh's boss says they know by the tone of voice, but his run as a pack at home!! We can be having a conversation & Katy will butt in with an excited expression!! One of us will mention dinner & she will look at me with intent, our postie is called Vince, we cant say his name without her barking, looking for him. So we can now not say mince or fence as it has the same effect  We now have to spell certain words!! If we have to call for one of her friends, I only have to say their name & she will go straight to their house
How do your furbabies respond to words?

I'm in total agreement with how clever they are Jen. Though my Flo can't hear she will see our expressions and know exactly what they mean. Now I don't mean we make funny faces or anything but if we look at her and then the front door she will immediately go and see who's there.

When it comes to that last trip outside at night all I have to do is wake her, nod towards the back door and she gets up and goes

Oh im so with you guys there!! Here are the things we cant say ...

Do you want a (no need for anymore words hes ready for a walk!!!!)
Bath (runs and hides)
Ride in the truck (races out for a drive)
Where's your (races to garage for boomer ball)
Want this (expects a treat)
Mummy
Daddy (looks for us)
Whos there (barks at front door)

Im sure theres plenty more

Wait for it... Mrs Geek here... I looked into this a lot when I was working with horses and I think the way dogs understand our words is similar. Dogs are more vocal communicators than horses so they do learn words more easily and do have a vocabulary in their own way, but the don't understand us as we understand each other.

I think dogs learn to associate sounds with consequences quite well. So if Katy hears 'Vince' and each time sees someone who makes her happy or gives her a treat, she'll get excited the same way Nola goes nuts when she sees Postie Sue's van, even if not driven by Postie Sue.

It is the sound and the way we say it that they learn, though, rather than the actual word. If you said 'mince' in the same way at the right time you'd probably get the same reaction. Our old retiever, Mungo, was also known as Puppy Dog. We used to call him that as a second name. One day I was watching telly and someone made a really stupid statement, to which I exclaimed 'poppycock!' - Mung came running!

Equally, if you say the right word in the wrong way it often won't work. If you say 'where's you hammer' to Koda in a deadpan way while standing in the living room, you probably won't get the same reaction as 'where's you're...' said excitedly while you look at the garage.

Ian's hit the nail on the head. Flo can't even hear the words but he still gets the same reaction, because what dogs do so much better than understand words is read our body language. We're useless as self awareness so don't realise how much we say with our bodies, and equally just how brilliant animals are at reading us. If you find this sort of thing interesting, read up about Clever Hans, a famous German horse who was able to read body movements people didn't even know they were making

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans

That's why animals are just so brilliant at communicating without words where we are so dulled by our reliance of words. And how they sometimes seem to know what we are thinking!

mia can count to ten spell biscuit, walk, out ive even taught the guide dog out though he isnt meant to know this word his word for the toilet is busy busy mia kniws when shes been naughty I call her a wee s£&()e but I regularly call her chicken leg turkey leg woofy woofles hen lamb choppy harry hoofter puppy doggy surprised she kens her name tbh

Yes Liz I can agree in some respects but when we are discussing dinner she can be semi asleep on the floor facing away from us & she will sit up immediately if we mention chicken or mince in a normal conversation!
We never say Vince in a excited way as we already have a postie asbo
I can no longer ignore OH when he calls out to me, either Jen or my nickname as Katy will come dashing out to me & I know he has shouted for me
Yes we can say are you coming in the truck or does Katy want *** she will react to that, but in normal conversation she can react as well

LizP wrote:

Ian's hit the nail on the head. Flo can't even hear the words but he still gets the same reaction, because what dogs do so much better than understand words is read our body language. We're useless as self awareness so don't realise how much we say with our bodies, and equally just how brilliant animals are at reading us. If you find this sort of thing interesting, read up about Clever Hans, a famous German horse who was able to read body movements people didn't even know they were making

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans

That's why animals are just so brilliant at communicating without words where we are so dulled by our reliance of words. And how they sometimes seem to know what we are thinking!

I agree, I think our dogs pick up far more than we realise through body language. A nervous owner will often transfer that feeling to their dog without even realising it where as a confident person will have much better interaction. When I finally persuaded my OH to let Flo get past situations by letting her do what she needed to, I.E walk around that pack, my OH eventually relaxed and now Flo looks at her for reassurance without hesitation and no adverse nervous reaction from Flo.

I agree its both - tone/actions and words. Koda def knows 'ball' means boomer ball no matter what context/tone its said in, same with walk and bath for sure. Love him!

Milo knows the names of certain toys like bicky ball or boomer and will look for them and bring them to me or in the case of the boomer just stares at it lol

Gizmo gets totally over-excited if someone says ''vets'' because he's in love with one of the nurses. 'stairs' (we're a basement flat so if we say stairs it means we're going walk)
Various dogs names make him super-hyped with delight too.