Does Your Dog Know English?

As acute as a dog’s hearing is, we ought to give them a little more credit for understanding our language. We know we can teach our dogs verbal commands, but many dogs learn to understand words we haven’t purposely taught them. We may find ourselves saying, “Let’s go for a walk” as we pick up the leash. The dog first associates the leash with the promise of going for a walk. He may also pick up on the word “walk” without his owner making a move toward the door or picking up the leash.

Astute owners who notice their dog’s linguistic talent have tried to develop it further by teaching words rather than commands. Some dogs are able to find their ball when the owner says, “Where’s your ball?” Some dogs appear to have an extensive vocabulary and can follow detailed directions like, “go to my desk and bring me my pen.” While this ability astounds dog owners, and anyone watching, scientists have tested dogs who show such prowess, and the findings are less or more impressive, depending upon how you look at it.

Dogs can learn many words, without a doubt, especially names of objects or commands. But to follow more complex directions, dogs rely on other skills. According to Stanley Coren in How to Speak Dog, a dog will listen to your words, and watch your subtle, even subconscious body language, and then add his most reasonable guess to figure out what you want him to do.

In How to Speak Dog, to test the theory that dogs rely more on our body language than words, a dog was told to go to one place, but the person speaking glanced in a different direction. The dog always went to where the person was looking. Dogs may never have a complete command of our spoken language, but their ability and interest in listening to our words and observing our body language in order to do what we ask of them, to ultimately please us, is really truly impressive.

Source: Yahoo! Pets