To think some dogs can actually pick human language?

[Bronsons]

I don’t mean the usual “come, sit, stay” stuff that most dogs can learn … I mean stuff they have never been taught but appear to have picked up like a person would pick up a language.

Im convinced my dog has picked up basic English. I can talk to her in the way id talk to a person and she seems to know exactly what I mean - obviously I don’t mean I discuss politics with her 😂 or she talks back to me etc … I’m not totally nuts …

but for example if she’s chewing her bone on a hard surface and making a racket I’ll say “move that onto the carpet Margaret” and she’ll immediately pick it up and move it onto the carpet. She’s never been taught this, I don’t even know how it happened. I’ve just gotten so used to it that when other people act surprised I’m reminded of how it maybe isn’t normal?!

Just now I was sat and she was sprawled across me but I couldn’t find the remote so I said to her “just get up a minute so I can find the remote” so she stood up, waited until I got the remote and then came back. I’ve never had a dog that seems to understand normal communication like this, my other dog doesn’t.

AIBU to think certain dogs of the intelligent kind can actually pick up the basics of a language that goes beyond “commands”?

My dog is daft as a brush.

I read this and had visions of your clever boy fetching you a G&T

Ooooh now there’s a challenge! He’s a French rescue dog so actually understands any commands in English and French.

Mmm...

Yes and no - long sentences are not really understood, however dogs can learn abstract concepts like higher/lower/left/right/bigger/smaller etc (generally not by accident though!).

So I had a dog I could ask to select the biggest of 3 objects, or get him to pick the object highest up.. but that took a lot of work.

Most dogs will understand words and short phrases they hear often that are consistently paired with an outcome that is meaningful to them.

What dogs are generally extremely good at, is picking up and adding together visual cues, body language, tone of voice and context.

Humans are generalisers, we learn something in one context, we lump it together fast and extrapolate to all contexts and miss all the nuance, and we are notoriously bad at body language, probably as a result of our detailed verbal communication.

Dogs are pretty much the opposite, context specific learners who have to learn something over and over in a variety of contexts before they can generalise 'this is the same everywhere'.

That can be annoying - the dog who has a perfect recall in the garden or training class has genuinely no fucking clue out on a field without lots of practice... but, when it comes to seeing the subtle differences and adding all the information up, it is helpful.

So in the examples given, the dog has a huge array of information telling them what is wanted, asides from the words used and particularly if being asked to move the bone or shift whilst you find the remote are common occurrences, a smart and sensitive dog would likely understand the general gist.

This is also how some dogs appear to 'know' what is happening when the owner thinks they only just thought of whatever it was they were going to do - the dog is reading a whole ton of cues that the owner isn't aware of.

we don't want a different outcome 😂

Ours knows words and phrases but I don’t think she can have a one sided conversation with me, where she is understanding everything I say.

She knows lots of words and has worked out what I would likely be asking her to do.

Bed - she would sit in it. If I asked her to bring me the bed she couldn’t do that it wouldn’t make sense as she just hears bed and knows she is meant to sit in it

objects - she knows them and will fetch them but if I asked her to put them into a random place without pointing she wouldn’t know what I was saying

any sentence with walk - she doesn’t know the context just hears walk

Dogs are clever but I don’t think they are able to understand human context to a deeper level

I cannot tell you whether your dog can comprehend or deduce language. But there is now a substantial body of research that proves that Border Collies can. It is estimated that the Border Collie has the intelligence of an average 4 year old human child, and 4 year old children can do an awful lot. Dog clearly couldn't use human language because their vocal capabilities are different from ours, but that does not mean that they cannot understand some complex verbalisations / thought processes - the evidence suggests that they can.

Weirdly, I posted something about this a few days ago on a different thread.
I've always spoken to my dogs in full sentences, not just the basic one syllable words and commands and good girl etc. We've had a multi dog & cat household and they all knew their own names and each others names. But they also seemed to have an uncanny grasp of quite complex sentences.

We've had four dogs that were clever and one bitch that stands out as our Mensa child. The current pup seems to be Mensa child number two - she's only 9 months old but already understands a lot of words and phrases.

I'm a great believer in talking properly to pets; I don't do babytalk but I speak to them as if they are human adults. The more you talk to them, the more they learn. I think talking to them creates a deeper bond so I'll carry on doing it and I really don't care if people think it's stupid. I like holding a conversation with my dog.

If you choose only to teach them basic words and commands, that's all they'll learn, but some of them have the potential for so much more.

My golden retriever will go and find family members and other pets by name around the house. If I say, go and find dd, she will run to wherever she is etc.

If I tell her to get a toy, I can tell her to get a specific one (mr dinosaur or mr cow), and she will find that one.

If I see a squirrel run up a tree on a walk, she understands, “don’t even fucking think about it” and will walk next to me huffing and puffing about it 🤣

I’ve always talked to my dogs and cats like they are humans. I’m alone with my dog all day when everyone else is at work or school so I chat to her while she sits with me or follows me around the house.

My favourite was a family friend’s dog who would lie on the bed with us all and watch TV.

“Can’t see, Roger” and he would put his head down to the side.
”Still can’t see, Roger” and he’d shift to the other side of the bed.

Great dog. Collie/lab cross.

Yes we had a dog who "learned to spell" W-A-L-K too! She would get stupidly excited at the mention of the word "walk" or "lead" and start jumping and barking, so my mum started spelling the word and before long she recognised that too.

Some dogs are much cleverer and more biddable than others. If a dog can follow commands and know their own name, it's certainly possible for some dogs to learn the meaning of certain other words or simple sentences. Though I appreciate the "words" are just "sounds" to them.

Yes, I think they definitely understand a lot more than we think. I read a study not long ago that said that very young human babies understand language earlier than what we realise too.

I think this with my dog, I said the other day 'what's that smell?' and he immediately started sniffing the air 😳😂

Reminded me of this

My old collie cross knew lots of words and phrases even if not directed at her. My current Jack Russell responds more to our behaviour and actions such as knowing whether I'm taking her out or not by what I'm wearing.

Clever and biddable isn't the same thing though. The most intelligent dog we had was also the least biddable. She questioned everything, always had the last word but was incredibly bright, interested, alert, just a joy to talk for a walk. She was amazing, but obedient and programmable? No, not in the least.

I agree that clever and biddable are different but some dogs are both (or not), as are children 🤣

Asolutely and cats and probably the animals too.

Have you seen the videos on Instagram where people have buttons their dogs and cats push to communicate? Quite amazing.

That is also nonsense and as unscientific as the Bunnie videos.

I agree that the Bunnie videos are full of cognitive and confirmation bias but so is her suggestion without evidence that the videos are deliberately edited or set up to show what Bunnie’s owner wants 🙄

For a biologist and scientist, she uses language very loosely and inaccurately… I can pull apart her argument if you want eg she quotes a study where trained service dogs were given conflicting verbal and physical commands (ie they were told to sit but given the sign for lie down). They followed the physical command over the verbal command. You can’t conclude anything of relevance to the question of whether dogs can understand language from that experiment, can you?

Bunnie might not be “talking” but she is communicating using “words” and has learnt that specific sounds represent things and actions. Just probably not to the extent that her owner believes and her “understanding” of a specific word might not be the same as her owner’s 😂 Has she learnt that “potty” means going to the loo and “outside” means “outside” or are they interchangeable to her as they both result in going outside. Is she using potty because she has learnt she definitely gets to go outside when she uses it whereas outside doesn’t always result in getting to go outside, or is she lying?

OP’s question was can dogs learn “words” (or sounds) mean things independently of being trained by us. Yes, they can.

Sometimes our dogs are training us, too. My last dog learned to bang the cat flap if she wanted us to let her out for a pee. Or rather, we learned she wanted to go for a pee when she banged the cat flap.

My cocker spaniel understands lots. Sometimes I feel she can read my mind. I've only got to think about going out without her and she goes to her bed and settles down for a snooze.

My spaniel knows the commands for having a wee or a poo, to get a drink, all sorts- I feel as if we are in synch or she is one step ahead. I'm used to smart dogs as my last was a Jack Russell, so it surprises me that my friend's Shi Tzuh, whilst no slouch, operates at a much simpler level.

Is your dog actually called Margaret? Because if she is, I applaud you 👏

Yes defo, they communicate, don't know how but they do, with each other and with some humans who can tune into them.

I'm sure those who have cats etc would say similar too.

Animals really aren't the dumb ones.

Oh my greyhounds are covering their ears 🤣