Talking away at your dog - is it counterproductive?

[AtlasPine]

Do you think chatting away to your dog is confusing or counterproductive? I do this all the time but have started wondering if it makes it harder for the dog to separate out the words he knows from what must feel like gobbledegook he may think he’s supposed to understand. He head tilts at me a lot.

And perhaps I should only speak when it’s a clear message - time for a walk now, you can jump up on here etc. which he does understand.

[quote fairylightsandwaxmelts]@AtlasPine they are remarkably clever, though mine definitely chooses when he wants to listen and when he doesn't [/quote]
I can fully believe that!

@Dancingonmoonlight

I chat when I’m alone with our dog but in the past couple of weeks, he has been trying (presumably?) to talk back as he sits right in front of me and barks and yelps. Tbh I’m finding it very annoying now. It’s like having one of the children constantly saying ‘mum’ ‘mum’ ‘mum’. He does it throughout tv programmes too to the extent I tend to say goodnight far earlier than I want to, just to escape upstairs as he settles down to bed when I’m not there.

I don’t want to have to bring my laptop upstairs though.

For that reason I wouldn’t encourage chatting.

If anyone has any advice how to stop the incessant chat from my dog, I’d be grateful to hear.

I started by saying "talk,talk,talk" with an opening and closing hand signal commonly used for talking and then introduced "stop" with a flat hand moving from left to right. Now I can say "stop" and use the hand signal and my dog will stop "talking".

Let me know if this helps.

This is the type of conversation we have

Me: what do you think of insert some news worthy item?

Him: don't know cause I'm a dog

Me: don't do that otherwise your dad will be annoyed with me if you injure yourself.

Him: get lost mum I'm having fun

The worst part is I forget sometimes that other people can hear me when I am out

I follow a lady on Instagram who uses buttons on the floor to communicate with her dog. The dog presses a button and it says walk or outside or eat or love! The videos are fascinating the dog can express herself so well. It's made me realise my dog is often trying to tell me something and I try to have more of a dialogue with her now. Hunger4words on Instagram

Interesting thread.

I wonder if it gives a (bright) dog something to think about? I talked to and for my now dead dog all her life but she was too dopey to worry, I think it was a warm stream of love to her.

Anyway I wonder if your dogs go to bed pondering on what it all means!

I also think they would rather have a mildly confusing owner like the OP, who obviously adores them and considers them, at the price of being talked with, than some arse who never talks to them and isn't as funny or kind.

Finally I think as dogs communicate with each other all the time, they must have some kind of intake capability for communication, a kind of chronic tolerance for being in dialogue. Her head tilt is probably "you think so, do you? S'not what I've heard."

I talk and sing to my dogs constantly. I think they might find me smothering. My girl dog prefers me and my boy dog prefers DH but he doesn't talk and sing like I do to them

I always think the frenetic interest in pee sniffing on the way to the park is a sort of social media for dogs! This pee may mean - ‘that damn squirrel is still in the beech tree by the gates. He laughed at me. Please bark at him.’

Dogs coevolved with humans and are the only animal to innately understand pointing. So I think they probably like us chatting to them
vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/eavesdropping-dogsdo-dogs-understand-our-conversations#:~:text=The%20scientists%20monitored%20the%20dogs,the%20right%20side%20interprets%20intonation.&text=This%20illustrates%20the%20dog's%20uncanny%20ability%20to%20learn%20words%20independent%20of%20intonation.

I have a border collie cross and he definitely listens and understands when I'm talking. If I'm telling my partner what I've been up to an mention him he'll wag his tail so he's obviously listening. It reminds me of when babies start turning to their name.

Mine also knows the other people in the family. If you say "where's Jo" he'll go and look for them.

Collies are the cleverest dogs.

Mine is clever,maybe I am stealth boasting

You’re allowed to with dogs because their intelligence isn’t down to your genes.

Our veterinary behaviourist told me to stop talking to ddog because he can't understand and it increases his anxiety ... Dp said he knows the feeling

It's hard though!

I think it depends on the dog. One of mine tries so hard to understand what I am saying it drives him nuts and he is on edge. Another one just comes and puts his head on my lap and listens to the chatter wagging his tail. Dogs generally pick up on our communcation methods pretty quickly and will know when we are cueing them or just nattering.

I am doing research into the starter buttons katienana interesting but also do we want to communicate in a "human" way or is it better for us to learn the dogs way of communciating. It has already got theoretical and divisive!

Although my dogs will happily press a button that says ball if they want it thrown or press the food button if they want a treat (but to be honest I pretty much know their choice anyway!)

@TheChestertons

Our veterinary behaviourist told me to stop talking to ddog because he can't understand and it increases his anxiety ... Dp said he knows the feeling

It's hard though!

🤣😂🤣😂

Ah I never thought of confusing them by chatting to them. My dog definitely understands things like "we're going to nanny's house today to see the doggys" (mum has 2 dogs) she also understands things like "where's dd?shall we go and pick dd up from school?" As she'll go sit by the door wagging her tail and then knows which direction to walk to school, which bit of the road we cross at etc they are so clever at picking stuff up.

However I could say anything random (not exciting) to her in an excited tone and she gets excited so sometimes it must just be the tone of voice that they anticipate you are talking about something good!

When I am giving a cue or command though I think I do use a different tone (sometimes a gesture too) and usually use her name first so I know she's focusing on me, followed by what I want her to do. So I'm sure she knows the difference between when I'm just talking not expecting her to do anything and when I am...

I don't have a dog right now (not by choice!) but when I did I'd natter away, but avoid things like 'walk, dinner, go out, beach, bed & car otherwise they thought something exciting was about to happen.

I talk to inanimate objects too though, so no way could I not talk to a pet!!

My dogs don't confuse my random chat with their commands, probably because of the tone and the shorter sharper words.
They like being sung to and told that they are horrible dogs.
We've always added signs to words, which proved invaluable when my old boy went stone deaf. We made sure to include a sign for “good boy”

Take your point about talking to inanimate objects, JugglingJanuary!

Dogs really love the companionship, too.

@certainshepherdpups

I have always talked to my dogs a lot. I don’t think they find it confusing or distressing, though sometimes they seem to be trying to work out exactly what I’m on about.

I also sing to them. With my last dog I often sang my own version of a hymn called “A Mighty Fortress is our God” with revised lyrics beginning “A mighty puppy is our dog.” I sing a song based on his name to my current puppy. The dogs have never objected to my (not exactly brilliant) singing voice.

I sing to our puppy too but it’s a bit less fancy than a hymn, it’s a modified song from the Big Bang Theory 😂. We talk to him constantly.

I tend not to say any words I know he understands unless it’s actually happening, so I wouldn’t say, that was a nice walk wasn’t it, as all he would understand is walk, and bolt to the door. I don’t say peoples names to him unless they are about to come in as he goes to look for them.

I do however ramble shit to him all day and he just cuddles up to me without a care in the world.

@AtlasPine

Also the slow blinking

Absolutely. Same way I apparently do an eyebrows thing for dogs and a little dip of the head if they approach.

If dogs can be as smart as small children, you have to speak to them. You don't ignore a toddler other than FOOD BED NO because there's no point in confusing them, do you?

Just looked up the eyebrow thing - realised I do it subconsciously, probably shadowing the dog’s eyebrow language anyway.

Will try the head dip.

That's what I find most fascinating about the whole human/dog coevolution - as much as they've evolved to understand us we've evolved to understand them and most people (except those who are scared I guess) "talk dog" without really realising

@TheChestertons

Our veterinary behaviourist told me to stop talking to ddog because he can't understand and it increases his anxiety ... Dp said he knows the feeling

It's hard though!

This made me laugh. 🤣🤣🤣