Dogs don’t understand everything
Despite the fact that many people claim that their dog understands everything, and that the only thing missing is talking. The reality is that dogs, despite having impressive communication skills with humans, do not get everything “by heart”.
They identify specific words within our conversations
Dogs are able to identify words they know, even if they are said within a long sentence. For example, if I tell my dog: “Now we are going to eat something very tasty”, he will quickly pick up the word eat and will be very happy.
To achieve this, science has proven that dogs activate the same mechanisms in their brains as babies when separating the boundaries between two different words within the same sentence.
Dogs learn less than a hundred words
Except for exceptional cases of dogs that have been able to learn hundreds of words and concepts, such as the famous, Rico and Chaiser, most dogs learn few words throughout their lives.
But the curious thing is that they learn them even without prior training.
By simple observation and association, dogs pick up words and their meaning.
This is how it happens, like my sisters-in-law who live in Palma de Mallorca, they cannot say in front of their dog Waku , that they are going to the beach. Well, she is entering a state of madness, which is highly tricked if she does not finally accompany them.
they like the familiar
Studies have shown that dogs respond better when spoken to in a familiar language.
tone is important
Science has also shown how dogs respond better to commands they already know when given the “order” in a friendly tone.
They are not good at details
However, they are not good at phonetic details. Thus they would not differentiate between accents or with nonsense words that sound similar to others that do. For example, a dog will respond exactly the same if I say feel as if I say “sit”. Well, you won’t be able to differentiate the hue.
Train with long or short words?
It certainly doesn’t matter, because your dog will grasp the syllables and will be able to understand that it is useful or adds value, within the word or phrase that you are using.
Now, the more similar the different words that you want to teach him, the more complicated you will be making it, becoming even impossible to differentiate.
For example, if you intend to teach a dog to turn around with the command turn, and open a drawer with the command pull, it will be very difficult for him to differentiate between the two words.
This does not mean that it is not capable of differentiating the order, since dogs are also very skilled in contextualization. For this reason, if in the presence of a drawer I tell it to turn, possibly it will open it.
Clarity is the most important
When it comes to communicating with dogs, clarity and coherence are the most important things to make us understand.
Dogs are great observers of our nonverbal language and can easily pick up any clues through our cues.
In addition, it has been found that people who speak clearly in a sufficiently loud and clear tone will be better able to capture their dog’s attention and therefore elicit their dog’s response.
This is why many trainers say that when a dog pays attention to you, the prior idea that you have of whether this will happen is very important. Obviously, if you believe it, your tone when asking for something and your attitude will show a certainty that will bring clarity to your faithful friend.
Referencias:
Dalibard, G. H. 2009. Parameters influencing service dogs’ quality of response to commands: Retrospective study of 71 dogs. Journal of Veterinary Behavior, 4(1), 19-24.
Magyari, L., el al. 2020. Event-related potentials reveal limited readiness to access phonetic details during word processing in dogs. Royal Society open science, 7(12), 200851.
Reeve, C., & Jacques, S. 2022. Responses to spoken words by domestic dogs: A new instrument for use with dog owners. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 246, 105513.
