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Dogs DO NOT understand language

imo, dogs understand much more than some give credit.



"Dog owners have long argued that their pets can understand what they are saying, and now science has proven them correct.
A new study has shown that dogs use the left hemisphere of their brain to process the meaning of words, and their right side to work out the intonation – exactly the same way humans process language.
It means that dogs can pick up when their owners are not being consistent in their language and tone."

"Dogs do care about what we say and how we say it, and the mechanism is very similar to that of humans. Dogs can also tell apart word meaning and word intonation.”

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/science...hat-we-say-and-how-we-say-it-scientists-find/

Neural mechanisms for lexical processing in dogs | Science
 
It was an easy test to administer.

Tell your dog, in a loving voice:

Aww, you're such an asshole, I'm going to chop your head off and then put the rest of your body in a wood chipper, you're such a bad doggie!
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Dog wags its tail with its tongue hanging out.

Then in a stern, angry voice, yell:

You're the greatest dog in the world! You're a GOOD DOG!! I'm going to take you for a walk and give you lots of treats.
Good dog!!
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Dog cowers and tucks its tail between its legs and shudders.

Thing is, the dog CAN understand individual key words like cookie, toy, walk, out, poo poo, go-for-a-ride, dinner, sit, speak...they do have a minimally functional "vocabulary" of at least a few dozen words, which are "sounds" that they are trained to associate with things which are important to them.

For a DOG, that IS "language" because for a DOG, that's as far as it gets.
So, if a scientific study is claiming that they cannot understand a sentence, it's nothing new.
They can't because their own means of communication consists of single sounds.

The real question for science is, can humans understand "Dog"?
Some of you know that dogs make a sneezy/snorty noise when they're excited, usually followed by a vigorous shaking of the head. That snorty sneeze is the dog equivalent of "!!!"

You've also heard your dog make a whining noise that ends with an ascending note, which is the dog equivalent of "???"
They also make a whine that sounds a lot like a two year old when they are frustrated.
And of course the various grunts and growls, which for them represent "complex" meanings linked to certain actions and behaviors. A lot of this is associated with body posturing, which for a dog is perhaps more complex than auditory communication.

Now go query a Husky. Huskies are known to possess a more complex set of sounds that they use to communicate with their owners.



It's still not language as we define it but in the dog world, that's a doctoral degree in public speaking. ;)
 
Bodhisattva said:
https://ethology.eu/do-dogs-understand-what-we-say/

Dogs do not understand English or any other human-created language. They do understand words (or rather, sounds) in any language.

Sorry... dogs do not understand language, as I have always said.
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Dogs understand " sounds", and know what those "sounds" mean...that is EXACTLY what "words" are.

Der...glad none of my taxmoney was wasted on this nonsense.
 
Deuce said:
I'm not sure what distinction is being made here. They understand words, but not language. Language is words. Is there some group of people out there arguing dogs speak english fluently or some ****?
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Some people anthropomorphize their pets to the extent that they think their complex ideas are understood by them. It's pretty comical.
 
Crosscheck said:
All dogs are therapy dogs.
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...said the lady whose dog was humping my leg in the restaurant. What this world needs is more humans that can function as humans without the need for a lesser species to remain in their company at all times to build up their confidence. It's really pretty sad.
 
azgreg said:
My dog speaks to me in fluent Spanish but I don't speak Spanish so I'm not sure what she's saying.
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I speak to my older lady cat only in Spanish. ;)
 
Bodhisattva said:
They associate sounds and stimulus response... not the actual word or its meaning.
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When I give my dog a command in English, it obeys the command. My wife can give the same command in Russian and it obeys the command.

My dog is obviously bilingual.
 
At the rate of decline of American understanding of the English language I would not be sporting about denigrating dog understanding or dog correlation to action be it a response or not. As a group we have fallen at least half way to where they are and still going! We have allowed so much lazy substitution that meanings have become blurred to the point where you can barely have a debate of any merit or even a discussion that does not break down into meaningless blather.

As long as "YOU" the human in the dog/human equation don't confuse your dog, he gets along just fine on what he has. We on the other hand are going in entirely the wrong direction and already don't get along just fine on what we have.....quite obviously.
 
Acadia said:
That's OK. Me and my dogs communicate just fine.
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So does mine. She can be laying on the couch and i can just say you need outside and she comes running wanting outside.
 
Bodhisattva said:
https://ethology.eu/do-dogs-understand-what-we-say/

Dogs do not understand English or any other human-created language. They do understand words (or rather, sounds) in any language.

Sorry... dogs do not understand language, as I have always said.
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Dogs rely on much more than just words. Because the dogs go nuts whenever the wife and I talk about taking them for a walk, we've tried to change-up our discussion, using code words and such. It never works. They pick up on our "tells": how we look at each other, certain movements, etc.; then they go nuts.
 
Of course dogs understand language, don't be silly. I have also seen my dog use reason on occassion. Dogs are much better than people. Too bad we can't trade dogs for liberals.
 
Can the OP please explain why dog trainers use foreign words for training certain types of dogs?

I mean a trainer in the US might use German words for commands as a bad guy would not know that dog understands German commands.

Also I think Checkerboard is right, Oh I hate saying that, about the tone of voice.

Even as a kid, I would experiment with the word bath with our little dog saying it with a loving voice and with a stern voice.

That same word elicited different responses depending on the tone of my voice.

Also for the record, I do understand dog language, as a lot of my neighbors did at my old house.

I had let my pack of dogs roam the streets late at night until about 2 or 3 in the morning.

You could tell from the tone of the barking if they were playing, or there was an actual threat close by.

Neighbors told me they would use those barks to alert them if there was something going on outside their house that shouldn't have been going on.

One more thing. Can the OP please tell me how this is political discussion?
 
Bodhisattva said:
I said that they do not understand what words mean... not that we can not communicate.
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Meaningless distinction

A dog can be taught to relate to many different sounds. The specific ones do not matter as long as they are consistent. If the dog was taught the sound of saying bleach means to sit, or pound meant going outside for a walk, when the dog hears those sound it will understand what they sounds mean and potentially react accordingly.

I doubt anyone was expecting that we could read a newspaper to a dog and have the dog understand the words, or what was written. But it is clear that dogs can understand what certain words mean, and what is an expected response.
 
Mr Person said:
Level of understanding is the distinction.

Can they learn a system of words such that they can combine new words to express thoughts? Well, that obviously can't be tested. But what can is whether you can teach them certain words then combine them to make new meanings, and see if they behave in a way that suggests understanding.




The point is that basic pavlovian (sp?) conditioning only really relies on the animal associating a specific stimulus with a specific thing or set of things. If a dog knows that when it hears the sound that saying "sit" makes and ends up associating that with sitting down via treats or whatever other training, that doesn't rise to the level of understanding language.

Granted, their inability to speak makes testing things hard but I see no reason to conclude that one could teach a dog to understand English such that it might understand a lecture on the many different ways various cultures think people should sit to be polite. You just get: if that thing makes that noise, I do this physical act.
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Exactly. Dogs do not understand context, have no concept of syntax, have no concept of a cultural connection among other things. Dogs do not understand human language. However they can and do understand basic human communication, to a point.

One of my dogs is able to communicate with me at a very basic level.

One long snort means he just walked into the room and wants us to know he is present. He doesn't do it every time but rather when the house is quiet, when we've been sitting for a while reading or whatever and he's been out of the room for a while. A long snort and he stands there until you look at him. "Hello, I'm back. Just in case you wanted to give me a treat or something." :)

Two snorts mean that he is comfortable and content. This communication occurs when he is lying down - not asleep. Not every time but on dog appropriate occasions to the point and time that it is almost predictable.

Four snorts mean that he is frustrated or disappointed. Usually the reason is obvious, as are the resulting four snorts.

There are a few words we have to spell (or sign) around him as he WILL respond to the words even out of context. We communicate but we don't share a language.

Another one of our dogs is deaf. D-E-A-F. She cannot hear anything. She was born deaf. We adopted her because she was deaf. She is very bright. Very perceptive. We sign to her. She responds to the signs she knows. Because she is extremely visually oriented she follows us everywhere, all the time, wherever we go, no matter how frequently. She is of course then very aware of our behaviors.

Interestingly, if we look directly at her and talk without signing she reacts or acknowledges our attempt to communicate with her. Likely it is the response to a combination of visual inputs, such as facial expression and mouth movements during direct eye contact among a number of factors such as her activity at the time, the time of day, etc.

If she is outside after dark and we want her to come in we turn the outdoors lights on and off twice. Within 20 seconds she blasts through the doggie door. Of course I trained her to do that. The other dogs observed the signal and response and now they all come in when the outside light flashes. LOL.

Stimulus = response. It is communication but it is not language.
 
Risky Thicket said:
Exactly. Dogs do not understand context, have no concept of syntax, have no concept of a cultural connection among other things. Dogs do not understand human language. However they can and do understand basic human communication, to a point.

One of my dogs is able to communicate with me at a very basic level.

One long snort means he just walked into the room and wants us to know he is present. He doesn't do it every time but rather when the house is quiet, when we've been sitting for a while reading or whatever and he's been out of the room for a while. A long snort and he stands there until you look at him. "Hello, I'm back. Just in case you wanted to give me a treat or something." :)

Two snorts mean that he is comfortable and content. This communication occurs when he is lying down - not asleep. Not every time but on dog appropriate occasions to the point and time that it is almost predictable.

Four snorts mean that he is frustrated or disappointed. Usually the reason is obvious, as are the resulting four snorts.

There are a few words we have to spell (or sign) around him as he WILL respond to the words even out of context. We communicate but we don't share a language.

Another one of our dogs is deaf. D-E-A-F. She cannot hear anything. She was born deaf. We adopted her because she was deaf. She is very bright. Very perceptive. We sign to her. She responds to the signs she knows. Because she is extremely visually oriented she follows us everywhere, all the time, wherever we go, no matter how frequently. She is of course then very aware of our behaviors.

Interestingly, if we look directly at her and talk without signing she reacts or acknowledges our attempt to communicate with her. Likely it is the response to a combination of visual inputs, such as facial expression and mouth movements during direct eye contact among a number of factors such as her activity at the time, the time of day, etc.

If she is outside after dark and we want her to come in we turn the outdoors lights on and off twice. Within 20 seconds she blasts through the doggie door. Of course I trained her to do that. The other dogs observed the signal and response and now they all come in when the outside light flashes. LOL.

Stimulus = response. It is communication but it is not language.
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a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures, or marks having understood meanings
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https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/language
How you and your dogs are communicating is a language
 
Grokmaster said:
Der...glad none of my taxmoney was wasted on this nonsense.
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I work for the government...

Dogs understand " sounds", and know what those "sounds" mean...that is EXACTLY what "words" are.
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Sounds are not what words... and they simply respond to sounds... they don't know what they mean.
 
nota bene said:
My fave Gary Larson of all time is "Blah, blah...Ginger!"
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I have all the Far Side Gallaery's.... there are a lot with dogs but another great one is when the dog is getting a meal and it says:

"Oh Boy! Dog food again!"
 
calamity said:
Dogs rely on much more than just words. Because the dogs go nuts whenever the wife and I talk about taking them for a walk, we've tried to change-up our discussion, using code words and such. It never works. They pick up on our "tells": how we look at each other, certain movements, etc.; then they go nuts.
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You should not always be holding the leash in your hand then...
 
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