Dog Thoughts?

Sometimes when I'm speaking, my dog perks up when he hears certain keywords, like "bath", "park", "keys", "toy", "bone", "I'll be back", "play", "wait", "look", "leash", etc.

Then, when I look at him, it often feels like I can pretty clearly see what he's thinking. And this is where the question arises. I don't know if I know what he's thinking, but not because of the actions I can almost 100% predict beforehand. Rather, I don't know that I know what he's thinking because I don't know if he thinks in English.

Do you dog owners feel like your dog thinks in your spoken language at all? If not, then what language do you feel dogs think in, if any at all?

It's a weird question, I know. But hey, this IS the weekend.

Man, i feel you.

Haha, he doesn't understand your language; but he does recognise some words that you use to communicate with him everyday. He also does understand certain gestures. Not only that, he understands if you are tensed; your body language and so on.
I wish I knew what language they speak in, though.

Toz said:

If not, then what language do you feel dogs think in, if any at all?

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I have never been a dog but I'm also interested to know

Gogol said:

he doesn't understand your language

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See, this is the part that trips me up. Since he was 4 weeks old (yes, I later learned that this was a bit young for him to join my family), I've been speaking to him. Not just the cute, cuddly, baby / pet talk, but actually talking to him almost as if he were a person. I swear I sometimes do think he understands English.

When I say "my dog perks up when he hears certain keywords", these are keywords that are in no way emphasized, and the list of such words are much, much longer than what I have listed.

So before I got my girl Stella I would have said, "nah your dog just recognizes the tone or inflection in your voice when you say certain words and responds just like he would to a bell" but I swear to you I have a connection with my dog that transcends communication. Let me give you a couple of examples:

1.When I found out the worst news of my life (not gonna get into that here) I have never felt the intensity of emotion that I felt that day but at the same time I was completely expressionless, it was a weird way of dealing with it. I literally just sat and stared at the wall on my couch and my girl would not leave my side for anything. She wouldn't stop climbing up on my lap and licking me in the face. I didn't express a single word and she started doing it the minute I heard the news on the phone. Basically the point is that she knew something was up beyond me saying or expressing something with my body language or voice.

2. Just last week we were on a walk with my daughter and we came across someone who had a new kitten. My daughter was excited so they brought the kitten over. Now if you asked anyone else in the world they'd say my dog would never hurt a fly. She's a Golden retriever/poodle mix and loves everyone and everything. For the most part that's true but when she saw this kitten she didn't do anything to change her demeanor, she just stared at it. It was about 3 feet away and the longer it was on my daughters lap the more intense I got this feeling of "yeah my dog wants to eat that". Again, no movement, no barks, just a feeling I had. So I knelt down and wrapped my arm around her neck to hold her in place just to be safe and after a couple minutes she started trying to wiggle free, very intently looking at the kitten. Would she have actually ate it? Don't know but I swear it was like I could feel her predatory instinct myself.

There are more instances but those 2 illustrate best what I'm trying to convey and that is that dogs are better than people. That is all.

Toz said:

See, this is the part that trips me up. Since he was 4 weeks old (yes, I later learned that this was a bit young for him to join my family), I've been speaking to him. Not just the cute, cuddly, baby / pet talk, but actually talking to him almost as if he were a person. I swear I sometimes do think he understands English.

When I say "my dog perks up when he hears certain keywords", these are keywords that are in no way emphasized, and the list of such words are much, much longer than what I have listed.

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what breed is your dog? I swear I read a study somewhere that smarter breeds can understand up to short sentences sometimes. Now their understanding might not be what our understanding is as humans but I can tell my dog "go lay down in your bed" and she'll stop what she's doing, get up and go into our bedroom to lay down. Could be that she recognizes the word bed but I swear she understands more than I think she does.

Jstrydor said:

what breed is your dog?

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He's a 6 year old German Shepherd.

Jstrydor said:

I can tell my dog "go lay down in your bed" and she'll stop what she's doing, get up and go into our bedroom to lay down.

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I can say this, too, but depending on how he's feeling, he may go to his bed, look at me, lay down, sigh, get up to walk over to me, and then just sit down and look at me like, "Done. Now what?"

Toz said:

See, this is the part that trips me up. Since he was 4 weeks old (yes, I later learned that this was a bit young for him to join my family), I've been speaking to him. Not just the cute, cuddly, baby / pet talk, but actually talking to him almost as if he were a person. I swear I sometimes do think he understands English.

When I say "my dog perks up when he hears certain keywords", these are keywords that are in no way emphasized, and the list of such words are much, much longer than what I have listed.

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Well man, I am no vet or scientist; but AFAIK the complexity of their brain limits how much info they can process. They are "super natural" in many things. Like smell, and eyesight; especially during night. What they lack is the complexity of being able to speak (like we do, that is). That does not make them any less intelligent. I do not own a pet dog currently because of my child, but we feed around 10 dogs a day in our locality everyday. I can recognise each of them just by their attitude. They are super intelligent.

As for recognising your voice, I would take a non qualified guess that it was about 2 things. One is your gesture, and the other one is those "keywords". It could be more. I would love to meet him.

Gogol said:

but we feed around 10 dogs a day in our locality everyday.

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This sounds pretty cool. What's it about?

Toz said:

This sounds pretty cool. What's it about?

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Street dogs

From my personal experience i can say Mine can understand some words in 3 language hindi english n turkish. But mine is mixed caucasian with obsessive nature. She understand tone specific sounds and hand gesture more.

rohit shushant said:

Mine can understand some words in 3 language hindi english n turkish

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Now THAT is impressive! 3 languages!? I really believe dogs are a lot more intelligent than most people give them credit for.

Toz said:

Now THAT is impressive! 3 languages!? I really believe dogs are a lot more intelligent than most people give them credit for.

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Yeah but as I mentioned before its just specific words. Of course, they don't talk like humans but in my opinion, they have their own ways to process. I don't think for her different words in different languages means anything but she just recognizes what will the action after those words.
Thing is the definition of intelligence is different we cannot expect pets to solve equations but they are more empathetic in understanding emotions than most humans

I believe that they feel your energy. I think it's the same thing for all animals.

The most important question we should ask is :
WHO LET THE DOGS OUT?

Mine surely understand some words.

All three of them understand some of what we say to them that applies to their lives.

Let's go to bed.
Come on, be a house brother.
Let's go to the potty.
Let's go for a walk.
Who wants to go for a ride?
Does anyone want a cookie?
Time for breakfast!
Come here, <insert their name>.
Where's the Mom?
Do you want to go up?

Are just some of the phrases they understand and react to.

rohit shushant said:

From my personal experience i can say Mine can understand some words in 3 language hindi english n turkish. But mine is mixed caucasian with obsessive nature. She understand tone specific sounds and hand gesture more.

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Precious!!!

he is always thinking of pissing my living room. that's like his whole reason to keep living after all these years.

Now ask your dog to chill & have some fun.