do dogs really understand what you are saying?

Answer 1

They learn words and phrases. If I tell my guy to "go look out the window", he does. If I tell him to "put your butt on the floor", he does. He knows the words hungry, chow, eat, food, cookie, chicky. Ask him if he wants to go out and he gets very excited. and in the summer ask if he wants to go "splash" and you can't get to the lake fast enough. he knows family members names tell him which one to go to and he will. Most all dogs know sit, down, stay, off, out, heel. Mine will "shake right" or "shake left" when asked too. roll over, crawl, sit up, sniff, drop it. He knows some words in Spanish because he was owned by a Mexican family before I got him and he still remembers some of the words he learned then. So yes, they understand us when it relates directly to them. Talk world peace and he's lost.

Answer 2

To me dogs are not the dumb animals that many think they are. Sure they learn to obey commands like sit, stay, come, down etc but they also learn so much more. They know when your happy & they know when your sad. I love the way my dog lays her head across my lap when Im feeling sad & lonely, missing my family who all live half a world away. Somehow she knows I need some special attention from her & she always brings me out of this doom & gloom. She may not understand the words we say to her but she knows when shes done well & we are happy with her so who really knows what they understand huh?

Answer 3

Of course not! if your dog is called jessy, or bessie or whatever it will answer any word ending in the sound as above, even though the words are completely different and can mean diffrent things.
It cannot differenciate it is sound not voice that commands your dog.
have you noticed when you are late at night coming to your own house your dog does not bark, it recognises your footsetps, car engine sound etc, but if someone else comes or drives in it starts barking because it knows it is a different sound.

Instead of telling your dog to sit next time tell it to bit yes BIT and see if it sits, I bet it does.
byenow

Answer 4

Yes and No.

If I spoke to you in Chinese (which I can't, but hypothetically...) you would probably get the gist of what I was saying from my tone of voice etc.

Same deal with dogs.

Also, most dogs can associate the sounds of certain words or phrases with objects or activities.

Cats, on the other hand, understand every word you say. They just refuse to do as they are told......

Answer 5

They don't understand plain English, but they sure can pick up on your body language and tone of voice better than you can imagine. And they can, of course, pick up key words that matter to them, like Walk and Bath and Cookie

Answer 6

They understand certain words, I have two dogs and they understand "dinner" "biscuits" "walk" "no" and "excuse me" but I don't imagine they understand full conversations!

Answer 7

yes, they hear certain words and know what you are talking about like come and sit and outside. But not like people can you have to teach them. Like if you just sit there talking to them they arent going to understand. They understand certain words you teach them.

Answer 8

Yes, I think they do and that they respond to more than just tone and manner. If I speak to my Jack Russell in French or Spanish, rather than his native English, he does not respond at all - seriously.

Answer 9

No.We had 3 dogs.My ex's mother would speak to them in visayan and I would speak to them in english.They reacted exactly the same....Unless the dogs knew two languages!

Answer 10

they undesrtand the sound of words but they do not understand exactly what the word means, if you told them house and made them sit when they were a puppy whenever you said the word house they would sit