I have an english setter that barks at EVERYTHING! But most especially, she LOVES to bark at small animals. She has also learned to distinguish her favorites by name. If you say squirrel, then she starts looking in the trees, and at the powerlines. If you say kitty, then she goes over to the neighbor's fence and starts looking for (those damn) cats. If you say bunny, then she starts sniffing under the lilac bush. Problem is, when she actually does see a squirrel, kitty or bunny, she will bark her head off until the damn thing goes away.



I wish I could shoot squirrels where I live.

Oh PLEASE!!!!!!!


Your dog doesn't know wheather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog.


Sgtar15

My pet dogs are as stupid as bricks, they can't identify themselves by name.

We have three working dogs that are smarter than most of my employees.  You can tell them to get the red squirrel thatis holding the large nut, but not the red squirrel who is holding themedium sized nut, and I swear they would do it.  Amazing.

Quoted: Oh PLEASE!!!!!!! Your dog doesn't know wheather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog. Sgtar15

I'm 100% serious!

Quoted: Oh PLEASE!!!!!!! Your dog doesn't know wheather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog. Sgtar15

Bullshit. My Vizsla can identify my family members by name.

Bomber

Quoted: Quoted: Oh PLEASE!!!!!!! Your dog doesn't know weather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog. Sgtar15 Bullshit. My Vizsla can identify my family members by name. Bomber

No...they notice patterns of voice inflection...nothing more

my dog knows CAT

I'm on my second Border Collie and I thought all dogs could understand simple words.  We have to spell some words in front of our dog so she won't understand.  And yes, I'm 100 percent serious.  I read an article a while back where some German Scientist had proven that his BC had a vocabulary over 500 words (IIRC).

Quoted: I'm on my second Border Collie and I thought all dogs could understand simple words.  We have to spell some words in front of our dog so she won't understand.  And yes, I'm 100 percent serious.  I read an article a while back where some German Scientist had proven that his BC had a vocabulary over 500 words (IIRC).

+1

I cannot say "walk" or "leash", or she will whine and yap until I take her for a walk.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Oh PLEASE!!!!!!! Your dog doesn't know weather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog. Sgtar15 Bullshit. My Vizsla can identify my family members by name. Bomber No...they notice patterns of voice inflection...nothing more

I agree that they only recognize only parts of our speach and inflection. But isn't that virtually the same thing? If I say where is Morgan?, he immediately goes to my youngest daughter. If I say where is Casey?, he immediately goes to my oldesrt daughter....and so on.

Bomber

I Googled it and it was 200 words not 500, sorry!

Uber Pooch

My two dogs know "Squirrel", "Cat", "Outside", "Sock", "Stick", "Ball" to name a few.

yes, mouse

I forgot his toys, he will dig in his toy basket and pull out what I tell him to. Ball, rope, wheels, doggie, bone, Florida Crab(a toy my mom brought back from FL for him). He also knows out, walk, Butter( as in peanut butter). He knows other food types too steak, tuna, burgers. Smaet little sumbitch.

Dogs are smart. My dog can open a closed door by standing on his hind legs, turning the knob with one paw and pushing it open with the other. He also knows the words to all family members, different types of food. Ice cube, Walk or we sometimes say 'down the street' but he caught onto that too, so now we just spell stuff. They are very smart, they just can't speak english.

I tell my dog to "get your football" and he gets his stuffed football for me to throw.  

I tell him to "get your bone" and he gets his rawhide chewing bone.  

He knows "sit", "stay", "come", "stand", "drop" (for his retrieving dummy), and "return", which means turn around and sit down at my side after bringing the dummy back.  

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Oh PLEASE!!!!!!! Your dog doesn't know weather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog. Sgtar15 Bullshit. My Vizsla can identify my family members by name. Bomber No...they notice patterns of voice inflection...nothing more

How the fuck does my dog know the difference between "sit" and "down" then?

You are wrong.  Dogs can understand potentially hundreds of words.  

+1 for "MOUSE" and I don't give a crap what STGar15 or whatever the hell has to say.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Oh PLEASE!!!!!!! Your dog doesn't know weather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog. Sgtar15 Bullshit. My Vizsla can identify my family members by name. Bomber No...they notice patterns of voice inflection...nothing more How the fuck does my dog know the difference between "sit" and "down" then? You are wrong.  Dogs can understand potentially hundreds of words.

They hear a sound -- not a word
and know when they hear that particuliar sound they are supposed to do something, that is all ---------- gee whiz what a bunch of Disney people we have here.

My kids can't even identify animals by name.

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Oh PLEASE!!!!!!! Your dog doesn't know weather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog. Sgtar15 Bullshit. My Vizsla can identify my family members by name. Bomber No...they notice patterns of voice inflection...nothing more How the fuck does my dog know the difference between "sit" and "down" then? You are wrong.  Dogs can understand potentially hundreds of words.   They hear a sound -- not a word and know when they hear that particuliar sound they are supposed to do something, that is all ---------- gee whiz what a bunch of Disney people we have here.

If I was your dog I would act like I don't understand you too.  

<shakes head at the pure stupidity of some>

Yep, Of course my dog does Her hunnting thing whe I mention "get the birds" and "dead Bird". Runs like her ass is on fire for "Squirrel" or "Rabbit" she also knows Kitty and Toad. She goes nuts trying to kill toads! I can't figure it out.


Forgot to add that I don't think voice inflection has anything to do with it. I know it does for some dogs but we have had to spell words to avoid getting her excited. If I mention somthing that kind of sounds like "toad", like "road" or "poad" (just tried it) she just ignores me.  I have a friend that has a dog that will tear the house apart if you mention anything that sounds like "frisbee" Say something like " I really like this crispy pizza crust" and he will overturn furniture and break stuff looking for a frisbee. Used to be funny but now my friend is married and has a couple of rug rats so we have to watch what we say in the house.

Well wise guys how do you think your brain recognize words?  They hear the difference and they associate it with an object or action.  Obviously its limited but its the same thing.  Dogs can recognize about 150 words, cats about 50.  Pigs can recognize 200.

Yes...my dog calls all small animals "wolf"

A long time ago a person went to some animal -dog- people and said his dog could read his mind

they did some studies and found that the dog was reading his master and in an attempt to please him, the dog was reading his masters body language and doing what his master wanted him to do.. no mind reading involved at all

a dog spends its whole life reading other dogs body signs and responding to them, they do the same for the people in their  -- so called pack.

An example is the lets play body language

ass held high head down legs and paws out in front -- you all have seen it -- it means lets play.

Quoted: <shakes head at the pure stupidity of some>

Rolls eyes at the close minded arrogance of one person in particular.  

Quoted: A long time ago a person went to some animal -dog- people and said his dog could read his mind they did some studies and found that the dog was reading his master and in an attempt to please him, the dog was reading his masters body language and doing what his master wanted him to do.. no mind reading involved at all a dog spends its whole life reading other dogs body signs and responding to them, they do the same for the people in their  -- so called pack. An example is the lets play body language ass held high head down legs and paws out in front -- you all have seen it -- it means lets play.

I have to go with cyanide and sgtar15 on this one for the most part.

I drove sled dogs for 15 years, managing from three to sixteen dogs
on a team at a time. You learn a little bit about human to dog communication
while doing so. Look at a picture of a sled team in action sometime, you should
see all of the dogs ears angled back listening for anything the Dog driver says
or does. If they are perked forward you are in trouble because they are about to
take you for a ride somewhere you do not want to go. (Like straight towards that moose)

After a while you even learn to  pick names for the dogs that discourages confusion.
I've named about 150 dogs over the years.

My $0.02

 GM

i can't say "park" or even spell it around my BC/Aussie mix or she goes bonkers.

she also knows in, out, up, down, sit, stay, give, ball, walkies, kitty, rabbit, her own name, her "brother's" name and brother (her brother is a cat, but that's different from "kitty") and if we're at the park she'll respond to "home or stay?" in either order. "stay" gets used both as a question and a command. knows more words too, but it's late and i can't remember everythng she knows.

i've tried using the "wrong" inflection with words... it doesn't work, she knows the sound of the word, not just the tone.

Quoted: Well wise guys how do you think your brain recognize words?  They hear the difference and they associate it with an object or action.  Obviously its limited but its the same thing.  Dogs can recognize about 150 words, cats about 50.  Pigs can recognize 200.

+1 - WTH is the spoken word to humans if not "patterns of  voice inflection" that we associate with a particulat meaning?   How is this different with animals?

And it's a big leap from the original topic to the claim that your dog can read your mind - not quire sure how that is 100% relevant here.   But do we humans do not also use and read body language when communicating?   And that is the real question here, to what extend can humans communicate meaning to animals and vice versa, no?

Rocko

Quoted: Quoted: Well wise guys how do you think your brain recognize words?  They hear the difference and they associate it with an object or action.  Obviously its limited but its the same thing.  Dogs can recognize about 150 words, cats about 50.  Pigs can recognize 200. +1 - WTH is the spoken word to humans if not "patterns of  voice inflection" that we associate with a particulat meaning?   How is this different with animals? And it's a big leap from the original topic to the claim that your dog can read your mind - not quire sure how that is 100% relevant here.   But do we humans do not also use and read body language when communicating?   And that is the real question here, to what extend can humans communicate meaning to animals and vice versa, no? Rocko

What is the deference you ask

well  --

you tell me if you can

I am going for a walk in the desert

I want to eat my desert


case closed !

I can whisper a word to my dog while we are laying in bed at night and he will go get his bone, or will jump up for a treat, etc...  I have tried phrasing it in a question, as well.  We spell stuff around our dog all the time, or he has a fit waiting for us to get ready for his walk.  If they were just reading body language, they should be able to understand what you are spelling, right?

My dog can identify different small animals as well as his play-toys (he know the difference between a weasel, rabbit, hedgehog, etc.  The dog is way too smart for his own good.

GunLvr

Quoted: I can whisper a word to my dog while we are laying in bed at night and he will go get his bone, or will jump up for a treat, etc...  I have tried phrasing it in a question, as well.  We spell stuff around our dog all the time, or he has a fit waiting for us to get ready for his walk.  If they were just reading body language, they should be able to understand what you are spelling, right?

Ok another example

when I go to the cabin for some R&R I always pack a certain duffle bag I have, if the mutt is looking in the window he knows I am goint to the woods - and he gets to have some quality time, so he gets wound up, when I put the bag at the back door for loading he starts talking to me " let's not forget me " .... no big secret how he knows I am going to the cabin and woods - he reads the signs or body language, that's all.




also -
Like when people pick up the car keys  -- dog thinks hey lets go for a ride ---------

Quoted: Quoted: What is the deference you ask well  -- you tell me if you can I am going for a walk in the desert I want to eat my desert case closed ! So you want to eat sand? How about some pie for dessert? I can make fun of you for this because I made the same mistake a year or so ago with a Desert (like a diner dinner) picture.

Well sweep you get the drift anyway ----------- ? same sound different meanings thats all I was trying to show.

My dog can identify small animals by name.

My dog responds to the commands, both verbally and hand signals, to come to me, to sit, to stop immediately and lie down.  Go left, go right, back, out (for removing something in his mouth), go find ( for live persons), and go find Angel (for cadaver work), in the crate, in the kennel, in the truck, in the boat, and in the chopper.  If a helicopter is parked next to my truck and I say "In the Chopper" he will go and sit in the helicopter.

My dog can scent people underwater and locate drowning victims.  My dog can find a human remain the size of a dime in the rubble of the WTC and proved it when our search team found over three hundred human remains in seven days.

My dog is smarter than me.  If I had the time to work with him more than two hours a day, I believe this dog could do anything.

I had a black lab/irish setter mix when I was in high school.  She was about the most useless dog I've ever owned.  She used to walk into walls, had a nervous bladder, barked at  everything EXCEPT an intruder.  She was noise sensitive and whenever she went hunting with me, if I took one shot in a heartbeat she was hiding under the truck...but she learned how to spell!  

I kid you not--after she caught on to the spoken word 'bath', she would bolt out of the room and often out of the house if you ever used the B word.  We started spelling it instead of saying it...it took her about a year to catch on completely, but for the next 10 yrs or so, we had to use code!  

example

Scott!
Watcha need Mom?
Go mow the lawn, and when you're done, go give her a b-a-t-h.
dog just ran through the screen door and out of sight.

an example of how we got around the problem

Scott!
Watcha need now mom?
Go mow the lawn and when you're done, wash the dog.
Blackberry got a bath--kicking and whimpering the whole time, but she got clean.  We just couldn't use 'wash' again for a few months.

She also picked up words like WALK (spoken or spelled, regardless of the context--she heard it and was at the front door holding her leash in her mouth).  If she heard HUNT, she was at the back door or over by the gun cabinet all happy...until I actually pulled the trigger.

She also learned how to spell WALK.  I couldn't ask my girlfriend to take a walk with me becuase the dog would be waiting at the door with leash in her mouth.  

Personally, I think dogs are smarter than most people think

Quoted: Well sweep you get the drift anyway ----------- ? same sound different meanings thats all I was trying to show.

You mean you pronounce "desert" and "dessert" the same?   They are two different sounds.   And I don't think anyone was suggesting that animals have the capability to understand the entire english language.   The post is titled " Can your dog identify small animals by name?", i.e., can your dog associate a particular sound you make (word) with a particular meaning.    And in the case where the exact same sounding word can be used to convey two different meanings, the only way we humans can distingish is by seeing how it is used contextually - i.e., the other words around it, and I don't think anyone here claimed to be able to have a complete conversation with their pet.   The english language is notorious for this, and it often confuses those learning who don't speak it natively.   Are you suggesting that they can't  identify small animals by name either?

In regards to grabbing the keys and thinking it is time to go... do we humans also not associate a series of events to what is likely to come?   Words aren't the only thing we use to communicate, either.   I'm still not quite sure how that relevant to the original topic...

Mrs sleepdr is a speech-language pathologist; specializes in this stuff, and works with autistic nonvervbal kids.  She's done tests on our Scottie's receptive language, designed to isolate inflection and test for word knowledge.  Dogs understand more than you'd suspect - he's frighteningly perceptive.  Some examples he knows separately, without hand signals:

inside, outside, upstairs, downstairs, wait, sit, stay, down, drop it, ouch, off, hop up (to furniture/car), dead dog, roll over, paw/gimme five/shake (all same trick), sing(howl), bark, gimme kiss, ride in the car, hungry, food, thirsty, water, treat, ice, leash, walk, heel, "let's go" (loose-lead walking), pottie, no, OK, leave it, no barks, daddy, mommy, kitty, critter, toy, ball, names of a couple fave stuffed animals, go get it, bring it back, settle, vet's name, bath, play, Jack (his name), Scottie, puppy, dog...

He differentiates horses, dogs, cats, and rodents from humans, but appears to think lions/tigers/etc are cats.  This dog herded me from the computer into the TV room the other day when animals were fighting on TV - refused to go outside, didn't want to be petted, just wanted me to walk in the room and see what he was barking at.  Note the cleverly dangled preposition.

Anyway, I guess you could assume that he's only responding to voice inflections or body language, but it appears that he's processing some rudimentary language.  ...that, and I really need to get out more.

Quoted: Quoted: Well sweep you get the drift anyway ----------- ? same sound different meanings thats all I was trying to show. You mean you pronounce "desert" and "dessert" the same?   They are two different sounds.   And I don't think anyone was suggesting that animals have the capability to understand the entire english language.   The post is titled " Can your dog identify small animals by name?", i.e., can your dog associate a particular sound you make (word) with a particular meaning.    And in the case where the exact same sounding word can be used to convey two different meanings, the only way we humans can distingish is by seeing how it is used contextually - i.e., the other words around it, and I don't think anyone here claimed to be able to have a complete conversation with their pet.   The english language is notorious for this, and it often confuses those learning who don't speak it natively.   Are you suggesting that they can't  identify small animals by name either? In regards to grabbing the keys and thinking it is time to go... do we humans also not associate a series of events to what is likely to come?   Words aren't the only thing we use to communicate, either.   I'm still not quite sure how that relevant to the original topic...

I will explain if you say squirrel  and look in the tree --- the dog gets it,  tree rat.

if you say rabbit and look at the bushes -- the dog gets it.

Thats all I was saying.

If I say "mouse", my dog siffs around the baseboards, and under things.
If I say "squirrel", he goes to the door.
If I say "ball", he gets a ball.
If I say "stick", he gets a stick.
If I say sit, he sits.

It's not inflection.

I asked my dog what was on the house... He said "roof, roof".

I asked him what's on the outside of a tree.... He said "bark, bark".

I asked him what sand paper felt like.... He said "ruff, ruff".

I asked him who was the greatest baseball player... He said "ruth, ruth."


Stupid dog, everybody knows it's DiMaggio.

Quoted: <shakes head at the pure stupidity of some>

You are as dumb as a box of rocks.  This along with your other inane rantings should garner you this year's AR15.com troll award.  

Maybe the dog only hears a "sound" as you put it, but for the dog to perform some act, there must be some kind of meaning attached to the sound, even if it's only "dog" understanding.  Otherwise, the command "sit" would result in no action, or an incorrect action; with only randomness controlling whether the proper response was ever elicited.  

Indeed, people only hear "sounds" too, but ascribe meaning to those sounds that results in UNDERSTANDING.  Surely, the dog understands the sound in some way and ascribes meaning to it or no dog would ever be capable of acting on voice commands.  


Surely dogs don't have human understanding, but their pea brains can at least ascribe some meaning to sounds which results in the proper conditioned response.  

If I tell my dog NO, he stops doing whatever.  If I tell him COME, he comes--he doesn't sit.  Existential bullshit aside, surely that is evidence of some level of understanding.  

Quoted: I tell my dog to "get your football" and he gets his stuffed football for me to throw.   I tell him to "get your bone" and he gets his rawhide chewing bone.   He knows "sit", "stay", "come", "stand", "drop" (for his retrieving dummy), and "return", which means turn around and sit down at my side after bringing the dummy back.

Your dog is smarter than mine we have a Cocker that loves to fetch and has at least 20 tennis balls in the yard. I'll tell him "Get the ball" indicating it's play time and he'll run around the yard excited like a fool stumbling over balls left and right and never pick one up.

But once I pick one and trow it for him he'll fetch that ball till his legs fall off. Sometimes I fake him out and only pretend to throw the ball and he will run all over looking for that one specific ball, he will sniff all the other identical balls and not pick them up.(I guess he can tell they are not the right ball by the wetness factor) Maybe he isn't so dumb after all.........

Quoted: Quoted: A long time ago a person went to some animal -dog- people and said his dog could read his mind they did some studies and found that the dog was reading his master and in an attempt to please him, the dog was reading his masters body language and doing what his master wanted him to do.. no mind reading involved at all a dog spends its whole life reading other dogs body signs and responding to them, they do the same for the people in their  -- so called pack. An example is the lets play body language ass held high head down legs and paws out in front -- you all have seen it -- it means lets play. I have to go with cyanide and sgtar15 on this one for the most part. I drove sled dogs for 15 years, managing from three to sixteen dogs on a team at a time. You learn a little bit about human to dog communication while doing so. Look at a picture of a sled team in action sometime, you should see all of the dogs ears angled back listening for anything the Dog driver says or does. If they are perked forward you are in trouble because they are about to take you for a ride somewhere you do not want to go. (Like straight towards that moose) After a while you even learn to  pick names for the dogs that discourages confusion. I've named about 150 dogs over the years. My $0.02  GM

What I always wondered about sled dogs, if they are so smart why do they keep going when the driver fall off?? Hell I even heard they will drag the poor s.o.b if he can't get back on??

Quoted: What I always wondered about sled dogs, if they are so smart why do they keep going when the driver fall off?? Hell I even heard they will drag the poor s.o.b if he can't get back on??

All true

What is basically the dynamics of driving a sled team is that you are the alpha male
taking a pack of wolves on a hunt. So you want them thinking that around every bend in the trail
there is a prey. In the mean time you "pray" there isn't, if there is a sqirrel, bunny or whatever,
you give the lead dog the command "on by" and hopefully he ignores it and is off to better
game.

So with a well trained lead dog he is more than willing to take on your roll as "boss"
wether you are on the sled or not. The first rule of dog driving is never let go of the sled.
If you do you may walk miles before you find the team wrapped around a tree that a
squirrel ran up


GM

Quoted: Quoted: Quoted: Oh PLEASE!!!!!!! Your dog doesn't know weather the shit on its ass is from him or some other dog. Sgtar15 Bullshit. My Vizsla can identify my family members by name. Bomber No...they notice patterns of voice inflection...nothing more

Wrong

Study finds dogs understand language
Thursday, June 10, 2004 Posted: 10:16 AM EDT (1416 GMT)



Rico, a dog with a "vocabulary" of nearly 200 words, can learn the names of unfamiliar toys after just one exposure to the new word-toy combination.


WASHINGTON (AP) -- As many a dog owner will attest, our furry friends are listening. Now, for the doubters, there is scientific proof they understand much of what they hear.

German researchers have found a border collie named Rico who understands more than 200 words and can learn new ones as quickly as many children.

Patti Strand, an American Kennel Club board member, called the report "good news for those of us who talk to our dogs."

"Like parents of toddlers, we learned long ago the importance of spelling key words like bath, pill or vet when speaking in front of our dogs," Strand said. "Thanks to the researchers who've proven that people who talk to their dogs are cutting-edge communicators, not just a bunch of eccentrics."

The researchers found that Rico knows the names of dozens of play toys and can find the one called for by his owner. That is a vocabulary size about the same as apes, dolphins and parrots trained to understand words, the researchers say.

Rico can even take the next step, figuring out what a new word means.

The researchers put several known toys in a room along with one that Rico had not seen before. From a different room, Rico's owner asked him to fetch a toy, using a name for the toy the dog had never heard.

The border collie, a breed known primarily for its herding ability, was able to go to the room with the toys and, seven times out of 10, bring back the one he had not seen before. The dog seemingly understood that because he knew the names of all the other toys, the new one must be the one with the unfamiliar name.

"Apparently he was able to link the novel word to the novel item based on exclusion learning, either because he knew that the familiar items already had names or because they were not novel," said the researchers, led by Julia Fischer of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig.

A month later, he still remembered the name of that new toy three out of six times, even without having seen it since that first test. That is a rate the scientists said was equivalent to that of a 3-year-old.

Rico's learning ability may indicate that some parts of speech comprehension developed separately from human speech, the scientists said.

"You don't have to be able to talk to understand a lot," Fischer said. The team noted that dogs have evolved with humans and have been selected for their ability to respond to the communications of people.

Katrina Kelner, Science's deputy editor for life sciences, said "such fast, one-trial learning in dogs is remarkable. This ability suggests that the brain structures that support this kind of learning are not unique to humans and may have formed the evolutionary basis of some of the advanced language abilities of humans."

Perhaps, although Paul Bloom of Yale University urges caution.

"Children can understand words used in a range of contexts. Rico's understanding is manifested in his fetching behavior," Bloom writes in a commentary, also in Science.

Bloom calls for further experiments to answer several questions: Can Rico learn a word for something other than a small object to be fetched? Can he display knowledge of a word in some way other than fetching? Can he follow an instruction not to fetch something?

Fischer and her colleagues are still working with Rico to see if he can understand requests to put toys in boxes or to bring them to certain people. Rico was born in December 1994 and lives with his owners. He was tested at home.