Dogs know words for their favorite toys
Dogs know words for their favorite toys
www.sciencenews.org
Dogs know words for their favorite toys
18 comments
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My German Shepherd knows the names of about 10 different toys. I can tell him "go get the cactus/pineapple/red bone/donut/basketball/blue ball (his favorite)/etc." and he'll even drop what's in his mouth to get the right toy.
I can ask him: "Where is [person]/[toy]?" and he'll run all over the house, upstairs and downstairs, to find them. He loves hide and seek.
People underestimate the intelligence of dogs and animals in general.
Edit: Here's a writeup on animal intelligence, cognition, and culture. (I have ads turned off and do not benefit in any way from my blog.)
Edit 2: My current dog hasn't mastered the open-ended question yet, but my previous GSD understood the question "What do you want?" I train them by asking it, and then presenting them with options I name (e.g., to play, go out, a walk, treat, water, etc.).
Sometimes I'd ask, and my dog would lead me to an empty water bowl. Sometimes he would go grab a toy. Other times he was bored and indecisive, and would test things like going up to his treats. Sometimes I would say "No.. you don't need them..." And he'd do a little amused wag before leading me to something else. I really miss him..
But it would blow people's minds to see that he was capable of comprehending that question and understood so many options. Dogs are smart as hell and we literally coevolved with them and domesticated them from wolves. They understand human body language far better than any other species, including great apes. Dogs are incredible.
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That was an amazing read! Thanks for writing and sharing it. Two things that struck me are
PTSD has been documented in canines who served in the military. [1] Additionally, it is believed that dogs are capable of suffering from autism
I'm on the spectrum so the fact that dogs can be autistic is really interesting, and it's unsurprising about the PTSD, given the fact that they can have really bad anxiety and trauma if they experience their owner dying
You have a fascinating blog which I'm going to bookmark and explore, cheers for the share!
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My dog knows the word "words." It means "Person is getting ready to say things that I understand, I should pay attention."
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Annnnd water is wet!
18 comments
This feels like one of those things that's kind of a confirmation of existing common knowledge. If you have dogs, you are probably very aware that dogs know certain words and develop expectations around routinely used words and actions. For example, running through a list of words my dogs know and gauging their reactions will tell me exactly what they want nine times out of ten.
Dog boops. "Food?" ... "Water?" ... "Outside?" Tilt "You want outside?" Dogs stampede to door
It's kind of wild how much they understand of vocabulary, but add in the way they read faces and body language, it's frankly amazing.
I find this of cats too.
I know a lot of people think they’re aloof and dumb, but my cats know their names, each others names, and several words. You can tell because they hear it and try to ignore it, but their tail wags giving away that they do know what you’re saying.
They can also pick up really specific sounds, like if I pick up two small plates they run over hopping in giving them wet food. Not one plate, not three, not large or medium, only two small ones.
Recently there was an article stating they do know their names after all, but to most owners it seemed obvious.
Cats have names for each other, and you. They ignore those too, but they are distinct sound sequences.
Yeah. Cats are really, really good at making it clear they understand when you're calling for them and they're choosing not to respond. I figure it's fair; there are plenty of people I wouldn't cross a room to talk to, either
Yeah true. We teach our dog a name for every new toy and she loves it when you ask her to find them.
My last dog understood and reacted to more words than most toddlers I've met.