• Question: what do dogs think we are saying when we speak to them?

    Asked by karina123 to Sarah, Amy, Will on 20 Jun 2012. This question was also asked by james4pluto, meg123.
    • Photo: Sarah Martin

      Sarah Martin answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Hi karina123,

      Dogs are very clever at understanding things from the tone of our voice – it’s not what you say, it’s how you say it! If you have a dog, try singing “sit”, or whispering it gently, and then say it as a strict command. The dog will probably only respond to the command in your voice, and will be able to tell the difference between some commands based on which vowels you use – “i” in sit, “e” in fetch etc.
      The rest of the time, a dog will simply be happy with attention and affection – so whatever you say while talking to it will please it no end.

      🙂
      Sarah

    • Photo: Amy Birch

      Amy Birch answered on 20 Jun 2012:

      Hi karina123,
      When you speak to dogs, often it’s about the tone of your voice rather than the words. If you angrily shout ‘do you want a walk’ they probably wouldn’t respond very well but if you excitedly say it, then they get very excited too! My dog used to recognise the ch in chicken, cheese etc (because we used to give him chicken as a treat when my parents weren’t looking!) so he would get confused and excited if we said any words like chair or china & expect a treat!
      As Sarah says, they do learn to associate words if you repeat them enough times and they are simple which is why they can learn what to do when you say sit.

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