Does Your Dog Know English? (border collie, shepherd, training, collie)

[John1960]

Does Your Dog Know English? on Yahoo! Pets

[MB2]

I believe that all dogs are very, very smart...in their own indivitual ways.
I don't know if it is the motion, the sound, the words.....
If that's the case, my German Shepherd is multi lingual, understanding german commands as well as english.
I wonder how many languages they would be able to process?????
My mix only "gets" english so far, but we are learning.....

[Triplewillow]

I think it is the words. Really. I can use the same words in different tones and our dogs will respond. They are responding to the word itself. Every time!

And yes, they can learn in different languages. We are native american and our dogs respond to words in that language also. We rarely say "shut up" but we do say "samatah" ... which means be quiet. They know several words in both languages.

[gizmo980]

I used to have a cat who understood Spanish, since we had an El Salvadorian woman living with us for almost 10 years... she'd say things like "comida ahora" (food now), "pobrecita gatita" (poor little kitty), "afuera?" (outside?), etc., and the cat totally understood her. Animals are like children, where they can pick up multiple languages if you start young - cool, huh?

[Trainwreck20]

My dad's border collie understand the name of each of her toys and the name of every room in the house. She probably knows a lot more words than that, but not sure what they are. His working BCs know all sorts of commands and whistles, and even know to ignore the mockingbirds when they start emulating the whistles .

My SIL had a cat that is HUGE, and hates to be called fat. She doesn't even like to be talked about, and if you say HER, she assumes you are talking about her and gets mad .

[BlueWillowPlate]

Elwood knows the names of each of us,as well the kitty, and several toys, (though sometimes he confuses the toys).
He knows "Go for a walk," "Go to the beach," "Go in the car" etc.
That's something we've always taught our dogs.
If I say, "Go get Daddy" he'll go get my husband out of bed.
He also knew the names of his doggie pals, but now we've moved and have to make new canine friends.
It's fun, but sometimes you really have to watch what you say or else he'll get all excited.

[KewGee]

Well, of course. We live in America don't we where we're supposed to speak English!!

[AZRiverRat]

Our Rottie DEFINITELY understands English!
He has even learned the spelling of some words..........SWIM and GO get him all excited.

His arch enemy is the cat. You can still spell CAT, as long as you NEVER say the word, and never spell it KITTY.
CATS are DANGEROUS, and his #1 priority is keeping them away from his home and family!
Outside, ask him where the birds are.......he looks up in the sky or out on the river.
Ask where the cat is...........he looks up in the trees!

No CATS here!

[Racelady88]

Originally Posted by AZRiverRat

Our Rottie DEFINITELY understands English!
He has even learned the spelling of some words..........SWIM and GO get him all excited.

Too funny! I used to have a half Rott that I had to spell in front of all the time. Eventually she learned "beach", "bath", "frisbee", and "truck" from their spelling.