do animals understand what you say verbally

the only 2 words my cat know is Bernard and Raoul. LOL!

mmm. i guess animals only think about sex too... Meh. :D

Last Edited by Blitz the storm-striker on 12/06/2012 11:43 PM

I've thought about this too. I think they understand the emotion that a saying or phrase implies. I've thought simple commands around animals that are familiar with me but didn't say a word and they understood the thought.

They know exactly what we are saying. Just because they sometimes appear to not understand doesn't mean they don't. The wild animals know what you are saying too. It is humans that are the stupid ones and can't understand what the animals say.

Animals are very smart. Sometimes it's creepy just how smart they can be. If your very calm and clear your mind you can communicate with your pet. They will put an image or thought into your mind. Have you ever had your pet want something, a toy, a treat, food or water, go outside, and you instantly knew what he wanted? He was telling you what he wanted. Animals communicate verbally and mentally. Humans lost this ability ages ago but we still have a remnant of this skill.

They are a very intelligent breed. My friend has one. Great dog.

My twelve year old cat knows a few words: tuna, jump, up, down, get it, hungry, brush, outside. She's a smart cat. I have a couple of dumber ones but I love them, too.

Yep

I can just say the words hot dog in casual conversation and my dog starts barking. I can say treat with no emphasis at all and he gets up and acts interested.

Yes, my dog can identify with certain words. He can be lying in his doggy bed and my husband says he is going to take a shower and the dog jumps up and leaves.
I was on the phone and asked how the baby was? Suddenly there was the dog with his toy…we call baby.

He is not the sharpest nail in the box...but he does know things. He is an American Eskimo.

They learn a few words, but mostly they read your movements, your facial expression, your tone of voice.
You can say horrible things to them if you speak in a sweet, loving tone of voice, and they're happy. It's what you do and how you do it that counts, not what you say to them. Like people, they understand how you make them feel.

A breed I never heard of over here.

Thanks for telling me, I will Google them now.

Very friendly and good with kids. At least my friend's dog is.

Pets, especially dogs are like children. It is not difficult when using positive re-enforcing gestures with verbal commands to get them to consistently perform the way you expect them to. Eventually just as you would when teaching a child you will get results using verbal commands alone.

In other words......Yes. animals do comprehend human speech within context of their training. However, would you expect your child or even yourself to understand a foreign language they had never heard? Likewise, an animal will not understand strictly verbal speech alone/{by itself<speech}, unless you teach it to. That is not to say that they won't be able to interpret visual cues and tone infliction.

Alaskan Malamute?

I'm not that familiar with that breed. Sorry.

Alaskan Malamute?
AHH. yep didn't know about Eskimo myself..

Yes, animals understand more words than just their name and verbal commands. They pick up other words along the way too.

All of our pets learned what the word "vet" means. Whenever one of them has a vet appointment, we cannot speak the word before we've put them in the pet carrier. If we do, they'll run and hide.

We once had a German Shepherd that was fascinated by horses, and he quickly learned what the word "horse" meant. He also had an obsession with ping pong balls, and we could not speak of them in his presence without making him crazy.

Our cat had to have flea baths on occasion, and it wasn't long before the word "bath" would send him running for his life.

Every dog and cat I have ever had has always learned the words for the things they really love and the things they truly abhor. It's possible they understood even more than that but only reacted strongly enough for their stupid human to notice when the words were associated with things they really loved or hated.

I also have an African Grey Parrot who blows dogs' and cats' verbal understanding out of the water. I swear that bird understands every word I say.

I am absolutely sure my dog knows what I am saying at times. If I open the front door, he won't come in. He will wait patiently for me to say, "Come on in." or "It's OK." or anything along those lines. He will sit on his haunches and wait until I give him an invite. He tries very hard to telepathically speak to me as well. For example, he will look at me and has something he wants to say, he will even nudge my arm, and look intently at me until I figure out what he wants. His gaze is deep, fixed, and very concentrating. I know he had to be a human in his last life. There is no doubt of this. If he hears me talk about food, any kind of food, he will go to his bowl, and sit on his haunches and look at me with that deep stare. He is telling me he is hungry. I have to ignore him sometimes because I already know what he wants most of the time, just from looking at his eyes. I know when he wants to be petted, wants food, when he wants to go outside, etc. I know he knows that I can read him as well, and he gets pissed when I ignore him on purpose.

If you don't teach a child to you wouldn't expect much. The more time you spend with an animal actually teaching them the more you can expect in return.

The average dog can learn about 160 words, a smart dog can learn over 250 words.

lol
True that I wonder why we are placed in human bodies or evolve into human shape [or both or more or neither?!@@]when we exhibit about the same levels of base behavior as dogs etc..
preoccupation with eating, sex, war and comfort seeking, albeit we do things in a more complicated [call it sophisticated if you must] manner.

and that is how we humans learn at first too.
body language, tonation and facial expression.

You could almost say that animals have the same language capablities as very small children, to a certain extend.

were just somehow build/have evolved to learn at faster rate than the animals around us, or maybe not faster, but we seem to take it to a different level.

My dog, a labradoodle, is way too smart for her own good. She can open closed doors and she knows a lot of human words and can do tricks all day long.

She can put sentences together as well. My son came up with an interesting sentence containing 3 of her most animating key words.

"Eat Running Kitty"

It drives her nuts.

This.

Of course they do. My border collie is exceptionally smart. But all my beloved four legged friends have a rudimentary understanding of English.