Pets and Language

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I've wondered, do you think pets learn languages? Like, if their owners speak, say, Portuguese or something, and then someone comes along who speaks, say, German, would they understand the other person?

I've always wondered the same thing.

I think it takes time to train the dog to respond to a certain sound. Like many dogs can be trained to sit when someone yells "Sit!". If the dog was never trained to listen to a certain language then they won't be able to respond right away. I'm not sure if you need to train the dog early on though (like with humans, children can learn a new language much easier than adults).

It depends entirely on how similar the commands sound. If you were to replace 'Portugese' with 'Dutch' then the answer would be yes because Dutch and German sound similar.

Sometimes, after spending time speaking Hawaiian or Spanish for an extended period, I forget and might accidentally speak one to my dog, rather than English, like I normally do. Whenever this happens her ears perk up and her head twists like,"huh?" - the same way dogs react when there's a new sound or something. I think she's picking up on the different rhythm and combination of sounds. I have known dogs who had to be talked to in the language they were trained in.

Oh, and another interesting tidbit, I noticed in Guatemala that dogs didn't respond to whistling. I suppose it's conditioning.

Really? Wow. Pets are much more interesting than most people think. I guess this means my kitty and dog are bilingual. Hmmm, though they would think two sounds rather than just one. I'm confusing myself.

My dog recognizes certain words in English like, "sit", "down", "up". "outside, "inside" , "O-U-T"(spelled), "kiss-kiss", "leash" and her own name as well as those of several of the cats. Since she is used to the sounds of those words in English I am sure another language would be meaningless at first. I think she would relearn them quickly, though, since she wasn't fooled for long when we tried to spell "out" around her.

My birds tend to have their own version of language among themselves, but as for understanding English, or other human languages, I don't know. Sometimes my birds will listen intently when someone starts to talk, but then they'll start up chattering again once they are bored. I think they tend to interpret gestures and tones more than the words employed.

Other than the words our dogs have been specifically taught (in English and in French - bilingual dogs ) they have also picked up many themselves. Spouse and I can be talking and the dogs pick up on certain words - for example if I say to spouse "Shall we take the dogs a walk" gets the dogs attention and they immediately jump up wanting to go. So we use alternative words or phrases such as "ramble" but they picked up on that and several more words too. The haven't picked up on "move the dogs legs" yet but they probably will in time.

Dogs have the ability to associate words with pleasurable things happening at the same time or soon after. They learned the words "chocolate" and "biscuit" in that way.

My cousin's dog understands both English and Spanish commands.

Dogs definitely can understand what you are saying so if you do speak in another language that they are not used to hearing then they will have no idea what you are saying.

My two dogs know what several phrases mean like "do you want dinner/breakfast", "go to the bathroom", "time for bed". "walk" plus all the basic obedience commands. My beagle also recognises her name plus her nickname, which is very different, and will respond to both.

I truly believe that dogs are far more intelligent than what we give them credit for.

yeah - my dog, whose name is pepper, comes to pepperoni, pep, pepsi, peppy, and, when I misspeak, she gladly comes to "paper".

a decade or so back, the tacoma [washington] police department got some german policedogs [trained in germany in the german language] for a bargain rate, and so they trained their american handlers the german commands the dogs were familiar with.

My cat also comes to several versions of her names as well. Sometimes my mom calls her 'Excelsa', and she's watching 'La Famila Peluche', and someone is talking to the character, 'Excelsa', Sissy comes out, as if they were calling her.

I think pets certainly have the capacity to understand certain words and phrases of their owners' language. For example, my dogs recognize the word "biscuit" and will get all excited at the mention of the word.

I think my cat can read the tone of my voice but not the words.