Dog vocabulary

[Pennyrick]

We have always had dogs in our home. Right now our two resident canines are Charlie, an Australian Shepard and Ziva, a Harlequin Great Dane.

My wife and I were discussing words that dogs know or react to and as we ran through the dog vocabulary we were surprised at how extensive it is.

In addition to the usual verbal instructions such as "come, go, sit, lay down, heel (a left over from obedience school), up, down, etc." there are several others.

Both dogs know "mail" when it is time to go out to the end of the road to the mail box. They also know "UPS man" and "Federal Express man" although they hear both trucks before we do and start Woofering beforehand.

When it is time to visit the horses, they know the word 'Barn". They can differentiate between the Spyders and the ATVs but to avoid confusion we refer to both as 'bikes". "Run" and 'Walk" are easy. Names are no brainers for both dogs identifying sons and daughters, neighbors and friends.

"Bug man" means it is time to go indoors through the doggie door while the exterior gets sprayed.

"Chain saw" and "Hedge Clipper" are also go inside words while "Leaf Blower" means we can stay outside and have fun.

"Go to doctor" means jump in the car to Ziva, the Dane but it is not nearly as exciting for Charlie, the Aussie who isn't fond of visiting the vet.

Of course, words are just a tiny bit of our dog communication. Facial expressions and body language are a vocabulary all to themselves.

 

[Orange Spyder Man]

I have 2 mini Schnauzers.... both are 3 years old.. 1 month apart... they understand a lot ... dogs are smarter than people think...

would like to leave this with dog lovers:

"If dogs do not go to heaven... I want to go where they go when I die !"

OSM

 

[Chupaca]

Dogs speak..!!

though some verbalize...they do with there expressions and actions. Have had dogs all my life, well till a few months ago. They have all been unique and special in their own ways. Love them but don't know if I could loose another....ah but I do have a three wheeled spyder..!! :yes::yes:

 

[cuznjohn]

my two girls know quite a few words also the one that really drives the nuts is when i call to order food and i say delivery, because they know someone in coming here. now min can also talk. one day i dropped a sheet of coarse sandpaper on the floor and when they walked over it they both said RUFF

 

[Bob Denman]

Our little Tink has shown a pretty decent vocabulary as well...
Something to eat
Something to drink
Down the stairs
Up the stairs
The ever popular, "Go find Mommy"
In the garage
In the office
Rubba belly... (she loves belly rubs!)
There's the usual cast of characters...(sit, come, stay...)
She also is starting to respond more and more to hand signals as well... :thumbup:

 

[Cruzr Joe]

We have always had dogs in our home. Right now our two resident canines are Charlie, an Australian Shepard and Ziva, a Harlequin Great Dane.

My wife and I were discussing words that dogs know or react to and as we ran through the dog vocabulary we were surprised at how extensive it is.

In addition to the usual verbal instructions such as "come, go, sit, lay down, heel (a left over from obedience school), up, down, etc." there are several others.

Both dogs know "mail" when it is time to go out to the end of the road to the mail box. They also know "UPS man" and "Federal Express man" although they hear both trucks before we do and start Woofering beforehand.

When it is time to visit the horses, they know the word 'Barn". They can differentiate between the Spyders and the ATVs but to avoid confusion we refer to both as 'bikes". "Run" and 'Walk" are easy. Names are no brainers for both dogs identifying sons and daughters, neighbors and friends.

"Bug man" means it is time to go indoors through the doggie door while the exterior gets sprayed.

"Chain saw" and "Hedge Clipper" are also go inside words while "Leaf Blower" means we can stay outside and have fun.

"Go to doctor" means jump in the car to Ziva, the Dane but it is not nearly as exciting for Charlie, the Aussie who isn't fond of visiting the vet.

Of course, words are just a tiny bit of our dog communication. Facial expressions and body language are a vocabulary all to themselves.

Absolutely no offense meant to either of your dogs but, it has been my experience that these two are on opposite ends of the intelligence pool. I am sure you know which one is on which end.

Cruzr Joe

 

[Pennyrick]

Absolutely no offense meant to either of your dogs but, it has been my experience that these two are on opposite ends of the intelligence pool. I am sure you know which one is on which end.

Cruzr Joe

Yep... I understand. We lost our Border collie year before last and he was by far the most intelligent dog who ever owned us. The Aussie comes close but we are very surprised at the Dane. She is the fifth Dane who has ever owned us and she is by far brighter than any of the others.

My theory is that the ten year old Aussie is teaching the two year old Dane.

 

[ARtraveler]

Great information. Brings back some memories of Foxy and Cocoa. Both their favorite words were "treat" and "bomer."

 

[PrairieSpyder]

My mutt, Fancy Pants, knows lots of words.

"Outside?" If her answer is yes she goes to the back door, or, if she's already there she turns in a circle to say yes. If it's no, she steps away from the door.

"Toy" starts her looking for her favorite road kill toy (it doesn't have any stuffing in it).

She knows "Pa" or "Grandpa" is my dad.

She loves to greet the regular mailman, so when we say "there's Fancy's friend" she goes to the window to look for him.

 

[WA5VHU]

Excuse Me...

Our dearly departed Cocker Spaniel used to like to lay in doorways or the middle of the hallway. We taught her to move out of our way by saying "excuse me" to her, just like we were talking to an adult. She would immediately get up and move over and we would then say "thank you" to her. It always fascinated our friends.


Charles

 

[Pennyrick]

Yep... I understand. We lost our Border collie year before last and he was by far the most intelligent dog who ever owned us. The Aussie comes close but we are very surprised at the Dane. She is the fifth Dane who has ever owned us and she is by far brighter than any of the others.

My theory is that the ten year old Aussie is teaching the two year old Dane.

Just a bit more on this.......

Ziva, the Dane has sixteen toys and five teething bones. She can identify all the toys by the name we say when she goes to the toy box. This includes two toys that are the same. One we refer to as 'Blue Dog' while the other one is 'New Blue Dog'. Old Blue dog only has one ear.

She can almost do the same for the bones but mixes three of them up that look similar.

The Aussie has no interest in toys. He'd rather be on line searching the internet.:clap:

 

[cuznjohn]

my first dog knew the difference between my moms twin brothers by their name ralph and angelo

 

[spydaman60]

moose the chocolate lab---

has the biggest vocabulary of any dog we have ever had!
"mom's home"- immediately starts a greeting bark and runs to the door
"dads home"- same thing
"have you kissed mom today?"- seeks out mom and licks her on the chin
"bird","duck" or "goose" - immediately runs to the gun room
"belly rub" - rolls over with paws up in the air
"treat" - runs to his treat jar
"dinner, lunch or breakfast" - goes to the kitchen table and sits down
"bedtime" - runs upstairs and lays down on his bed
"going to the big woods" -heads out to the truck with his stuffed animal and knows we're going to the cabin
"dunkin donuts" - heads for the car (no wonder he's 100#'s)
"dairy queen" - same
"ruger, otis, oliver or major" - his four nephews that come to visit
"go swimmimg?" - goes to the closet and grabs his retriever dummy
the list goes on, but the best one of all times was the time I let him out at the cabin and told him to go find the bird! fifteen minutes later he was laying by the grill with a grouse in his mouth. deader than a door nail. the wife was there, or no one would have ever believed me!nojoke

 

[Bob Denman]

I hope that you cooked it for him... :thumbup:

 

[spydaman60]

I hope that you cooked it for him... :thumbup:

sad to say I should have. or maybe I should have had a taxidermist do it up, but truth is, it was out of season and I didn't want to get caught with it.:roflblack::roflblack:

 

[Bob Denman]

THAT's when it gets cleaned and cooked for the hard-working dog! :thumbup:

Next time; try, "go get the million dollars!"

 

[SDM]

When it was time to close up for the night, we would say "monsters in the box" and my 2 dear departed silliesray:, Morpheous and Odo, would both get into their cage at night. They knew they would get a treat.

 

[kep-up]

Aussies are the best!

 

[cognaccruiser]

Our dearly departed Cocker Spaniel used to like to lay in doorways or the middle of the hallway. We taught her to move out of our way by saying "excuse me" to her, just like we were talking to an adult. She would immediately get up and move over and we would then say "thank you" to her. It always fascinated our friends.


Charles

It's funny that you say this because coincidentally all of our dogs learned exactly the same thing from us and it went down pretty much the same way.

All of our dogs knew the word truck and would all start getting excited because they thought they were going for a ride. We couldn't use the word in conversation without the reaction. So we had to start spelling the word.

Our last Siberian Husky would get up from wherever he was lying down and head up the stairs to our room if we said, "Kodi, bed time".
Our Keshond would get up and come with me to lie on the bed with me if I said lets "go have a nap"
Lots of other words they knew too.

Gary

 

[Cruzr Joe]

I once had an old rescue dog that knew hundreds of commands (i think) but chose to ignore all of them (maybe he was deaf?).:roflblack::roflblack::roflblack::roflblack:

Cruzr Joe