Question: Can dogs analyse what we say

Aled Roberts answered on 19 Mar 2014:

Hey Mr Washington (again!)

Dogs can’t fully analyse what we say but they do understand the sounds we make and can differentiate between about 500 different sounds which puts their listening skills at about that of a toddler!

When you say sit to a dog, it doesn’t know to sit… BUT you can train the dog to sit when you say sit! It is a little hard to explain! You know what sit is because someone said it and then did it and then you copied them! That is what the dog is doing… It recognises the sound and associates the action with that sound. Sometimes if you talk in a different voice but say sit the dog won’t sit because it doesn’t recognise the sound!

You don’t even have to teach your dog the word sit! If every time you said the word DenzelWashington you poked the dogs bum to “sit” and he did… the dog would then associate this word with sitting and sit every time you said that awesome mans name! haha! Although people might look at you funny!

Hope that helps! Don’t forget to vote! 🙂