People often laugh when they hear Spike request to go “oowwnt’. He doesn’t quite succeed in creating a ‘t’ sound, but he can surely demand his release time as closely as he can pronounce: “Out!”
Dogs all over the world adapt to the language of their owners. Spike’s pronunciation of words is limited, but his comprehension, like many domesticated dogs, is extensive. He was trained to take commands in Greek, German and English; however, he had no difficulty understanding the same commands when they were given in Arabic as other Arabic-speaking dogs. Not surprisingly, the four-legged furries have the capacity to adapt to their native tongue.
Researchers have discovered that, like humans, dogs process language on the left side of their brains. During the testing, researchers found that dogs had a very specific response to words that had meaning as well as tone. Their furry subjects were only familiar with one language; thus, had difficulty comprehending the same commands in an alternate language and accent irrespective of tone. Given that Spike was raised in multilingual locations, he, like humans, has developed the ability to comprehend multilingual statements and commands.
The best way to help your dog acquire language is by talking to your dog much as you would a developing child–name everything and every experience. For example:
- When there is a distinct aroma of food, act-out the action of smelling (exaggerated inhaling) and state the correlative meaning of your action: “mmmm, the chicken smells good.” Specify the word “chicken” and offer it to your fuzzy-wuzzy buddy (of course, with parental consent). Eventually, your dog will respond to the word chicken by licking his chops–very much like Pavlov’s dog responded. As for specific foods, Spike knows yum-yum for food and the words chicken, steak, chips, grandma’s crackers, Puppicino, and liver, just to name a few.
- Back to training your dog: if your dog is a traveling dog, it is easy to teach your dog the names of farm animals and other variants since the smell from specific farms precedes the dog’s vision. Your dog will then understand each smell (and sound) association by name:
- What does Spikey know: cats, cows, horses, lizards (by sight), squirrels, dogs, birds, etc. In essence, if you ask him where is the lizard, he looks at the ground around the bushes if outdoors. If he is indoors, he goes to the specific window where he last saw the lizard.
- How will you know if your dog really understands you? You will know by his or her expressions. Suppose you ask about a cow while at home? Unless you live on a farm, your dog will reply by looking for a cow out of your window or give you a bit of a quizzical look knowing that your question is misplaced.
Focused on two more toy squirrels, Spike grabs and guards one.
See the links below to learn more about the cognitive development for dogs and try talking to your dog more frequently:
Domestication shrinks the brain
