Can Dogs Understand Language?

My dog Molly

My dog Molly

Anyone who has a dog knows that we can communicate with them and they understand some of the things we say whether it be commands or giving them praise. I always wondered if my dogs actually understood the words I am saying or they are responding more to the tone of my voice. For example my tone of voice is much different when I am telling my dog that they were bad for making an accident on the carpet versus me telling my dog “Let’s go for a walk”. My dog can recognize whether I am happy or sad with her behavior by my tone of voice. I knew that my dog understood some words because they were tied to commands like “sit” and “stay” but I figured that was the only reason she understood those words is because I trained her to respond to those words in a particular way. I imagine many other dog owners feel similarly about this when it comes to training their dogs. With the mentality I had it came as a surprise to me to learn that according to Virgina Morell at Sciencemag.org some dogs can recognize more than 1,000 words and behavior suggests that dogs attach meaning to human sounds. While dogs may know over 1,000 words based off of tone a new study shows that it is the words themselves that dogs understand and not just the tone in which they are spoken (Morell, 2016). The study was conducted with 13 house dogs who were volunteered as test subjects. The group of dogs was made up of four different breeds; Border Collies, Golden Retrievers, Chinese crested dogs, and German shepherds. These dogs were trained to lie still in a brain scanner while they listened to recordings of their trainer’s voice saying different phrases. “The dogs heard meaningful words (“well done!’ in Hungarian) in a praising tone and in a neutral tone. They also heard meaningless words(“as if”) in a neutral or praising tone of voice” (Morell, 2016). After running through these various tests the scientists noticed that the dogs processed the meaningful words in the left hemisphere of the brain, which is similar to how humans process such information. One of the scientists, Attila Andics, who was involved with this experiment stated “It shows that these words have meaning to the dogs.” This study supports the theory that our dogs can understand the words we’re saying to them attribute meaning to said words. Another study conducted by Victoria Ratcliffe involved having 250 dogs brought into a lab where speakers were placed on the left and right side of the dogs. Different sounds, voices and commands were played for the dogs in different tones and the direction the dog’s heads turned indicated whether it was processed in the left or right hemisphere of the brain. If the dog turned their head to the left it meant that the information was processed in the right hemisphere of their brain and vice versa. Speech is suggested to be processed in the left hemisphere and emotional information is said to be processed in the right hemisphere. Although these two studies are not conclusive and we will never truly be able to understand what our dogs do and do not know, it seems that our dogs may understand us more than we think.

 

Study 1 – http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2016/08/video-your-dog-understands-more-you-think

 

Study 2 – http://www.livescience.com/48920-dogs-hear-words-and-emotions.html

 

Image Source – Me

8 thoughts on “Can Dogs Understand Language?

  1. jkw5264

    This question is one that many of us have thought of before. My personal take on it is that dogs do not understand language like humans do, but they can pick up basic patterns and repeated phrases. For example, when you tell a dog, “sit”, the dog is not processing that information as the word “sit”. The dog hears the sounds created by the word and recall to a previous association with those sounds. If the dog is met with praise upon completing this action, that association will be further ingrained in their minds. I also think tone and voice characteristics are very important when communicating with any animal. Many have much more detailed senses that humans so they can pick up on anger, fear, and more. Here’s a link to more information: http://ethology.eu/do-dogs-understand-what-we-say/

  2. Anthony Michael Calligaro

    I’m very surprised by the findings in that study you referred to. My whole life, I thought dogs could learn to understand tone of voice, but I never actually considered that they can understand the words and attach meaning to them. According to this study (link is below), the average dog has the same intelligence level as a two year old child. I found this very impressive as two year olds seem to be able to pick up a lot at a very rapid pace. The article states that both dogs and two year olds can learn about 165 words.

    http://www.livescience.com/5613-dogs-smart-2-year-kids.html

  3. Hannah Gluck

    I found this very interesting to read because I have 2 dogs myself and have always wondered the same thing. I wish we knew more about this but this research it’s definitely a step in that direction. Its weird because dogs have been around for so long but we still know so little about what they can and cannot understand. I always thought my dogs just understood the tone of my voice but its really cool to see that its more than that. The fact that dogs may know over 1,000 words is really amazing, if only they could talk back. When ever I talk to my dogs they just give me a blank stare back. Overall really cool to take a look that these studies…. also i just thought this might be relevant

  4. David Ross

    I certainly believe that my dog recognizes certain words that I say. I also believe that the combination of the word and the tone at which the word is uttered is the best way for dogs to comprehend what we say. If I were to say “treat” in a relatively dull tone then my dog’s ears might perk up but if I say “treat” with a higher, and more excited tone, my dog will jump up and race me to the pantry. I look forward to seeing how far science goes with this subject. It would be really cool if humans could communicate back and forth effectively with dogs. Perhaps a device similar to the collar that the dog from the movie “Up” will be something we have years down the road. Fascinating article!

  5. Yixiao Jiang

    This is a really nice blog, because I love dogs too. However, I do not own a dog. It is really hard for me to learn training a dog. Do you have any suggestions provided? It may encourage me to actually own a dog instead of going to the pet store. Thanks.

  6. dhc5097

    Repost —-
    This is a pretty interesting blog post. I have never really thought about whether my dog can understand the tone of my voice or the words that I am saying. I would like to think that he would know the words of what I am saying because I have trained my dog to open and close the door. When I would say open he would do the movement to open it, when I would say close he would jump up and put his paws against the door to slam it. Here is a link of an article educating us more about this issue. Read here: http://www.animalplanet.com/pets/can-dogs-understand-what-we-say/

  7. mjg6031

    I relate very much to this blog post. My dog’s name is Buddy and I have always wondered if he understands what I am saying. My dog listens very well. He also seems to change facial expressions depending on what I am saying. I don’t know if that’s just a coincidence or not. I think it is really cool. It makes me glad to hear that he might actually understand me. When I tell my dog to “come” he runs right over. I agree with the studies based on my personal experience. Here is a link to an interesting article regarding this topic. Click here

  8. dhc5097

    This is a pretty interesting blog post. I have never really thought about whether my dog can understand the tone of my voice or the words that I am saying. I would like to think that he would know the words of what I am saying because I have trained my dog to open and close the door. When I would say open he would do the movement to open it, when I would say close he would jump up and put his paws against the door to slam it.

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