I mentioned in another post the other day how strongly I believe in developing a deep relationship and strong communication with my dog. I explained how I'd taught her to give me her "I need to go out" signal of snapping her mouth at me, and that her snapping morphed into a general "yes" answer to any question, while no snap was a negative answer to the question.

Over time, more morphing...in addition to being her "outside" signal and an affirmative answer to a question, it also became a general "I want" statement. That definitely added a level of difficulty or challenge to our communication, since I'd then have to go thru a list to find out what her desire or need was at that moment ("do you need to be quick?(that's our pee word)" "are you thirsty?" etc.). As always, context is important to dogs and helps me a lot in understanding her<g>.

Zodi, my GSD, regularly lets me know if one of the cats needs to go out or come inside. The way our house is set up, my kitchen is right next to the hallway that leads to the outside door, which is glass. When I'm in the kitchen, I face away from this door, which I can't see anyway from any place in the kitchen. She tends to settle down on in the hallway, right next to where I'll be at the sink, facing the door. So, she can see if one of the cats is at the door, wanting to come in or go out. When that happens, she'll look up at me and snap, I'll ask "What?," she'll look at the door, I step around the corner, and there's one of the cats wanting to come in or go out. Kind of blew me away the first time this happened and I figured out what she was telling me.

Well, this evening, she blew me away squared<g>. She got stung by a bee today on one of her back feet. After treating the sting, I'd put a toddler's cotton crew sock on it and taped it on above the ankle. She's an angel about anything I put on her like this...sock, shirt, bandages, she'll leave them alone.

OK, so after dinner, I was cleaning up in the kitchen. She was in the middle of the front room, which I look into via a pass thru. She snapped at me, and I looked up and asked her "Do you need to be quick?" No response, so that's not it. Asked a couple more questions, and she just kept staring at me. So I said, "What do you need? Show me," as I walked into the room she was in. She turned around and walked over to the sock that had fallen off her foot and nosed it (the show me signal<g>.

OMG, was I tickled or what? I put it back on her foot, and of course, gave her a nice treat and thanked her for letting me know. Wow.

This is way beyond a simple response to a cue. This is a dog that is communicating a new thing, something that's never happened before; a dog that in a new situation, knows how to explain what she's got to say. Now, granted, this is a very simple situation; it's not like she's trying to explain her theories on which prey are the most fun to chase and why. Another thing that impressed me about it is that most dogs don't seem to enjoy wearing the things we put on them...the cone collars, socks, etc., we use to protect their wounds, yet here she was, informing me that the sock was off and standing still for me to put it back on.

I've read so many articles asking whether animals can communicate, and generally, they're discussing communication within species, not across them. Depending on how communication is defined, lots of those articles end up in the negative. We've all read articles that ask if dogs have emotions, or whether they really think (duh!). When I live with a dog like Zodi and have these kinds of interactions, where she can be in a novel, if admittedly simple, situation and have the drive to communicate, let alone be able to directly let me know what it is...I sure don't have any questions about their ability to communicate. Heck, she communicates better than a some of the guys I've dated<g>.

So...there must be lots of stories out there about your dog(s) communicating something to you...I'd sure love to hear them!

leih

 Quote: leih merigian

I explained how I'd taught her to give me her "I need to go out" signal of snapping her mouth at me, and that her snapping morphed into a general "yes" answer to any question, while no snap was a negative answer to the question.

Sounds like your dog is marker training you!

Canids are particularly complex and intelligent animals.
The problem is not so much teaching them how to tell us things.
It is teaching ourselves how to understand the things they already tell us.

I get a kick out of watching Danke "count".

Try it with your dog. Take 3-5 of the same item, and let the dog sniff, mouth and generally inspect all of them.

Then remove the dog from sight, and without the dog seeing, take away 1-3 items.
Now bring your dog back, and watch them re-inspect the items.

Danke will sniff all the items, and them immediately whine and look at me. If I add one of the items back (this is usually done with icecubes or apples in the yard), and the original number is restored, she jumps around and wags her tail.

If the number is still short, she will continue to stare at me until I give them all back.

It doesn't work with more than five. I guess she has a rudimentary concept of less and more, which makes sense given that the ability to grasp quantity would benefit a herding dog greatly.

If you give her more than the original number, she pushes the extra away- but I suspect this is because it doesn't have her scent on it already from the original inspection.

My dogs have done something similar to what your dog did. I could ask them something, and they would let me know if it was what they wanted. Right now my dog Cody learned to ask to come on our lap when we are sitting in the tv room. Cody comes and stares at us when he wants up and we say, did you ask?, and he will bark softly, very softly, so softly you can hardly hear it. Then we say ok, we won't let him up unless he does ask. (and sometimes we say no)
Well, he has taken the asking part, (on his own) and uses it when he would like something else. Its pretty silly and amazing he used this method and developed it for things he wants for himself.
One dog I had about 10 years ago, would lie. He would pretend he had to go out. (you would have to pass the treat jar to go outside) I would ask are you sure? of course he would spin or bark talk to me to say yes. I would walk to let him out, and he would go toward the back door and then at the last minute turn quickly and go to the area where the treats were and do his little barking noise. I tried to warn family members that he lied but no one would initally believe me, until he tricked them. That is just a couple of examples of my dogs turning a learned behavior into one that benefits them. My dogs have also come and told me when my cats want to go out. (that was awhile ago, no longer have the same dogs or cats) I will really enjoy hearing others stories.
Thanks for sharing with us

Actually there is a book about this that is on my amazon list. It's how to teach dogs and horses to sign at you, I heard an interview with the author of the book on the radio about a year ago and it sounded fascinating. Her last project I heard her talking about then was teaching a SAR dog to sign for man, woman, child, alive and dead.

I also remember laughing out loud when she mentioned teaching her GSD to sign and she was asking her dog what certain things were. When she pointed at the cat the dog signed "toy."

Anyhow, the book is http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/1419636227/

Our dogs figured out that barking at the front door got us to get up and leave food unguarded. They almost got away with it before somebody realized what they were doing.

These are great stories!!

This has nothing to do with communication, but has to do with definate intelligence. My last GSD was left alone at home a lot while we were at work, even at a young age, free in the house. She had diarrhea several times when she was young, and one day we came home to the aroma of poo wafting through the small apartment. We hunted around for it; she had gone (explosively!) in the walk-in shower, behind the closed curtain! It was completely contained and just needed to be rinsed down! We were so amazed by her, that she figured out the absolute best place in the apt to go. Another time she went on the large marble base of a floor lamp (the bathroom door was shut that day.) The whole place was carpeted, and she was used to going on grassy areas, and would hold it the two short times she was boarded someplace that had a concrete run.

>>Sounds like your dog is marker training you! <<


You've got that right<g>. She's an ace manipulator and very seductive and social; she can get just about anyone to play with her, even people who hate dogs.

I love your counting exercise and will have to try it sometime. I agree about the 5 number. We have a routine in the evening called Biscuit Time. She's on her bed next to mine, the cats are on the bed with me. I've got a pile of treats on the bedtable. As I'm reading or watching TV, I'll toss a few treats to Zodi, then give one or two to each of the cats, until they're gone and they get their little dried beef lung FINAL treats<g> (yeah, they're spoiled, but I make a distinction between spoiled and spoiled rotten<g>.

I tend to toss her the same number of treats during this process, whether it's 2-5 (depending on her current caloric needs). If I'm tossing her 3 consistently, then toss one or 2, she knows immediately<g>.

leih

 Quote: Sharon Empson

One dog I had about 10 years ago, would lie.

People say dogs don't lie...that's probably from people who don't actually have dogs<g>.

I prefer to think of it as false positives<g>

leih

 Quote: melissa thom

I also remember laughing out loud when she mentioned teaching her GSD to sign and she was asking her dog what certain things were. When she pointed at the cat the dog signed "toy."

Oh, that's just too funny. I'll have to check out that book; thanks for the link!

(I really think the limits to the communication between us and the dogs has more to do with our limitations than theirs.)

leih

 Quote: Cathy Goessman

Our dogs figured out that barking at the front door got us to get up and leave food unguarded. They almost got away with it before somebody realized what they were doing.

LOL