Quote: alyssa myracle

Anyone else have "two-way" conversations with their dog?

Better yet, who's dogs respond to what they are saying like they know what you said?

I talk to Rock like a person....

"Well, I guess we should get the yard picked up?" and he runs out to the yard and brings all his "toys" to the patio while I am out picking stuff up as well.

Or, "What should we do today, play tug? Or maybe fetch? Or what about a ride to the firehall for some vehicle climbing?" Out of those three, he will either go get a tug, a ball or stand by the truck.
I know he doesn't understand, but I do not put any emphasis on any of the "triggers" so it is weird to me that he chooses one. And I do not use the same three "triggers" either.

If I say, "chase the cats? go to the kennels? or take a walk? he will either look for "Stubby" the Manx cat, run to the front door of the kennel or run out to the middle of the driveway and wag his tail looking from me to the end of the driveway.

It is soooo bizarre.

When not training, I talk to them all the time!
Some times I talk through a problem I am trying to solve with my Boxer. She cocks her head to the side and listens so intently. It's crazy. I have stumbled upon many solutions talking through them with her!
If I use key words in a sentence, she will usually pick up on it and respond - like, the words: truck, park, water, beach, sprinkler, pool, etc.
If she hears the word truck, she goes and stands by the tailgate. Beach or water she goes to the golf cart and jumps in. Sprinkler she goes to the nearest sprinkler head and stares at it waiting for it to turn on (she is banned from the yard when they come on - too many replacement heads!)
And on and on.
When I am training, I keep it as simple and clear as possible. My dog is so handler sensitive that I have to be careful to not distract her when we are working.

I believe they do understand After getting into SATS more I realized just how much our dogs pay attention to us and what we are saying. Just because we are not intentionally teaching our dogs something does not mean they are not putting 2 and 2 together.

Cajun learned the names for rooms in the house and I never once intentionally taught it to him. Dogs don't require a reward in order to learn an association, although if the something you are naming is fun, paying attention to what you are saying is in the dogs best interests

I do not think that in a general sense dogs understand English or other human language. But they can if you teach them meanings. I am working on teaching Duke body parts using SATS. If you name what you do, life makes a whole lot more sense to your dog. Similar to learning a foreign language, it is easier to have a visual or otherwise sensual(utilizing one of the 5 senses) association than to just be thrown into a crowd of people all speaking the new language and trying to figure it out on your own.

If you name things your dog will pick up on it.

I am a talker, definitely. I often sort of just chatter, I will ask questions because I know the dog won't disgaree but during training/work I don't get chatty unless I am working with a puppy. I do think it is important for a dog to be able to function and pay attention when you or others around you are talking. Even if you are not talking to them.

I've seen dogs tune people out, but these are usually people that nag at the dog and never follow through. The ones that tell the dog to sit a million times in a row very quickly and then give up.(etc)

For other dogs it can be a distraction to have people talking, or any sounds for that matter.

I talk to my dogs all the time (when not training). I agree that they pick up key words out of the conversation.
Sheba (my older female GSD) hears the words go to town, she runs to my car, or hears the word chicken she runs to the kennel building (where I have my freezer full of chicken).
Shady (my 7 year old female lab) was taught a trick as a puppy-to jump in a chair when she was told chair. It was always fun when people came to visit and we'd be talking and (on purpose), I'd say well lets go sit in the chair and have some ice tea and of course Shady heard the word "chair" and she'd always run and beat us to the chair. So she could pick the word out of a sentence, not given as a command.
Now, Abbey, my female standard poodle, hears me say I am going to bed and she takes a flying leap into my bedroom and beats me on the bed.
Or another example, if the word outside comes up in normal conversation, my dogs will run to the door.
There is many other times that I catch them picking out words, such as toy, ball, etc. So I do believe they listen to you when you are talking.

When I'm training new handlers, I can frequently be heard in the background saying; shut up. I try to explain to them that the command "find it" is no different than the command of "sit". When you tell a dog to sit and he does, you don't keep repeating the command. when you tell a dog to "find it" and he is actively searching, he's doing exactly as commanded, so ....... shut up. If the dog ceases doing what he was told, reinforce the command. Of course at some interval, a little verbal reinforcement is good, but work is not a discussion group or therapy session.

DFrost

Had a dachshund who LOVED the word "out", as in "outside". It got to the point that if you wanted to say it in conversation, you had to spell it, like you were talking in front of a little kid.

So we'd say something like, "Does Daisy (the dog) need to go O-U-T before we go to town?" Then the little bugger learned that O-U-T meant "out". It's bad when you can't spell in front of the dog!

Same thing happened with my male, Gus, with the word B-A-L-L.