Is Your Dog Really Talking To You?

Jen Huss loves her puppy Bodhi,
but does he understand
that when she tells him?

Several years ago my mom had a dog named Choosy. Our sweet family pet earned her name as a puppy, when she demonstrated keen selectivity in deciding which carpeted areas of our house deserved to be peed on.

According to my mom, in addition to Choosy's habit of being highly judicious in determining where to urinate, the dog had another interesting talent - she understood human language.

Well, not all human language. In truth, I only recall my mom claiming that Choosy understood a single interrogatory phrase, but I was doubtful about even that possibility.

From pretty much any room in the house, my mom would bend down, make eye contact with Choosy, and ask - "do you want a cookie?" The dog would then bolt to the door of the pantry in our kitchen where we stored her special treats, and she'd wait there for my mother to come and reward her. 

A skeptic by nature, I didn't believe the dog understood the meaning of the specific question she was being asked, or for that matter, the significance of any human words. I argued that the dog wasn't interpreting language, but was instead responding to my mother's high-pitched puppy-frenzy-inducing tone of voice. 

To prove my point, I decided one day to put Choosy to the test. Using the same posture and tone of voice as my mother, I asked the dog excitedly - "Are you a Nazi?" In reply, Choosy immediately broke into a run for the pantry, where she sat by the door and awaited her cookie reward. Ha! I knew it! The dog was a fraud, a faker, a charlatan in conspiracy with my mom.

Case closed? Not exactly. Turns out my experiment may not have been all that scientific. 

Today I read a fascinating article about a Border Collie who has developed a vocabulary of more than 1,000 words. The article includes links to various animal language studies, as well as video clips like this one, which even if it's not a Husky attempting to speak, is still pretty damn cute.