How many words does your dog understand?

[Abulafia]

I know that studies have shown that your average dog (and LABS ARE NEVER AVERAGE!) knows in the region of ~160 words.

Honestly, we don't count words here, but have noticed that Hoku understands a lot of words, and even some simple grammar. This morning my husband was in the dining room w/ Hoku, and said "Hoku, what's the cat doing in the kitchen?" —Hoku got up, turned around, walked into the kitchen, and looked up at the cat (cat was on the counter, probably trying to eat something).

Not sure how much grammar there was in that, but I think she got "cat" and "kitchen."

A short while later, he was on the phone w/ the Vet talking about an appointment (to check dew claws), and as he put down the phone, Hoku had her patented "Oh No You're Going to Examine Me" aspect (for some reason, she has always hated it when people seem to examine her critically—brush her, look at something on her head, check her ear for demodex—not things that cause pain).

I know that so many dogs here know so many words and commands (and as Hoku's not in shows, she knows fewer of these words, by far). Obviously Hoku knows the basic commands—sit, down, stay, wait, Ok!, off, drop, give, etc. etc. She seems also to know "walk," "park," "beach" (which I know my childhood dog knew as well—again, I don't count this as anything more than the norm).

But I was interested to see that she knows words that haven't been taught as commands—cat, kitchen, brush, Vet, etc.

I just find this fascinating. This isn't a brag post (again, so many highly trained dogs here clearly know a *lot* of human vocabulary), but I'm interested in what non-training terms your dogs know.

[tims229]

The words I KNOW Leo knows are "ready to eat?"(his favorite) that I hadn't taught him. otherwise he's learning commands. But I never"taught" him what ready to eat was, but he knows none the less.

[Jerry]

Well he should know three by now. 1. Dam, 2. it, 3. Max

[POPTOP]

Archie's not letting on how many he knows vs how many he responds to.

Patch, our Dalmatian, shocked the heck out of us. She loved her ball and was looking for it when DH said "get your ball". I had just happened to see it and said, "I believe it's in the bedroom". She immediately dashed off to the bedroom and got it. We were both looking at her with jaws dropped.

[Snowshoe]

Archie's not letting on how many he knows vs how many he responds to.

I did write some down with Jet once, there were lots, 150? Forget exactly. One thing with her that always amazed me was she seemed to understand nuance or inflection or whatever the heck it was that made "We're going to visit Grandma" sound different from "Grandma's coming for a visit." For the first she would go sit by the front door to go out to the car. For the second she would stand on her special stool placed so she could look out the window, to see if Grandma was there yet.

Oban knows way more words with me than he does with the OH.

[Jeff]

Hemi knows way to many. And yes I think he knows grammar as well. Commands are plentiful, have to remember Hemi does Painting, Nose Work, Search and Rescue, Tracking, Agility, Flyball, Canine Musical Freestyle, obedience, rally, rally free, Pilates and more that slip my mind. Then just the basics aside from just having fun in life. He knows the names of all the family member and people he is around most of the time. I even know he knows other dogs names. Phases such as get up on the deck and when I really mean it, get your a@$ up on the deck now. Let go to the RV, want to go swimming, go find _______ what ever the object is. Most of his toys are named. The ones that really get me is when I tell him to go look for a toy, he is really fast to respond to the ones I put food in. Like go find your pickle, at first I get a glance like wait did you just say what I thought you said. I say it again and he is off. When he can't find it and I know where it is, I tell him, I think you left it in the bedroom, I think you left it my office. He runs right to that spot and comes running back all happy. He knows restaurant names, the good ones that give him treats. Like I could say lets go to Wendy's. Nothing. Looks at me like do I really have to. If I say lets go to Sonic, he is up and headed for the door cause Sonic give him a treat at the drive through.

So yes I know they understand a whole lot more than what we think. The more you talk to them the more they understand. I am single, and just Hemi and I there so when I am at home I talk to him a lot. we have all kinds of conversations and not always one way. You just need to know how to listen to what they are saying.

[POPTOP]

Forgot add, have found GSDs in general and Archie in particular know how to sass. If I ask him to do something he's not interested in, he will sass back. It's hard not to laugh but I have to hold the line.

[MightyThor]

There is a whole set of words that we have purposefully taught (sit, stay, leave it, etc). And there are the words and phrases that he's just absorbed and I can see him react to. That second list is far longer. Since I work from home I talk to my dog a lot (I am not a crazy person). He may chase his own tail but he's pretty smart and I'm sure he absorbs a lot.

He knows all of his doggy friend names and will go bonkers if we're having a conversation about one of them. One of his doggy friends is named Doug, and yesterday I was on a work phone call with someone named Doug. When I greeted him "hey Doug, how are you today?" Thor bolted awake from his deep sleep and went running to the front door, thinking he was going over to the neighbor's to play.

We can't ask anyone if they are hungry because that's Thor's mealtime phrase.

If I dare talk about hiking or running he gets excited.

He also knows many of his toys by name - elephant, ball, boomi, rope.

When I do my daily farm chores I'll call out that it's time to "feed the garden and water the chickens" - he'll come from wherever he was and then shadow me as I do my chores.

For some reason he loves to watch football, and he'll come running to the TV whenever he hears a game on the TV. I think it's because one of his tricks is "Touchdown!" where he bounces and barks when someone does the touchdown referee hand signal.

[smartrock]

Some of the words I tend to think my dogs understand, such as banana, cheese, chip, dinner, food, breakfast, Twizzler, popcorn, are usually predicated by the phrase, "Do you want...?" So maybe they do not understand banana, cheese, chip, etc. It's the "Do you want..." that triggers their reaction. I guess I'd have to lay out an array of food treats and tell them to take the banana, or the popcorn, or the Twizzler, and see if they pick that specific item. However, an array of food in front of these food hounds? Yeah, I'm not sure that would work!

[Snowshoe]

Some of the words I tend to think my dogs understand, such as banana, cheese, chip, dinner, food, breakfast, Twizzler, popcorn, are usually predicated by the phrase, "Do you want...?" So maybe they do not understand banana, cheese, chip, etc. It's the "Do you want..." that triggers their reaction. I guess I'd have to lay out an array of food treats and tell them to take the banana, or the popcorn, or the Twizzler, and see if they pick that specific item. However, an array of food in front of these food hounds? Yeah, I'm not sure that would work!

Or, you could be a meanie like me and say, "Do you want a lawnchair?" Then see if they look quizzical, start getting all happy and then the facial expression changes. Some word you are sure they don't know.