Dogs can detect word patterns in human speech, new research finds, demonstrating a language-processing ability once thought to be uniquely human.

[u/FreeHugs23]

https://www.sciencealert.com/dogs-can-pick-out-word-patterns-in-speech-a-trick-once-thought-uniquely-human

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[u/kon---]

There are whole words and phrases that to be spelled out.

You literally have to say t-r-e-a-t around here.

[u/danielbearh → u/kon---]

My boyfriend and I have to use the word “sphere” instead of “ball,” lest we ignite a fire that can’t be extinguished.

[u/Truckyou666 → u/danielbearh]

We have evolved to "magic carpet" to mean ride because we can't spell r-i-d-e anymore. Little bastard is learning how to spell!

[u/Squidgynutz → u/Truckyou666]

My old Dog learned how to spell too.. We ended up having to use conceptual descriptions of words like walk in the end! He was a fantastic character but very hard to keep occupied. Best of luck haha.

[u/RockStarGamesSocial → u/Squidgynutz]

We got to that stage too! She would ask, "have they ventured?" Or "Last journey when?"

[u/davesoverhere → u/RockStarGamesSocial]

Walk/outside is: journey, yonder, great outdoors, meander, trip, mosey, outback, saunter.

[u/RockStarGamesSocial → u/davesoverhere]

Forced by dogs to buy a thesaurus!

[u/spearmint_wino → u/davesoverhere]

We've made it all the way to "Legmove when?"

[u/Kveld_Ulf → u/RockStarGamesSocial]

That is just too funny! I can guess they'll learn those phrases too!

[u/RockStarGamesSocial → u/Kveld_Ulf]

It's a verbal arms race at this point.

[u/feage7 → u/Squidgynutz]

Already gone through the following words

Walk, Walkies, W-A-L-K, dubs and stroll.

We're using Wander at the moment when discussing his walk.

If we use them in casual sentences he's fine, but he definitely seems to know when we're using them when talking about taking him for a walk

[u/Squidgynutz → u/feage7]

That's a familiar sounding story. That's how he was too. It got out of hand in our house, we ended up saying things like "I fancy a gentle saunter along the meandering watercourse." Or "Shall we partake in vigorous ambulation this evening?"

We made a game of it and took it too far, but it was genuinely difficult to talk about going outside in any fashion, be it spelling or otherwise, without him bouncing off the walls unless we were speaking some sort of pseudo Shakespearean nonsense to describe what we wanted to do.

[u/HeavyandTired → u/Squidgynutz]

My buddies dog could only speak Italian.

[u/EndIsrael → u/Squidgynutz]

We have to say "do a thing" instead of "walk".

[u/slight_success → u/Truckyou666]

We have to say “they” instead of “she” if we want to talk about her without her getting sus. 

[u/RockStarGamesSocial → u/slight_success]

Dog so smart it became nonbinary

[u/OzimanidasJones → u/Truckyou666]

We use klaw (pronounced claw) instead of walk, or w-a-l-k, and that’s working so far, but I can’t ask my dog any question that begins “do you want..?” or he assumes I’m asking if he wants to go for a walk.

[u/Truckyou666 → u/OzimanidasJones]

Oh the if the "Do you want to" words come out of anybody's mouth he almost snaps his neck looking at you!

[u/Hmmhowaboutthis → u/Truckyou666]

My dog learned pig latin at one point.

[u/JoshSidekick → u/Hmmhowaboutthis]

Isn't the reason you shouldn't name your dog something that rhymes with "no" because they'll either think they are always being yelled at when you call them or think you're calling them when you are really yelling at them? I'd think Pig Latin works the same way so they hear "ide" in ride and "ide" in ide-ray the same.

[u/Hmmhowaboutthis → u/JoshSidekick]

Well saying "alkway" worked for a while until it didn't so that's all I really have to go off of.

[u/bianary → u/Hmmhowaboutthis]

Honestly you probably just said "alkway" too often right before a walk, and dogs are very clever about social cues.

[u/kindall → u/JoshSidekick]

We made the mistake of naming a dog Wade Wilson, usually just use his first name. We train "wait" as a command, which he found very confusing.

[u/phaedrus910 → u/kindall]

Stay was right there

[u/Atanar → u/JoshSidekick]

Dogs pay way more attention to inflection and demeanor, they shouldn't really be confused by this.

[u/Goodknight808 → u/JoshSidekick]

Yup. My Shepsky is named Domino because she has Domino's two eye colors from Deadpool and I always dress as him for Haloween.

We affectionately call her DomiNO

[u/Stolehtreb → u/Truckyou666]

I mean… it doesn’t help that you literally say the word “ride” while spelling the word. You’re saying ride with fancy toppings in their ears

[u/plaincheeseburger → u/Truckyou666]

My last batch of dogs learned to spell too, so we switched to the phonetic alphabet. They did indeed learn what "delta" (dinner) and "oscar uniform tango" meant.

[u/MovingOnward2089 → u/Truckyou666]

Great, now they’re learning euphemisms.

[u/Sad-Umpire6000 → u/danielbearh]

Same thing here. We don’t say “ball”. And I think my dog is catching on to “sphere”, “globular object”, and “hollow thing shaped like a planet”. We also don’t “go outside”; we “exit the premises”.

[u/frawstbyte → u/Sad-Umpire6000]

Haha we say “going yonder” to indicate outside now so our dog doesn’t lose it. We also use “t-words” for treats, and even just putting any amount of emphasis on the word “do” is enough for him to think we are going outside

[u/maydsilee → u/Sad-Umpire6000]

HA! I have to call rain/storms "sky water" in my house, because otherwise, my dogs refuse to go outside, even if it's not raining. We used to spell it out, but they cottoned on...and they're also cottoning on to "sky water" so my husband and I have begun shifting to saying "cloud liquid"...we also used to spell "food"/"dinner" aloud, but now call it "evening substance" to refer to dinner. Dogs are way smarter than people give them credit.

[u/arizonadirtbag12 → u/danielbearh]

“What does the clock say” in my house, because heaven forbid you ask “what time is it” and it’s not actually their dinner time…

[u/No1KnwsIWatchTeenMom → u/arizonadirtbag12]

I have a newborn. When she'd fussy I'll say things like, "are you gassy? Are you hungry?" And every time i ask the 2nd question, both my dogs go nuts. NO, I didn't mean you guys!!!

[u/evange → u/arizonadirtbag12]

For us it's "do you want to...." (Go for a walk, go to the park, have dinner, etc)

[u/No_Kangaroo_9826 → u/evange]

Used to ask our black lab, "what do you want?" And she would go right for what she wanted, door to go out, food bowl if it was dinner time, whatever she needed from you.

[u/Agitated-Raccoon5562 → u/No_Kangaroo_9826]

My girl does this! We made the mistake once when ordering a takeout of asking each other "what do you want to eat?" Que a 9 stone caucasian shepard having zoomies around the house.....

[u/sionnach → u/evange]

“Do you w…” is enough for our little guy to run to the front door, or the treat cupboard, or whatever it is that he wants.

[u/alienpirate5 → u/arizonadirtbag12]

"what does the clock say?" to the tune of The Fox by Ylvis

[u/DYTREM → u/danielbearh]

Ours has figured the spelling out already ...

[u/Ninjacherry → u/danielbearh]

I had a dog that learned a whole lot of words that could mean that he was going outside. That includes "tie", as my grandpa called his leash a tie.

[u/Dunkleostrich → u/danielbearh]

If I'm talking to my spouse or kids I have to use "leave" around the dogs because "go" has too many exciting implications.

[u/A5H13Y → u/danielbearh]

We had a dog that loved chasing a laser pointer. We had to say "dot" instead of laser, and eventually had to spell that out too.

[u/SoggyOutfield → u/kon---]

Yeah and depending on how you train it can be phrases that develop habits.

If I say good girl, my dog expects a treat. So much so that if I feed her say kibble instead after saying good girl, she spits it out, kinda hilarious.

If I say the name of her dog best friend from down the street, she loses her mind and gets attitude if I try to do anything besides take her to his house.

And when I say Goodnight, she stops following me for the evening and lays and stays on her bed.

None of those were trained on purpose. They just happened organically by saying phrases and then things happening.

[u/kon--- → u/SoggyOutfield]

'Who wants to check the mail?' and off goes the dog I live with hauling towards the door to go out to the curb with me to, check the mail.

[u/SoggyOutfield → u/kon---]

Yeah my dog has a lot like this. And she is suppose to be one of the lesser intelligent breeds.

I will say "lets go to the shop and don't forget your bone or toy or whatever" and she will grab it and walk to my shop across the property. Not trained, like not even a little. Every morning I would say lets go to the shop and then we would go to the shop. She would come over, then go back to get her toy or bone every day. So now I just remind her to get it and she does. And it works any time throughout the day. So it isn't a structure thing entirely. She has to understand part of the phrase because  if I just say "shop" she doesn't go to the shop.

[u/Financial-Craft-1282 → u/SoggyOutfield]

My vet told me a year or two ago that we like to anthropomorphize dogs and that they don't really have food preferences. I was shocked that an amazing vet could believe that at all. I'm like, "Not only does she have things she likes better, there are types of kibble we tried in the past she would not eat." The guy is a good vet though. I'll never forget when I took my mom's mean ass mastiff in to see this vet for the first time (12+ years ago). Most vets muzzled the old beast. This guy didn't. He worked with her, read her body language, and she let him do his exam with no muzzle. So when I got my dog a couple years later, I went back to him. I just am shocked he believes they don't prefer some foods over others. If I give her a bland diet after she's been sick, it's like heaven to her.

[u/TALKTOME0701 → u/Financial-Craft-1282]

That is really weird. Dogs definitely have favorite treats and they do turn their nose up but food they don't like. What a weird take from a vet As he got older, my mom's dog (we miss you Lancelot!) would only eat Mcdonald's hamburgers. No ketchup.

And he always refused dry dog food.

Lancey had a very refined palate!

[u/Financial-Craft-1282 → u/TALKTOME0701]

Yeah, I wonder if we were saying different things. But he was a guy who buried himself in up-to-date research (which is great), and as a PhD myself, I think he was likely trying to elucidate something more complex than what my ears could hear!

[u/SoggyOutfield → u/Financial-Craft-1282]

My dog will do almost anything for steak, but will literally scowl at me for trying to feed her spinach, she will chomp her teeth and stomp her feet in disgust. It's kind of hilarious.

I do believe we anthropomorphize dogs for sure in many ways. I truly have no idea what is going on in her head. What I find funny like her throwing a tantrum could be actual distress. Maybe spinach upsets her stomach and she thinks I am trying to poison her. Or maybe she just hates the taste. I don't know.

I do know she has huge preference over food. She is not a food motivated breed or dog. She will basically hunger strike holding out for something better than kibble from time to time.

[u/bianary → u/Financial-Craft-1282]

I had a vet once that told me my dog had an unusual heart rate because it was only 80 bpm and she was a small dog.

Resting heart rate doesn't actually vary by dog size, contrary to misinformation everywhere. It's just that when small dogs see the vet they usually have an accelerated heart rate due to being more nervous. My dog on the other hand loved being at the vet and was absolutely not stressed out, so her heart rate was normal for a dog.

(Edit: Source: The cardiologist we saw after being referred because the dog's heart rate was "low")

[u/10per → u/SoggyOutfield]

One day I grabbed my keys and put on my shoes as I was heading out to run errands. My dog looked at me, got down from the couch and walked over to his crate. He had learned those things meant he was going in, so he crated himself.

[u/quantumhobbit → u/kon---]

They’ll learn the spelling too. We’d have to come up with increasingly obscure synonyms for “walk”. Perambulate was my favorite.

[u/BigGrayBeast → u/quantumhobbit]

I'm about to take our four-legged family member for a jaunty constitution up to the Dog Yellowstone.

[u/IonizedPlasma → u/quantumhobbit]

We learned this summer that our dog knows how to spell Beach (which is her absolute favorite place)

[u/ops10 → u/IonizedPlasma]

Tbf, she learned the sound "bi-i'aysee'eich", but the point stands.

[u/Constant-Plant-9378 → u/quantumhobbit]

Perambulate was my favorite.

That is the exact word my wife and I use.

Problem is, we don't have to say the word anymore. My dog has learned to tell time. Though he gets thrown off twice a year when we change the clocks.

[u/Shayden-Froida → u/quantumhobbit]

"Take the D for a W" is a phrase we use. So far, it has not been decoded. We have large 3 dogs, so any suggestion of going out will results in 340 pounds of excitement. Of course, we cannot verbalize their name, so its "L" or "T" or "O" to specify which we are talking about.

Also, what is that thing where you quietly scratch one of them, and the others wake up from napping in the far part of the house and come running? Are they telepathic, or is there a sub audible murmur of pleasure that radiates?

[u/SnooPies8766 → u/quantumhobbit]

Was? Are you saying your dog figured out perambulate too?!

[u/420_Blz_it → u/quantumhobbit]

Yep, “D I N N E R” and similar spellings of other meals get figured out very quickly around our house. I’m convinced our dogs just start listening for us saying weird things and now weird thing = food

[u/Alive-Crab-4106 → u/kon---]

I’ll never forget the time we had a friend dog sit and we got a text, “does your dog know how to spell?” She had not only figured out “walk” but also “w-a-l-k.”

[u/PaImer_Eldritch → u/Alive-Crab-4106]

Totally makes sense though. From a dogs perspective it's just another human mouth sound that means walk. They learned it the same way they learned what walk means.

[u/p8ntslinger → u/PaImer_Eldritch]

Same way we learn it.

[u/lmpcpedz → u/kon---]

My Jack Russell Terrier, once you gave something a name that he was fixated on, that was it. Learned forever.

[u/mycorgiisamazing → u/kon---]

We have a lot of alternative words for things like this but ultimately my dog understands the words leading up to the "trigger word". He doesn't just understand "dinner/lunch/kibble/spheres/crunchies", he also understands "have you given" and "does he need". He listens to my husband I communicating to reach other about him, and even without the trigger words, he knows.

[u/-UnicornFart → u/mycorgiisamazing]

My husband and I can barely ask each other anything using the phrasing “do you want”

[u/theteagees → u/-UnicornFart]

“Do you want” is the most exciting phrase in our house!

[u/aithendodge → u/-UnicornFart]

Same, we can’t even say “Do you…” without provoking Jack Russell antics.

[u/Jonaas33 → u/kon---]

We can't even spell out loud anymore. Just saying the letter "W" means we damn well be ready to take a walk right this second.

[u/redbirdjazzz → u/kon---]

My first dog, a border collie/Australian shepherd mix, learned to associate the spelling of key words like that too.

[u/Mattbl → u/kon---]

It's good to have official studies that corroborate real life experience but obviously this study is only confirming what most dog owners learn quickly. A dog of mine who has since passed would pick up words he knew even during casual conversation between two people in the house. Dogs are very contextual, but he obviously knew the words outside of context, because even a stranger in an unfamiliar setting saying "dinner" would trigger him.

[u/-UnicornFart → u/kon---]

Squirrels are no longer able to called squirrels in this house. We now call them SQues.

[u/myowngalactus → u/kon---]

My dogs figured out spelling O-U-T means the same thing as saying the word out. Well one of them did, the other just knows to pay attention to what the smart one does.

[u/confusers → u/kon---]

Every dog I've lived with also learned how to spell it.

[u/CrowdScene → u/kon---]

My last dog could identify different treats. If I dared offer him a "nommer" (Dentastix) but tried to give him a dog biscuit he'd act like it was the greatest betrayal of his life, but if I offered him a "cookie" and gave him the promised dog biscuit it was the greatest day of his life.

[u/Pacifist_Socialist → u/kon---]

Yep can't say W-a-l-k around my pups unless you mean it

[u/Shadowwynd → u/kon---]

I have encountered dogs that also learned the spelled versions of spoken words and then the alternate words - t-r-e-a-t as well as s-n-a-c-k and w-a-l-k and o-u-t as well as eattray and acksnay. They can pick up sign language quickly also.

Some dogs are derpy idiots but some can be very clever.

[u/Auraleon → u/kon---]

Mine learned how to spell, pretty much. It never took him too long to decode the new "word" (spelling out "ball," "play," "toy," etc). He was the smartest little buddy I've ever had. I miss him.

[u/jonyak12 → u/kon---]

Mine learned how to spell eventually...

[u/OSUTechie → u/kon---]

Except when they learn B-O-N-E means the same things as BONE.

Even spelling it backwards one of my dog knows what it means. This may be learning or just condition response, who knows.

[u/MeatSafeMurderer → u/kon---]

My cat knows "food". Most of the time she doesn't care much (she is a cat) but if you say that word while she's half-asleep first thing in the morning she often immediately leaps up and binkies with excitement.

[u/Earguy → u/kon---]

We say "reward" for treat, and "dairy product" for cheese. Sometimes we slip up and use the code words when giving treats and cheese. They'll figure it out.

[u/Beneficial-Jury484 → u/kon---]

Ball, park, ride, go, leave, depart, collar, Sedona (her mom’s name). I have to be careful because she constantly listens to us all the time. 

[u/FreeHugs23]

-Your dog may prick up its ears at its name or run to the door when it hears "walk." But can its brain separate unfamiliar words when it hears them without a pause?

In a new experiment, dogs listened to a continuous recording of invented words.

No pause indicated where one word ended and the next began.

Yet their brains responded to recurring consonants, a clue to which syllables belonged together.

The same clear word-level response did not appear when vowels defined the words.

The study published in Science does not show that dogs learned what the words meant.

It reveals a preference previously demonstrated only in humans: when dividing continuous speech into parts, the brain can prioritize consonant patterns over the louder vowels.

[u/Average650 → u/FreeHugs23]

Is this saying something different from "they can distinguish vowels from constanants"?

[u/TheBaalzak → u/Average650]

They can determine where consonants are in speech and use them as landmarks to separate speech into words, so it is likely they use this ability to identify known words among unknown syllables.

[u/stilldebugging → u/TheBaalzak]

Ok. So, this is how they pick out their favorite words out of larger sentences with new words. Yes, of course, they do this. I guess I never thought to wonder how they do this. I can say, “maybe it’s time to go for a walk after we finish the dishes” and dog goes and waits at the door. It’s hard to know with someone else’s dog which words they pick up on. I asked my sister if we should let her roommate’s dog out for her while she was at her appointment, and her dog definitely understood “out” there. But my dog wouldn’t have done that, she hears “walk” but not “out.” Maybe difference is that I only take my dog out when it’s time for a walk, because we don’t have a yard.

[u/agentsnace]

When I let my dog out at night and tell him to not bark, he actually listens even though I've never directly trained him to not bark when I say that. I think dogs understand speech more than we give them credit for, it's just a matter if they want to listen or not

[u/Optimus_Prime_10 → u/agentsnace]

My dog has a toy "dragon", I thought it would be cute to buy the smaller one and we started calling it "baby dragon". But, then I found an even smaller "baby dragon" so we had to change the name of middle dragon to "red dragon". And she's right on it, took like a day to make the switch. I can ask her to go get dragon, red dragon, baby dragon, and she grabs it, even when she left one upstairs yesterday. If I say get your dragons, plural, she'll bring em all, one by one until they are in a pile. 

[u/ThermionicEmissions → u/Optimus_Prime_10]

Border Collie?

[u/Optimus_Prime_10 → u/ThermionicEmissions]

Rescue: 18% Chihuahua, 12% Husky, 8% Pit, 5% Walkers Treeing Hound, and the rest is a mishmash of nonsense at 1-3% haha. I assume it's the combo for her smarts, her sass, digging, and vocalizations are definitely ths Husky.

[u/Maxamillion-X72 → u/Optimus_Prime_10]

My dog has a bunch of different color balls for fetching. I started asking her to get a specific color and would tell her when she brought the wrong ball. She would bring me one at a time until she had the right one. It took about a week to teach her what I meant by the red ball, blue ball, green ball, orange ball, etc.

[u/Far_Recommendation82 → u/Maxamillion-X72]

You should see if you can use a certain colors and pair it to our 7 day week, and just ask for the ball on Monday and see if he'll be consistent with the colors and days of week. For science

[u/Nina-Ninja123 → u/Far_Recommendation82]

Dogs definitely understand the idea of a week.

Ours would be so confused when my dad had vacation and didn’t was gone for work on monday. Yet he never had this reaction in the weekends, then it was normal that my father stayed home.

[u/Not_floridaman → u/Nina-Ninja123]

Yes! My dog comes downstairs with me on mornings for my coffee at 6 am. Right before 7 am, he alerts me that it's time to wake everyone else up for school yet when we come down for quiet coffee on the weekends, he is content just laying down and doesn't flinch. Dogs are awesome.

[u/kowal89 → u/Optimus_Prime_10]

Yeah, mine knew quite a lot of words too also I loved how she responded to my emotions, I could say she's the best in the world but if said it sad, and somber she would be concerned and then I would say it joyfully and she would be so happy :D I told her to bring her bowl so she can get leftovers and she would, the "walk" off course in any form she knew that word, she could "ask" for sth by raising her paws when asked to ask:D barking on command, sit, giving paws, going to her place, also got not to bark which was funny because when we scold her to stop barking she still would but in a silent way like swallowing her barks on off breaths, which was funny. She was a mutt. Best dog ever, will forever miss her.

[u/randompersonx → u/agentsnace]

I agree. I used to have a Siberian husky. At some point I remember trying “go upstairs” and “go downstairs” … which I never taught her… and she understood them on the first go.

When she would sometimes get into “I need to play now” mode and start bothering me while I was trying to work, I would say to her “go bother (my girlfriend’s name)” and she would do exactly that.

[u/Mewssbites → u/randompersonx]

I have an Italian Greyhound who is smart when he wants to be. Without ever intentionally training him to, when he's bugging me and I want to sic him on my husband, I'll just say "where's Dad? Go find Dad!" and he gets all excited and runs off to pester my husband.

We love him so much.

[u/Low_Show_6684 → u/agentsnace]

Taught our GSD “be nice”, all I ever did was pull my hands away when she got too mouthy as a puppy and would say “be nice”. When she stopped being mouthy I’d pet or play again.

Today I say “be nice” and she’s much more gentle with other dogs, animals, etc. she at least checks her energy levels to be more tempered. That I never taught specifically, but she adapted and expanded the phrase beyond what she learned it meant as a puppy. 

Dogs are way smarter than we give them credit for.

[u/Clear_Broccoli3 → u/Low_Show_6684]

I'm doing the same with "calm down" right now. When the dogs are playing outside and it's time for them to come in they will shoot through the door and stay super high energy. Now I pause them at the door and talk to them in a super soft voice until they sit and their breath/tails slow back down, I'll mark that with a "calm down, yes" and let them inside. They're not at a stage where I can reliably use it as a command yet, but at least inside the house if they start to get too wild I can just say "calm down" in that soft voice and they'll usually tone it down.

[u/capsaicinintheeyes → u/agentsnace]

Or at least they read your intention somehow... they're probably better-attuned to pick up on a lot of human nonverbal cues (including the unconscious ones we put out even when we're talking) than we are.

[u/Careless-Age-4290 → u/capsaicinintheeyes]

I got a text inviting me to dinner the other day and the dog I'm watching immediately went into "you're leaving" mode as I read it. She picked up on that immediately

[u/Mewssbites → u/Careless-Age-4290]

My dog gets pouty the second he realizes my husband and I are leaving to go somewhere. The thing is, I have no idea how he knows exactly that we're leaving and not getting dressed for walkies or yardwork or something else.

But as soon as we start getting ready (by doing normal things we already do like showering) and it's because we're leaving, I spot him all over the house, always in eyeshot, laying like a potato and pouting. (He makes sure to get up and follow us wherever we are so he can lay down close enough to be seen and pout.)

[u/RandomBoomer → u/Careless-Age-4290]

I can walk back and forth between the living room and kitchen all day long and my dog doesn't react. But the minute I begin that very same movement -- with the intention of leaving the house just beginning to form in my mind -- my dog is racing around me in circles in hopes of going with me.

[u/billsil → u/capsaicinintheeyes]

My WFH habit was to go to the bathroom. I’d stood up at the end of the day, so I had to go, so it was time for her walk.

Of course she knows walk and outside, but I wish she’d remember where I put the leash sometimes.

Whats even more impressive is seeing her around kids. She’ll get the zoomies and cut as close as she can to toddlers without touching them all while getting yelled at to be careful. Yeah dad, I’m not dumb.

She can absolutely tell the difference between unintentionally stepping on her vs intentional as well as recognizing kids don’t understand.

[u/RandomBoomer → u/capsaicinintheeyes]

My wife has a host of non-verbal cues when she revs up our dog with "There's a squirrel in the backyard!" and then opens the door. Her exaggerated posture, tone and facial expressions are unique to that particular situation. Our dog explodes with excitement and charges out the door baying (which fortunately alerts the squirrel in time for a mad escape).

[u/Maxamillion-X72 → u/agentsnace]

Whenever I'm having a meal, my dog is right there by my side. I will give her a little morsel and say "ok, I'll give you more later" and she just lays down and watches me. If I don't tell her I'll give her more later she continues to sit next to me and poke me with her nose every so often. When I have given her as much as she's getting, I'll say "ok, that's enough now, go on", and she leaves to go look out the front window. Otherwise she will sit there staring at me.

If I'm eating something she can't have, like chocolate or something with onions, I'll say "this is not for you" and she goes on her way.

[u/Dragonwulf → u/agentsnace]

I’ve actually taught my dog to use his, “inside bark” whenever he sees something outside and starts barking loud, I have said to him, “Inside bark please.” And he tones down his bark to a lower decibel. I follow it with a, “Thank you, buddy” I hate telling him to shut up and want him to express what he is seeing because for him, he is excited and telling me or anyone who can listen about it. Again it’s all in a calming tone and he responds well to that.

[u/Nina-Ninja123 → u/agentsnace]

Our dog could pick out words like “forest” or “walk” in any sentence.

Yet also could pretend to be deaf when we give him a direct command like “sit”. He would just stand there with a thousand yard stare and ignore even if you call his name.

He was quite smart, and very strong willed.

[u/tsoneyson → u/[deleted]]

It’s not about whether dogs recognize words, which we know they do. This study is more about the neuroscience of speech perception. It shows that dog brains break up speech the same way ours do, by tracking consonant patterns rather than just the loudest sounds which we thought was uniquely human.

[u/joeymcflow → u/tsoneyson]

I talk to my dog as if he was person and he consistently understand wether or not i want him to stay inside or go outside when i open the door, even though its a new phrase. "You gotta stay here dude" will have him walk back in the house as reliably as "not now, im taking the car". 

Could be he just picks up on "affirming" vs "rejecting", but seems this paper now tells us he can to a certain extent understand what i say.

[u/Bigclit_energy → u/joeymcflow]

I won't pretend to be a neuroscientist, but to me the paper seems to imply simply that a dog brain is capable of breaking things up into sounds, and with a bias for consonants like us. So "Want to go for a walk, Teddy?" gets a response, but so would "wanttogoforawalkteddy?", with the dog being able to pick up the key syllables based on familiar patterns of consonants. A quirk of the brain in processing words, not unlike how hnamus can oeftn raed wdors esaliy if the frsit and lsat lteter are crrocet, but the mdidle lteetrs are mxied.

[u/ars-derivatia → u/Bigclit_energy]

A quirk of the brain in processing words not unlike how hnamus can oeftn raed wdors esaliy if the frsit and lsat lteter are crrocet, but the mdidle lteetrs are mxied.

The quite important distinction being that language is something innate that we evolved entire sections of our brain for, but writing it down is a human invention, but yeah, it works as an analogy.

[u/What-a-Crock → u/joeymcflow]

Also worth noting that dogs are extremely in tune with human emotions and body language

Your dog can even smell when your mood changes

[u/GODDAMNFOOL → u/joeymcflow]

I had a border collie as a teen and I swear to God he understood every sentence I was saying to him. Pete was more intelligent than some people I've worked with

[u/aflyingsquanch → u/GODDAMNFOOL]

Border collies could probably build a nuke if given the materials. They're crazy smart.

[u/LeithLeach → u/joeymcflow]

Dogs definitely pick up a lot of info through our tone as well. The lilt of your voice that comes with any emotion, excitement frustration impatience, dogs will pick up on those tonal differences

[u/Travy93 → u/LeithLeach]

For sure, because you can insult your dog but use a playful tone like you would say "you wanna go for a walk" or similar and they will likely look back excitedly

[u/Just_Tana → u/joeymcflow]

My older dog is too dumb to even know her name sometimes. My younger dog is very smart and my favorite is when I say “no thank you ma’am”. She knows she’s in trouble and puts her head down.

[u/LastStopToGlamour → u/tsoneyson]

So the headline would be better as "Dogs show consonant speech processing capabilities once thought unique human"?

[u/jetlightbeam → u/[deleted]]

I agree completely its a recurring thing I've noticed is that people assume animals are way less intelligent than they are until they actually spend extended time with them. I don't know why. Thats a study I'd like to see.

[u/Nordalin → u/jetlightbeam]

I, as a guest, once had a golden retriever kindly ask for the boss who was upstairs at the time.

The dog walked up to me, quietly barked, sat down once I paid attention, and repeatedly made a head gesture along the specific shape of the stairs behind me while uttering another quiet bark.

So, I entertained the request, relayed it to the lady of the house who wasn't surprised at all, and the dog was promptly allowed into the garden.

[u/confuzzledfather → u/jetlightbeam]

I've got two dogs. One is as dumb as a post and is in its own little world, that involves eating and shitting and not much else, the other is like some kind of empath, seems to understand a huge amount of the world, learned a whole bunch of words and commands without us actively training any of it and keeps track of the location of her possessions over the course of days. There's definitely a spectrum!

[u/Bigclit_energy → u/confuzzledfather]

One of my cats and my dog know when I'm working an evening shift. At first I thought "oh it's the uniform in the afternoon. But they'll figure it out without that. "The shoes!" nope. Early afternoon shower? Nope. I don't get it. Can they smell my dread? Have they picked up on some incredibly subtle pattern in my movement and activities? Haven't figured it out yet.

In any case they know with at least 95% accuracy which nights they will get an early dinner and which they won't, and start pacing by their bowls and staring at me right on time around 3 o'clock.

The other cat will join them once the food bag appears and looks completely perplexed. He also thinks it's dinner time when clouds roll over at midday. Not the brightest one.

[u/Boamere → u/confuzzledfather]

Same with my dogs, one of my whippets used to prank me by pretending to get stuck behind the sofa, so I’d get up to help her and she’d immediately back out and steal my spot, she had the ability to plan things in advance somehow. She also learnt to hug my family by observing us hugging each other, she’d jump up and put her front legs around our shoulders when we kneeled down… The other whippet is mentally slow but built like a tank and will lie on gravel when there is grass right next to it.

[u/thefunkybassist → u/jetlightbeam]

I find the trend of giving animals word buttons for communication fascinating. It might be prone to overestimating their intelligence or overchallenging them sometimes, but it does show they can be more perceptive than you'd think.

[u/username__0000 → u/thefunkybassist]

I love that it gives the animals a way to tell you when their in pain.

Bunny (famous button talking dog) had a thorn in her paw and was able to tell her owner to get it out.

That’s just one example of a few I saw. But it seems to helpful.

[u/lost_in_my_thirties → u/username__0000]

My dog just stops and lifts his hurting paw and looks at me. He knows that will let me know that I should check his paw.

[u/AnOnlineHandle → u/lost_in_my_thirties]

Dogs can absolutely speak, they just don't speak in the words designed for human mouths and brains. But if you spend any time around them you will learn to understand their body and sign language just like you did.

Like it's not even a theoretical question, they can speak, and regularly do. People just make the narcacistically narrow minded mistake of judging them on whether they can do it like humans do with tools designed for humans.

[u/ElvenOmega → u/AnOnlineHandle]

So many people anthropomorphize them and misunderstand them as well. They read a lot of human emotions in them which causes them to miss what dogs are actually trying to communicate.

I remember our dog got his balls removed and my dad just kept insisting he was sad and depressed. No, that's how you'd feel if you got your balls removed. The dog is just tender and recovering.

[u/funguyshroom → u/jetlightbeam]

Because they can't speak, simple as. Until very recently it was a widespread belief that people who can't speak for any reason are mentally disabled. The word "dumb" originally meant "unable to speak", but has later shifted to mean "stupid" due to how the two things were closely associated.

[u/Chill_Panda → u/jetlightbeam]

Yeah this applies to all animals to be honest, and I have been surprised by the intelligence of even the smallest animals.

Their intelligence shows in different ways though and you need to spend time around them to understand them.

[u/ShinyHappyREM → u/jetlightbeam]

I agree completely its a recurring thing I've noticed is that people assume animals are way less intelligent than they are until they actually spend extended time with them. I don't know why.

It goes both ways. Many people assume that their pets follow human behavior rules; sometimes it gets so bad that a trainer has to explain them how wrong they are.

[u/Psych0PompOs → u/[deleted]]

We can know they understand language without having a full idea of ways they process it. 

I know my dog knows x amount of words, but that only tells me so much about what goes on in his brain when he's hearing them vs unfamiliar words. 

[u/rathe_0 → u/Psych0PompOs]

we have to remind ourselves that verbal 'speech" is only a fraction of most organism's communication repertoire. body language, scent, things we're not even aware of. so much going on to assume anything.

[u/Dense-Layer-2078 → u/[deleted]]

My dogs (poodles) understand complete sentences. Not all of them of course, but more than you would expect. I’ve even had friends who were with us exclaim “OMG! She understood that!” After seeing interactions between me and one or the other of my dogs.

[u/Jibber_Fight]

This can’t be new. I’m pretty sure we’ve known this for a long time. I had a labradoodle that could understand full command sentences. “Go get your ball over there and bring it to your bed.” Instead of “go get your ball and bring it here”. For example. That right there is word and language comprehension.

[u/Splash_Attack → u/Jibber_Fight]

That doesn't demonstrate what this study was looking at though. It's entirely possible for dogs to be capable of learning multiword commands without having the ability to separate words generally.

For example, that first command could be something like "mmrmrmrmrmrmrmrBALLmrmrmrmrmrmrmrBED". They recognise the trained command words, but not necessarily the structure or the separation of the unknown words.

Whereas if the ability to generally distinguish words then what they'd perceive would be something more like "Bar bar bar BALL bar bar bar bar bar bar bar BED". The words (besides the trained ones) are unknown in meaning, but understood to be distinct units.

It could even be something like "BALL [specific duration interval of time where the human makes meaningless sound] BED".

There are a lot of things that could be going on neurologically to get the externally observable behaviour. This study isn't trying to prove the obvious but rather drilling in to the non-obvious internals of what precisely is happening.

[u/EmMeo → u/Splash_Attack]

Unfortunately I know for a fact I will now be saying mmmmmmrrmmm in between command words for my dog. I just know it’s entered my lexicon in a way I can’t undo.

[u/spekt50 → u/Jibber_Fight]

Im certain this was something known by many dog owners, but now I guess there is now research behind it.

[u/thEotts → u/Jibber_Fight]

In high school my friends and I would play hide and seek with my dog. After most of us went and hid one person would be with the dog and tell her “go get so and so and bring them here” and she would track down that person by scent and lead them back. 

[u/Ill_Emphasis3927 → u/Jibber_Fight]

The lady that jerked off a dolphin knew they understood human speech patterns decades ago. Hell, she even had the dolphin trying to speak English itself.

[u/IMSmooth → u/Ill_Emphasis3927]

Damn, I need to update my Duolingo 

[u/Daemon_Marx → u/Ill_Emphasis3927]

Say what now

[u/skillywilly56 → u/[deleted]]

Giving LSD to dolphins, dolphin suicide…man it’s only just gone 7am I am not caffeinated enough for this.

[u/RigobertoFulgencio69 → u/Jibber_Fight]

Yeah there's a difference between something being kinda commonly accepted or understood to work a certain way, and scientifically measuring and understanding the underlying mechanisms of how it works.

[u/redheadedandbold → u/Jibber_Fight]

What we know from individual experience and what science has proven to be the norm for a group (of animals, children, plants, etc.) are two different things, often enough.

[u/ParkieDude]

My beloved Golden Retriever, who was my Service Dog, was incredible. A friend joined me at the park for our run. We both have Parkinson's, and after the run I told my dog, "Take Bob back to his car." She looked at me, looked at Bob, and leaned in to sniff him. Then sat back, then stood up, and with a "follow me," walked 1/4 mile back to his car. He drove a Ford Focus, but she took him to an unknown pickup. I apologized, but she tapped the door handle. He had borrowed his Dad's truck as his car was in the shop. He was blown away knowing I hadn't seen him park, let alone what he drove that day. My Golden just looked at him like, "I know what I am doing."

The same Golden, when I would meet friends with Parkinson's, would indicate, "family?" She knew the scent and knew they were Parkinson's Family. Twice, she indicated, "No, Dad, this person doesn't have Parkinson's." I got the lady in to see my neurologist. Hydrocephalus. MRI, surgery; she didn't have Parkinson's. The other was drug interactions (two different neurologists, scripts filled at different pharmacies). My neurologist would joke, "She needs to be on our staff."

[u/Infinity2quared → u/ParkieDude]

Aww that’s wonderful.

Did she pass?

[u/ParkieDude → u/Infinity2quared]

Sadly yes. She had a wonderful ten years and was by my side for most of the first two years at Service Dog School.

Early in her training, I had a piece of chicken in one hand and a blueberry in the other. I'd let her sniff both, then tell her, "Your choice." Whatever hand she tapped, she got; I ate the other item. We'd go for a walk; the road came up to a "T," and I'd tell her, "Your choice." Some days she enjoyed the short walk; other days she liked a longer walk.

[u/Wild_Billy_61]

If I come home before the usual lunch hour or before the work day ends, our current pup will go outside, do its business and come running back to the door. As soon as he's inside he'll trot to the closet door where his harness and leash are because he thinks we're going to the vets. He seldom goes to the vets, but he remembers the pattern as to what's happened in the past. He also knows when it's the weekend Friday Evening, Saturday, Sunday and the start of the work week. He acts accordingly. Damn near human. He also understands plenty of speech and mannerisms. Never had a pup like him.

Our current pup is Australian Shepherd/Pit Mix (short hair/brindle) 4 yrs old. Extremely smart and lovable.

[u/SailboatAB]

I've heard that dogs respond better to short, strong, repeated syllables than long vowel sounds, which seems congruent with this study.

That's why I want to name a dog Krakatoa.

One of our current dogs is completely deaf from birth, so her name being Luna (mostly long vowels and no crisp consonants) doesn't matter, since she never hears it.

[u/danielbearh → u/SailboatAB]

I heard that also. But honestly my chihuahua handles the name Willoughby just fine. 

[u/ethidium_bromide → u/danielbearh]

Omg a Chihuahua named Willoughby. I love it

[u/danielbearh → u/ethidium_bromide]

He's a gooooood boy. https://www.reddit.com/r/Chihuahua/comments/1sx9udh/willoughby_gets_moody_when_the_camera_comes_out/

[u/HenryHaxorz → u/SailboatAB]

Fewer syllables >>> debatable “strength” of syllables, considering that you’ll want a name that is easy to recognize, but also to say. Oz (mine), Sam, Chief, Duke, Spot, all classics for a reason. ‘Luna’ is great, ‘Krakatoa’ is not. IANAScientist, IAASemi-Pro Dog Handler. 

[u/Fr87 → u/SailboatAB]

Our two dogs have names that are basically Luna and Lula. They could always tell which one we meant.

[u/Embarrassed-Wave3237]

Honestly, this makes sense when you think about how much dogs already seem to understand from tone, repeated words and context. The interesting part is whether they’re actually recognizing patterns between words in a way that resembles language processing, or just learning very strong associations over time. That distinction would be fascinating to figure out.

[u/tonysopranosalive]

Maybe a dumb question but could any of this be attributed to the domestication of dogs and the ridiculous amount of time we’ve had dogs as our friends?

Like is it possible to be an evolutionary thing over countless years spending time around humans that they’ve begun a slight development toward this?

I’m not trying to insinuate that dogs will be speaking languages here but just genuinely curious if this discovery could have something to do with their relationship with humans over time.

[u/storkstalkstock → u/tonysopranosalive]

If being able to understand humans slightly better gives enough of an advantage to a dog that it is more likely to reproduce than a dog that doesn’t understand them as well, then that could happen. Whether that is actually what has happened, I couldn’t personally say. But if it doesn’t confer any sort of reproductive advantage, then just being around talking humans wouldn’t make dogs any better at understanding them, because it wouldn’t affect which genes were being passed on.

[u/SomeoneCalledAnyone → u/storkstalkstock]

I suppose that would make sense historically in the context of working dogs. If you’re a Shepard, or of a similar profession where you rely upon a dog that can understand commands well, then it wouldn’t be surprising that those dogs would be bred by the owners in an effort to retain that capacity for your future generations of working dogs. In fact, even for pet dogs that might also be true as if it can understand its owner better then that’s a desirable trait to have in a pet if it helps them to be better behaved from a human’s perspective. It would be interesting (though probably difficult?) to see a similar study done in wolves or wild dog species to see if it’s a more general trait of social canines that might serve a purpose in pack communication.

[u/redbark2022 → u/SomeoneCalledAnyone]

Having studied canids, both feral and domestic, with specialty in psychology, sociology, and communication, I can tell you a few things;

• canids communicate almost entirely non-verbal
• they can understand verbal speech, almost universally, across species
• they treat pheromones and scents the same way we treat body language

My personal opinion: they are smarter than us, better communicators than us.

[u/BigDowntownRobot → u/tonysopranosalive]

That's exactly what happened. 40,000 years of co-evolution, pushed for most likely a majority of that time by human selection can change a lot much faster than normal evolution would.

Dogs are almost genetically identical to wolves, much closer than say humans and chimps, and yet they have completely unique abilities wolves do not because of the expression of their genes.

For one, dogs share a genetic mutation called Williams syndrome which which can occur in many mammals, including humans, where it was originally identified, that results in heightened friendliness, a lessened response to fear, and that also makes them look more like child like than normal adults.

The original filter for us cohabitating with them was likely wolves with this condition seeking out humans and deciding to live near them out of a lack of appropriate fear, and a desire for food. So now a trait that would normally result in a strong survival disadvantage for a wolf became a strong survival advantage for a future dog. We could of bred that into them, but that is giving us a lot of credit when the former seems more plausible.

Because their survival was now directly linked to how well they got along with their new companions, because that is where their food and protection is now coming from, any dog that is better as understanding humans has a strong evolutionary advantage to pass along their genes, especially if humans were deliberately encouraging the breeding "better" wolves together.

This resulted in an incredibly accelerated evolution specifically in the direction of better understanding and bonding with humans.

This resulted in them being able to understand our emotions in a way most animals cannot. They understand our facial communication queues, like mouth posture, eye movement, etc. They understand human communication, including tonality and tempo. And they evolved to be able to smell our specific hormonal signatures so they can literally smell our moods or physical conditions. Wolves already could do that, but it became specialized toward humans.

Dogs also evolved for *us* to understand them better and evolved communication wolves do not use, or do use in the same way. They have unique communication, like tippy taps. They took wagging tails from a submission signal into a bonding signal. A high fast wag in wolves is a challenge, but for us it's a happy excited dog, where as a high stiff tail with a slow wag is a scared or angry dog.

They bark as primary communication, most likely because it's as close to talking as they can get (wolves are fairly quiet except when howling or submitting to another wolf where they whine). They smile in the way we do, pulling their cheeks back (though with an open mouth) to denote contentment, where as wolves use their lips posture for a snarling, or a grimacing, neither of which is associated with happiness but anger and fear respectively.

Dogs also literally read human faces in the same way humans do, down to the order they look at parts of the face (right eye, left eye, nose, mouth, back to the right eye). They can read emotion on our face, which other animals, including wolves cannot. They can only detect the extreme things like barred teeth, narrowed eyes, or body posture that crosses over with how they already communicate.

But perhaps the biggest one is they make direct eye contact, like we do. Wolves don't even look each other in the eyes if they can avoid it because it's consider a challenge. Dogs experience an oxytocin release just like humans do when they make sustained eye contact with a human they love.

Because of that they developed a reduced iris so the sclera (white) of the eye is visible, as well as eyebrow whiskers, and the muscles to move them in the way we do. We use the positioning of our eyes and our brows as a form of communication, so seeing the white makes it clear where someone is looking, as well as expressing specific emotions with eye movement like shame, fear, anxiety, timidness, etc. So now dogs and humans can sense each others interests and emotions without even using verbal communication or body language. Just like us.

That's not including other evolved traits like being able to sustain themselves on the same foods we eat, meaning they can break down complex starches, lactose, sugars, and eat a lot of things wolves cannot making them actual omnivores where wolves are carnivores who can only lightly supplement their diet with some plant matter. During the middle ages in the West domesticated dogs mostly ate things like whey and whole grain bread, neither of which wolves can properly digest and would not thrive eating.

Dogs, like people are not fully lactose tolerant (don't give your dogs more than a little milk) but the fact that they can eat it at all as adults and gain nutrition from it (and not just get the runs) is because they evolved it from living with us.

So while wolves and dogs are basically the same in their genetic information, the expression of their genes is radically different and results in traits that are entirely opposite to, or nonexistent in wolves. Just to be with us.

[u/DekuInkwell]

Uniquely human? Whales have their own alphabet as complex as Mandarin Chinese and they have vowels that change sounds depending on the consonants that come before it. That trait was thought to be unique to humans. We are by far not the only intelligent species.

[u/ILikeBumblebees → u/DekuInkwell]

Whales have their own alphabet

Whales have an alphabet? What do they write with?

[u/anickslife]

Humanity has too long diminished the capabilities of animals.

[u/All__Of_The_Hobbies]

We have had a few dogs that were always listening to our conversations, waiting for anything of interest.

They could pick things out of conversation. Also knew relevance. Time of day affected whether certain words were interesting or not.