Talking to your dog the ‘human’ way

By Mickey Zeldes  July 22, 2010

I love watching people interact with their dogs - it’s fascinating. Equally interesting is how they talk to their dogs. Old school is that you always use the dog’s name and a single syllable command word. “Rowdy, sit!” “Dexter, come!” “Sandy, down!”

Then I met a friend who had an older pit-mix named Girl. Joyce would speak to Girl in complete sentences, “Girl, go to the bedroom and get on your bed.” I remember laughing the first time I heard her talk to her dog that way until the dog got up and walked into the bedroom and laid down on her bed! It was remarkable and totally blew the theory dogs couldn’t understand more than a single-syllable word.

Do dogs really understand us though?

There is an old Far Side cartoon that captures this perfectly. A man is talking to his dog. The balloon over the man’s head, titled, “What we say,” is a full paragraph of conversation. The balloon over the dog’s head, titled, “What they hear” shows, “Blah, blah, blah, Ginger, blah, blah, blah Ginger.”

My husband always jokes about this when we hear someone talking to his dog as if she were a little person. On our daily walk with our two dogs, we always come across the same morning walkers - our “regulars.” One is an older gentleman with a young, exuberant standard poodle. Every time we walk by, he talks to the dog saying, “you mind your own business now. They don’t need to hear from you. You just mind your own business!” and we can’t help but smile.

Trainers say the biggest mistake people make is they use the dog’s name as if it were a command. I’ve heard people call the dog’s name, over and over, and then they get mad because the dog didn’t do what they wanted. What did they want? Is the name the same as the “come” command? Does the dog know that? The name should be the attention getter - the dog should look at you with the recognition - “oh, you’re talking to me” and that should be followed with what you want them to do.

The name alone doesn’t tell them what’s expected. The sequence should look like this...person comes outside and sees dog starting to dig in the garden, person calls dog’s name, dog stops digging and looks at the person in recognition of his name and then the person gives the dog a follow-up command (old school would be “come,” or you can try “come in the house, you know I don’t want you digging in the garden and it’s getting dark”). As long as the dog comes I guess it works!

We just had a dog surrendered that didn’t appear to have any training although the owner claimed he had. He wouldn’t do a thing we asked. We called the owner back for clarification and found out they always spoke Spanish to the dog. Surprise! When asked to “sit” in Spanish, he did... adds another layer to the whole inter-species communication puzzle.

So do you talk to your dog? Does he listen? Are you a one-worder or do you hold conversations with your dog? It’s certainly interesting, and entertaining to watch people interact with their pets.

Watch and listen the next time you see someone with their dog. Really, it speaks volumes to the adaptability of dogs that they are able to live harmoniously with such a vocal species.