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What words does your pet know and understand?


Indigo Blue
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Want to list the words your pet knows? The ones they seem to respond to and understand?

My beautiful girl kitty knows:

Sun (means there is morning sunspot by the door)

Wanna see outside? 

No

Want Tunnel? (Her cat tunnel)

Let’s go to bed

come here

Want a treat?

Mouse (her toy)

Turtle (her toy)

Let’s go see (Means food. Weird I know.)

Watch out (move)

Her name

The words I THINK she understands are: good girl, pretty girl, love you

She has an understanding these are generally positive, affectionate, and affirming. 

 

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Ours understand various things, depending on animal. 

The Mutt -- 

"wanna go outside?" 
"are you hungry?"
"wanna go for a walk?"
"naptime"
his name
assorted commands (sit, down, leave it, stay, etc)

The Girl Dog -- 
all of the above, plus...
"no"
"out of the kitchen!"
"need a bath" (not said often, 'cause she hates them)
"what did you do...???" 
"get inside that house right now" 
"come"
(can you tell she gets into more mischief than the mutt?)

The kitties....
their names
kitty 1 - the sound of a tuna can
kitty 2 - "outside" (said to the dogs, she hears it, and tries to get out)
 

The bunny -- 
his name
not sure what else; he lives in Middle's room, so...he does come up to the baby gate though when I call his name, usually

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My dog is evil and certainly understands a lot more than he lets on.  😛

He knows the sound of the transmission of the UPS, Amazon, and FedEx trucks.  For real.

Words that usually get results include:

  • Ball, toy, wubba, tugga, etc.
  • Squeaky squeaky
  • I'm gonna get ____.  (Means let's play chase!)
  • Wanna go out potty / go potty / go poop ....
  • Catch
  • Run
  • Bring
  • In
  • Car
  • Ups
  • Wipe your feet
  • Sit, down, stand, come, stop, wait, stay, free, crate
  • Watch the flags (don't get zapped by the electric fence)
  • Mind your business
  • Eat your foodies
  • Drink your water
  • Good boy
  • Enough
  • No
  • Quiet, leave it, off, four on the floor
  • Watch
  • Walk
  • Walk with me
  • Heel
  • Treat
  • Sleeps
  • [Names of his friends]
  • Belly
  • Rubbies
  • Park
  • Leash
  • Collar
  • Bed, chair, couch ....
  • Zap zap
Edited by SKL
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DD's cat understands:
Outside (loves to go outside, has to wear harness and be on leash, but he tolerates that as the price he must pay)
Breakfast (because he will come trotting even before I get the can out and he hears me open it!)
his name - 50/50 whether he will come when called or not, but he will generally look over at you
Sit (other DD taught him to sit for treats)
Up (other DD taught him to sit up (on back legs) for treats)

Words I wish he understood:

Hush - this cat is VERY vocal/noisy when he wants something. Right now he wants to go outside, but the real feel temp is 109 and I'm not going for it (DD is out of town).  Last night he was very vocal for 3 hours until it was cool enough that I finally took him outside. If anyone has tips on how to train him not to do this, please let me know! Usually I won't take him out if he is noisy, even if I know he wants out (banging on the backdoor knob!) but I will wait until he is quiet. 

No - I think he understands this at some level because there are two rooms we try to keep the door closes (bedroom for my dh - allergic) - and if someone forgets he will go look in, but wait a while before he crosses the threshold, if we say, "no", he will back up. But if no one notices, he will go explore that room. 

 

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Ohoh my dog is clearly behind. 
 

Wait

 Treat

 Bone

 Up

Go

Potty

Sit

Down (we don’t use it that often)

No (but ignores it unless I say it loudly even then….)

Come (when it suits her )

Catch

My dog removed her cone and muzzle today even though they are required to keep her from licking an infection. We had a one sided conversation. I couldn’t put back the cone or the muzzle since no one is here to help, so I’ve slipped a sock over her paw and tied it a bit (doc says shouldn’t do it but her licking was causing a bloody paw last night when she figured out how to get around the cone). 

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Both of my dogs (8y and 10m) know enough words that I resort to spelling, lol. 

10mo knows sit, down, stay, wait, treat, play, paw, Mom, Dad, boys’ names, outside, don’t pull, water, eat, tug, up, come, no, okay, gentle, drop it, leave it, upstairs, leash, off, place, house, kisses, and recognizes that “careful” means he’s reaching the end of his cable. He seems to be picking up on left, right, and front.

This is NOT to say that he acts appropriately at each word. Just that he knows them! 😏

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Our dog knows sit, stay, shake, lie down as trained commands.

 She understands :

ball (as in, “ where’s your ball”)

Out

”go to your house”

hop up

 I’m not sure she is a very smart dog, but she’s very sweet.

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I doubt I can remember half of what they know. 'Cause I blab to them all the time, and they pick up on a LOT of it. 😉 

Besides all the basic commands (sit, stay, down, come, off, wait, leave it, etc.), off the top of my head --

  • Go out/outside
  • Do your business/do me a good job
  • Walk
  • Go to the park
  • Come on (more informal than "come," used when I'm ready for them to come in from outside or to stop sniffing on a walk)
  • Do you need a boost
  • Cheese
  • Treat
  • Chewer
  • Lunch, supper
  • Too hot (Avatar Dog dislikes any food that's more than slightly warm)
  • Green candy (used for any green veggie--they love most things green)
  • Bath
  • Stand still (for grooming)
  • Be back soon (at least I think they understand that one)
  • All the human names
  • Big brown truck (used for both UPS and FedEx)
  • Amazon man
  • The word we use for MIL
  • Upstairs
  • Squirrel
  • Cat
  • The names of several dozen toys
  • Time for bed

 

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All the commands: sit, stay, down, heel, come, up (to jump up on something), off, leave it, drop it, “hurry up” (our potty command), no, “knock it off/ no bark”, all the agility words like “dog walk “, “A frame “ etc. 

“Go to bed”

”wanna go out?”

”get Daddy/Mommy “. (Yes, she’s our baby)

”Get the bunnies “ (ie. Round them up and put them in their cages)

the name of her best puppy friend 

“I love you.”

”You’re so pretty “ (at least she understands the love behind the last two phrases.  
 

“Go get your ball” or “where’s your ball”. 

Edited by Jean in Newcastle
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Words he knows and responds to:
DD and DS's names, and also "where's your girl?" or "where's your boy?"
upstairs, downstairs, outside, inside, walk, "go pee" 
treat, dinner, good boy, "who wants a belly rub?"
sit, stay, "I'll be back"

Words he knows but pretends he doesn't: no, stop, "no barking"

When DD had her own apartment, she'd sometimes take him for the weekend, so when she'd call to say she was coming to pick him up, I'd say "Wanna sleepover?" and he would go absolutely nuts doing zoomies around the house and then tap dance at the bottom of the stairs waiting for her to come through the door.

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My dog knows his name, the names of his toys (Banana-dog, Green-puppy, etc).

Peanut butter/ pb

"Do you want...?" 

Potty

Lay down, sit, stay, go to bed, go lay down

No

He knows our names and the names of the cats

He also knows "Release the hound!" and then runs like a wild dog into DS's room to leap onto his bed.

Oh, and the names of his doggy friend and doggy frenemy, lol. 

The cats? No clue. They know their names for certain, but mostly ignore us. 🙄

Edited by Shoeless
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I know I once posted the story about DH challenging the dogs to catch rodents, a squirrel to the large (pointer lab mix) dog and the mice under the shed to the yorkie mix. I told him that he better not bribe them with steak because they understood it even if they couldn’t speak it. He laughed my warning off because he was sure I was being ridiculous.

The next day the large dog triumphantly brought a dead squirrel to the door. And the yorkie mix refused to come out from under the shed at all until he caught a mouse.  Yes, both dogs were given steak AND DH told them he was sorry, mom didn’t want dead rodents in the house so there would be no more rewards. 

In the house house after that there was a doggie door. DH came home and asked if the dogs had learned to use it. I said, “Nah, (little dog) is afraid of it, and I think (big dog) is too fat for it.” Well she got this indignant look on her face, leaped up, and ran in and out of the doggie door a few times, scraping her side against the room while glaring at me to point out not only how wrong I was, but how much extra space she had. One of the funniest moments of my life. I apologized to the dog. She forgave me. 

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Our mini Aussie knows:

go potty

Nonny

Mommy

Daddy

cat

look

who’s there

walk

go

also recognizes when we spell walk lol

treat

Boat

car

Ball

toy

night night

where

come 

spin

down

roll over

up

no

paw

stay

leave it

That’s all I can think of for now! Lol I didn’t realize how many words he knows until I started listing them out.  
 

Now I think we all need to share pictures. 😁

 

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Besides his name, the dog knows:

No

Yes

Quit it

Get down

Find your toy

Go to grandma's

Stop it

Lay down

 

Just because he knows it, that doesn't mean he obeys! 😂😂😂

I am convinced the cat is actually fluent. Possibly also in German because our eldest talked to her in German all.the.time. and it was fairly clear that she understood him. However, this is another animal that absolutely knows what you are saying to her, and with forethought, malice, and disdain, has no intention of behaving!

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The one that amuses me the most is that my lab will not respond to "drop it" or "give" but responds very well to "trade" when she has something in her mouth that I don't want her to have. So if she steals the foil that once held dh's leftover pizza and I don't want her to swallow metal, I cannot win the tug-of-war match, "drop it" and "give" do nothing, but I can say "trade" and she will take it to the pantry where I meet her, drop it on the floor where I can pick it up, and I will trade her a milk bone for it. It's actually pretty useful.

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5 minutes ago, Ali in OR said:

The one that amuses me the most is that my lab will not respond to "drop it" or "give" but responds very well to "trade" when she has something in her mouth that I don't want her to have. So if she steals the foil that once held dh's leftover pizza and I don't want her to swallow metal, I cannot win the tug-of-war match, "drop it" and "give" do nothing, but I can say "trade" and she will take it to the pantry where I meet her, drop it on the floor where I can pick it up, and I will trade her a milk bone for it. It's actually pretty useful.

Smart dog. She knows how to bargain. 😉 

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We think the cats understand (and ignore) No.

They know their names. Treat. Food time. It's not time (when they are waiting for food time - Eclipse will give you the stare of death in response to "It's not time.") Both understand Car, but only one likes car rides.

That might be it; they're not the brightest crayons in the box. On the other hand, they are cats, so who knows what they understand and ignore.

Cat before these two knew the word nap and would run to hog my pillow before I could get there.

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My girl knows (putting these in alphabetical order so I don't repeat any!):

  • All done
  • Ball
  • Bath
  • Be right back
  • Beautiful (knows it's a compliment)
  • Bed
  • Bedtime
  • Bird
  • Biscuit
  • Breakfast
  • Brush your teeth
  • Bunny
  • Bye
  • Coffee
  • Comb
  • Come
  • Crate
  • Cuddle
  • Cute (knows it's a compliment)
  • [DD's] name
  • [DD's best friend's] name
  • Dinner
  • Do you want...
  • Drink
  • Excuse me (means "move over, please")
  • Food
  • For you
  • Get it
  • Go (knows it means we're leaving)
  • Go home
  • Go out
  • Good girl
  • Grandma and Grandpa
  • Gus and Aggie (brother and sister neighbor dogs)
  • Her name
  • Hold still
  • Hurry up (command meaning "go pee")
  • I love you
  • I'm going to get you
  • It's alright
  • Kiss
  • Leave
  • Lion (toy)
  • Lunch
  • Nap
  • No
  • Not for you
  • Not right now
  • Outside
  • Quiet (means "stop barking")
  • Pancake
  • Park
  • Peep (our canary)
  • Play
  • Ring the bell
  • Run
  • Sammy (a neighbor dog)
  • Shake (not sure if she still knows this one, but she used to!)
  • Shake it (shake a toy)
  • Sleepy
  • Sit
  • Snuggle
  • Stay
  • Sunny (our sweet canary, now passed away)
  • Swing (porch swing)
  • Thank you (basically means, "I appreciate you licking me so thoroughly, but you can stop now")
  • This one (lifts up a specific paw when I need it)
  • Time for bed / put you to bed
  • Time to get up
  • Toy
  • Treat
  • Tummy rub
  • Up
  • Vite vite (command meaning "go poo")
  • Wait
  • Walk

She may also know, but I'm not positive: apple, gentle, hi, lick, naughty, patient, paw, sorry, squirrel, wash, window.

DH, DD, and I had fun compiling this list on the way to church. 🙂 

Edited by MercyA
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1 hour ago, historically accurate said:

We think the cats understand (and ignore) No.

They know their names. Treat. Food time. It's not time (when they are waiting for food time - Eclipse will give you the stare of death in response to "It's not time.") Both understand Car, but only one likes car rides.

That might be it; they're not the brightest crayons in the box. On the other hand, they are cats, so who knows what they understand and ignore.

Cat before these two knew the word nap and would run to hog my pillow before I could get there.

I have seen the stare of death. Cats are excellent at this!

I also think our dog knows the word vet, and so does the cat. Start talking about the vet, and they go hide. 

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My canary understands and LOVES compliments and praise ("You're so cute," "You're a good flier," "What a pretty song," etc.) but I'm not sure he knows what they actually mean. His favorites are "Good bird!" and "Wow!"

DD is sure he understands the intent behind, "I love you," because he responds with a special soft noise.

I'm pretty sure he knows "time for bed."

He *might* know broccoli, spinach, apple, seed, food, water, but I'm not sure.

He understands the give and take of conversation and enjoys it, even if we don't understand each other. 🙂 

Edited by MercyA
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3 hours ago, MercyA said:

 

  • Coffee

I'm kinda feeling like I need an explanation for that one.

I'm guessing your sweet little doggo isn't getting coffee to drink, so I'm thinking it's more like "We'll play/go for a walk/whatever after coffee."

But curious minds want to know. 😉 

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30 minutes ago, Pawz4me said:

I'm kinda feeling like I need an explanation for that one.

I'm guessing your sweet little doggo isn't getting coffee to drink, so I'm thinking it's more like "We'll play/go for a walk/whatever after coffee."

But curious minds want to know. 😉 

She LOVES coffee and gets a small spoonful with creamer every morning from DH. If you ask her, "Do you want some coffee?" she will start licking her lips in anticipation.

Tangent: I once read an article in Mental Floss about a guy whose cats were the longest lived on record at the time (34 and 38). He claimed that about a third of his cats lived past 30. He said one of the reasons for their longevity was their diet: "...on top of dry commercial cat food, a home-cooked breakfast of eggs, turkey bacon, broccoli, coffee with cream, and—every two days—about an eyedropper full of red wine to 'circulate the arteries.'" 

Disclaimer: caffeine in large quantities is NOT safe for dogs and cats; neither is alcohol. We haven't noticed any ill effects from the spoonful of coffee given to our dog but I don't recommend it to others. 🙂 

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