# Can They Really Understand Us?



## Vinnie

We all agree that our GSDs are extremely smart but are they smart enough to really understand us?

I'm kind of (alright - I am) stealing this from a thread started yesterday by CaseysGSDs. Here's the story she share with us: http://www.germanshepherds.com/foru...es-i-think-they-can-really-understand-us.html

I'd love to hear more stories of our GSDs understanding us. Or just sharing our opinions on if our GSDs can/can't understand us.


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## JessWelsch

I dont have any single story but Jordan surprises me daily at how smart she is. 

Here are a few examples:
When she needs to go outside her demeanor changes (She paces and/or whines) so I have taken to asking if she needs to go potty? She will promptly sit down and look at me if she does if she doesnt she looks at me and then continues doing her thing... that usually means she has drank all her water again 

When she gets anxious or rambunctious I ask if she wants to train. she lays down and wags her tail till I get up to grab the treats. 

If she doesnt "Want" to train I ask if she wants to play... if she does she will grab a toy and give it to me 

These are all words she has associated with their meanings with out me purposely teaching her. I think its awesome.

I dont know if she can understand everything I say but she picks up on my tones for sure... this makes me have to be much more aware of how I speak to her vs what I say most the time lol.


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## CaseysGSD

I feel so special!! LOL


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## Rerun

No, I don't believe they can understand the entire human language in the way that some people believe. I think they pick up on body cues, and more words than people might realize. I hadn't read the above story but it surprised me that it just involved the dog understanding the word "treat." The dog didn't understand the entire sentence said by the child. The dog is well trained and socialized and let the kid lift its lips and look at its teeth (all of my dogs do this with no fussing) and it heard the word "treat." My dogs know the word treat and know where the treats are kept as well. My dogs know that after certain things they get a reward. They get their nails clipped and then run to the treat jar. They go to bed at night and know they get a treat before bed. The child may have made a move to get up and the dog knew it had done something good (teeth check) and had already heard the word treat and put two and two together. I do not believe the dog can understand, "OK, you check my teeth and I'll wait then go get a treat." Even if that's how it may appear.

Out of all my dogs, Akira knows the most words and can readily pick up many words used in everyday vocabulary. I don't believe she truely understands when I'm talking to her randomly, but she certainly understands many everyday words. She knows what her ball is, and she knows when she brings one (the cuz or kong ball) and we tell her to get the "other ball" she is to bring a different one that we use for indoor playtime vs the harder kong and the cuz which randomly bounces when it hits the ground. 

Yes I think they are intelligent, but they read body language and learn words and cues.


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## Karin

Heidi understands a LOT. She even knows our names. I will say, "Go see Dave" and she'll go running up to my husband. And if I'm hiding, and my husband says, "Go find Karin," she will run around the house, looking for me. Sometimes, we'll be in the den, watching TV, and then I'll go into the other room for a minute. She will follow me and if I say, "Go back into the den," she'll go back into the den and lay down on her mat.

Also, when I get ready to go out and am bustling around, drying my hair, doing my makeup, etc., she'll go into her crate because she knows I'm going out. She is sooooo smart! :wub:


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## KatieStanley

Zoe understands lots of words- dinner, walk, daycare, ball, car ride, and her favorite- POPS (my husband)...I'll see his truck pull up out front in the evening and say "Zoe, your pops is home!" and she goes nuts!


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## Katey

Last year I went to a lecture on campus about types of animal intelligence. Part of the lecture covered how much our pets really understand, and the lecturer referenced studies about dog comprehension that observed GSDs, Goldens, and Standard Poodles (singled out as "highly intelligent, highly emotive" breeds) in their home and other environments.

The ultimate finding was that the dog's cognitive and social aptitude places his comprehension of human speech and interaction at about the same level as a three- to five-year-old human child. (The gap sounds a little broad to me too, but that was to account for the variation between individual dogs and children). The dog's emotional intelligence and intuitiveness reached a slightly higher "human" level, although this was more influenced by the strength of the human-dog relationship than the cognitive intelligence.

I've kind of held onto that little tidbit and thought I might share, but I doubt it surprises most of the people around here.


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## Montana Scout

i think mine can understand me perfectly... he just doesn't choose to listen LOL


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## CaseysGSD

Katey said:


> Last year I went to a lecture on campus about types of animal intelligence. Part of the lecture covered how much our pets really understand, and the lecturer referenced studies about dog comprehension that observed GSDs, Goldens, and Standard Poodles (singled out as "highly intelligent, highly emotive" breeds) in their home and other environments.
> 
> The ultimate finding was that the dog's cognitive and social aptitude places his comprehension of human speech and interaction at about the same level as a three- to five-year-old human child. (The gap sounds a little broad to me too, but that was to account for the variation between individual dogs and children). The dog's emotional intelligence and intuitiveness reached a slightly higher "human" level, although this was more influenced by the strength of the human-dog relationship than the cognitive intelligence.
> 
> I've kind of held onto that little tidbit and thought I might share, but I doubt it surprises most of the people around here.


 
Thanks for sharing.....very interesting!


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## LaRen616

I know that Sinister understands me.


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## kiwilrdg

When I was a kid the family farm dog, Rex, could be told to "go get ..." and he would go to the fields and single out me, my brother, or both of us and push/herd to get us home. Of coures understanding a command is specific and my be a programmed response rather than comprehension.

Rex loved to shake hands and once when he was asked "do you know any other tricks?" he looked around and lifted his other paw. The ability to understand a question and respond with a joke is something that I would say shows a pretty high level of comprehension.


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## Wilhoit

kiwilrdg said:


> When I was a kid the family farm dog, Rex, could be told to "go get ..." and he would go to the fields and single out me, my brother, or both of us and push/herd to get us home. Of coures understanding a command is specific and my be a programmed response rather than comprehension.
> 
> Rex loved to shake hands and once when he was asked "do you know any other tricks?" he looked around and lifted his other paw. The ability to understand a question and respond with a joke is something that I would say shows a pretty high level of comprehension.


Was Rex an English Shepherd, an Aussie, or some other type of farm dog, or?


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## kiwilrdg

Rex was mostly bernese mountain dog. He might have been full blooded but he was a pound dog with no known history.

He sired 2 litters of puppies (this was before shelters required neutering).
His pups were with a shepherd and a shepherd/collie mix. I know at least one member of his line was still working in the early '90s. All the dogs from his line were good work dogs.

My parents borrow the neighbor's dogs sometimes now. Last summer we had the poodles up there and we lost track of the smaller one. One of the Neighbor kids said "Elmira will find him". They told Elmira to find the other poodle. Elmira smelled my bigger poodle and the kid said to find the other one. Elmira followed the scent of the only dog she didn't know and found my missing dog.

I don't know how many words the dogs know and how much is body language and tone of voice but anyone who has been around work dogs on a daily basis knows they have a high level of understanding of some part of human communication.


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## DJEtzel

Every night when I tell Jon I'm heading up to bed Frag runs to his crate and lays down like he knows what I said and it's bedtime. If I just say bed at him he does nothing, so I know he's not reading between the lines...


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## Lilie

I think it depends on the dog. Some dogs are so into their own heads they aren't interested in what you have to say - like my golden. Some dogs are so into their owners they learn your body cues, your voice variations etc. Hondo is such a dog. If I can figure out how to teach him something, he'll learn it eagerly. I can then vary it to fit what I have to say. Example; Hondo went through our pasture fence - a big no-no. I caught him just as he passed through, and called him back. We were sitting on the porch with some friends. Hondo came back to me and I told him, "I suggest you come right to me (scolding voice)" Hondo came, sat directly in front of me and sat, looking right at me. I then said, "If you go through the fence again, I will put you in your kennel. Is that a deal?" (I reached out my hand) and with that Hondo gave me his paw as if to make the deal. Our friends were beside themselves. 

When I want to go outside to smoke, I can look at Hondo and tip my head towards the door. He'll jump up and run to the door. This is because I'll say to him, "Wanna go outside to smoke?" while saying it I tip my head towards the door. He just learned the short version. 

I think it really depends on how much time you spend communicating with your animal, and how much they want to communicate with you.


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## kiwilrdg

> I think it really depends on how much time you spend communicating with your animal, and how much they want to communicate with you.


Sounds like any relationship.


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## Deuce

Deuce always seems to know when i'm not feeling well.


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## Wilhoit

Wilhoit, my GSD, certainly learned words, but it was his comprehension of nonverbal cues and situations that was close to uncanny. Since his whole attention was focused on me--how I was doing, was I O.K., did I need help--I had to learn to become a better person. If I worried, he worried, and since I wanted him to be as happy as possible, I had to learn not to worry. When I was heavier, I would occasionally had sleep apnea, and had it once during Wilhoit's seven years with me. I was aware of waking up peacefully and gradually, then realized Wilhoit was breathing gently in my ear and also realized I had just stopped having sleep apnea. As soon as I was fully awake, Wilhoit just quietly went back to his dog bed beside mine and went back to sleep. If he had awakened me by actually touching me I would have been really startled. It amazed me how he seemed to know just what to do. He was almost always a very astute judge of people as well.


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## Kali-Mom

yes I believe Kali understands us..she will come and put her paw on us if she needs to go outside and do her business, or if she is hungry she will do the same..she knows her 'squeeky' toys, mama, daddy, car ride, trails, walk, i could go on.. lol! she also knows the difference if i am putting my hiking shoes on(means we are going for a walk) or my dress shoes for work (means mama's going to work)...if we say 'who's there?' she will bark, if we ask her 'what time is it?' she knows its her time for playing at the park....she knows what 'nails trimmed', 'teeth cleaned' and 'tub time' is too!!


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## Wilhoit

kiwilrdg,
That Rex sounds like a really great dog. I'm glad his line continued, too, at least for a bit. Just how any good working breed starts, because a good dog is a good dog ... is a good dog, IMO! And, treasures sure can be found in pounds.


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## kiwilrdg

If the dog has a simple, or complex communication system a human depends on both the dog and the human. There is always some level of understanding which can range from the dog knowing that when the human picks up the dog dish that it will be time to eat soon all the way to the level involved for working dogs.

The trouble with communication with dogs is that there is more than the verbal communication and simple body language that we use. The dog body language is much more complex and they also clue into the environment to interpret the other language elements (like the sound of running water in the morning means a human is taking a bath and will let them out soon). I don't think it is really possible to compare canine-human communication to human-human communication because they are so different. The emotional communication is on a simpler level, but it is on a purer level. If you are sad the dog will not tell you what you could have done different, the only communication the dog needs is what is needed in body language to comfort you.


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## Toast

I agree


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## aprofetto

I think dogs can indeed begin to recognize sounds and commands and associate them with what action follows. I think this is something that comes with repetition.

I think words can get a direct reaction from a dog. For example, saying 'sit' gets the dog to sit, or 'rollover' gets the dog to rollover.

However, in terms of understanding, I think we are much more connected to our dogs on an energy level. This is what Cesar Millan preaches a lot as well.

I believe when a dog truly understands its owner, it will know what to do without even being spoken to.


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## ba1614

I guarantee my two know what breakfast and supper means.


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## shannonrae

O.K., story . . . 
Last Sunday I took Birbo snowshoeing with me (our second time snowshoeing). During our walk we came upon a snowmobile trail. The snowmobile trail made it possible for me to remove my snowshoes. Not wanting to carry them I hid them behind a shrub and partially buried them in the snow. We continued on our walk. On our way back when we got close to where I had left my snowshoes I asked Bo, "Where did Mom leave her snowshoes?" I did not expect any real response, Bo is not trained to find anything . . . 
When I asked where my snowshoes were Bo paused and stood in one spot while turning his head to look around. Within 5 seconds Bo ran to the shrub where I had left my snowshoes. He started licking them and trying to dislodge them from the snow. 
This, I thought, was pretty cool. But, could have been a coincidence. Either way I love my boy . . .


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## EMarie59

One of my faves


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## Anja1Blue

EMarie59 said:


> One of my faves


Yes, mine too! I still have that as a card somewhere - The Far Side was great.......

I have to say I think that some of the time at least, we must seem inscrutable to our dogs - I catch mine looking at me with a "what the hey?" look on their faces. Otherwise, what kiwilrdg said......
________________________________________
Susan

Anja SchH3 GSD
Conor GSD
Blue BH WH T1 GSD - waiting at the Bridge :angel:


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## selzer

They understand us a whole lot more than we understand them. 

Think about it. You can train the dog to Sit and to Stay on command word. You can say a sentence with those words in it and the dog will do it. I can even tell my dog the wrong word, when I really want them to down and I say STAY instead, and the dog goes down because of my body language or whatever. But more often than not, if I screw up my verbal commands the dogs do what I want, moreso than what I say.

We on the other hand hear the dog whimper, we ask do you want to go out, the dog gets excited, so we put him out. Doesn't want to go out, he wants his dinner! So five minutes later the dog is whimpering again, and we are like, "WHAT? I JUST LET YOU OUT!" The dog wants his food! 

Or the dog comes up to our hand and starts nudging it, Oh, you want to be petted -- No, MORON, I am HUNGRY! Get off your Rusty Dusty and get me my FOOD!

After a horribly humiliating belly rub and thourough ear scratching, the dog trots off to the kitchen, and scurries around in there, pushing his bowl around and around the kitchen floor. FINALLY the owner GETS it! And feeds the dog.


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## krystyne73

I believe my dogs have made word recognition and association much like a 2 yr old would do but Meika, my 6 yr old GSD definitely communicates with me. She uses her nose and touches things she wants like the door, leash,cabinet where the treats are or a garage door to tell me I accidentally locked a dog inside.
She also will walk to people and look up to the ceiling, if you ask her what she is looking for then she will run to the fridge; on top of the fridge is her frisbee. She uses her nose to touch the outside faucet for me to turn on her sprinkler during the summer. 
Then we have Sasha, who brings in the water jug and drops it at our feet when they are out of water to soon. LOL I love my dogs!


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## Dakotasmom

Dakota knows a lot of different words or phrases but one of the funniest things that amazes me is that she recognizes the ring tone on my phone for my husband and knows that he is almost home. He usually calls when off work and on his way home (ive always said "oh daddy is calling"). I have different ring tones for different people and she can differentiate and she runs to the door and waits now just whenever my phone rings with his ring tone. Sooo cute!! She also knows who "grandma and grandpa" are, we have to be careful because if we just talk about them to her (like if i say "grandma is on the phone") she goes and sits at the front door waiting for them to show up.


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## kiwilrdg

Some dogs use tone of voice and body language but some dogs can understand not only words, but sometimes complete sentences. They all have at least some understanding of our communication.


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## missmychance

My Frodo understands a lot, he knows all his toys by name and theres a lot of them. When its almost time for my son to come home from school, I'll say, go wait for your brother and he'll go sit on chair and look out the window for him. 

On walks I'll say, have any deer been here and he'll go nose down and sniff out deer tracks. When my husband (military) is gone for any length of time, he'll look at our picture on the wall of my husband and I when I ask where's daddy? 

Within 5 minutes of a visitor to the house, he will know them by name and go to them if asked. I also now have to spell the words car, park, cat, and walk although he's beginning to catch onto spelling. 

If he knows he's going in car, he'll run around and look for my purse. He's very smart for me, but chooses to be selective when daddy's around. Mom means business, daddy means fun.


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## LARHAGE

I have a Cairn Terrier that amazes my friends with his ability to know certain words, if I ask him where the bird is, he'll run to a tree and look up the trunk, if I ask where a mouse is, he runs into the barn between the bales of hay, if I ask where the lizard is he runs to the wall and looks up, and if a squirrel, he runs to the holes in the yard and starts digging, the hilarious thing though, is if I ask these questions while we are in the house he will jump up and try to bite me!


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## brembo

There is a NOVA special on how dogs communicate with people, it's really cool. If you have Netflix make sure to que it up, or do the online thing and stream it to your computer. The National Geographic dog special is okay, nowhere near as good as the NOVA one.

I can't talk to my dog. He might know one or two words that are in the sentences, but overall he's not getting the entire jist. What he can do is watch my eyes and mouth and body positioning to help with his interaction with me.

One tidbit from that NOVA thing was an experiment with chimps, wolves, infants and dogs. The experiment was a test to see which species "took a hint" from a human. The hint was a point, or a gesture towards the hidden food source. You'd think the best scores would go to the infant and the chimp, the primates that really depend on sight as the dominant source of feedback. Turns out the chimps were awful at it, the infants were only slightly better, the wolves were HORRIBLE while the dogs amazed the researches with just how subtle the hint needed to be. Even with puppies. The researchers wired up some people with vision tracking hardware and tracked how people (adults) scan other people's faces. Did the same with a host of dogs and it turns out that dogs go for the same main 3 indicators on the human face IN THE SAME ORDER. Dogs watch us like hawks, I can't twitch an eyebrow with my GSD twitching an ear in my direction. If I so much as think about eating that last peanut-butter cracker I will get the "please daddy...let me have some" face.


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## Zisso

My two know certain words and phrases. For example, if I say 'do you wanna eat'...they wag their tails merrily as they run to the kitchen. I can say 'get in there' and it has two meanings-if we are in the house, it means get in their crates, if we are going outside it means get in their kennel. They are very easy to crate/kennel most of the time. However I believe a good deal of that is due to routine rather than their actual comprehension of what I am saying. They also know to behave differently based on different tones of voice, they get uber excited when I brush past a leash(thinking they are going to go for a ride), etc. So there are plenty of cues in everything I do that gets a variety of reactions from them.

My last dog knew certain phrases too. 'Go bye' obviously meant going for a ride. 'thats far enough' when on an off leash walk meant to wait for me to catch up and she always did. 'clean it' meant to wash her frisbee, and 'I can't reach it' meant that she dropped it too far away, so she would get it and come drop it at my feet. 'drop it' evidently meant to literally drop it at my feet. Never could get her to put a toy in my hand. But one word I KNOW she understood was Toy. So much so that I had to spell the word if I did not want to play. 

Again, I believe that a great deal of this is based on the routines that we provide for our dogs versus them truly understanding each or even the majority of our words.


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## Aussiedoodle

Dogs can understand us even when we're not speaking, imho


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## dmelvin

brembo said:


> There is a NOVA special on how dogs communicate with people, it's really cool. If you have Netflix make sure to que it up, or do the online thing and stream it to your computer. The National Geographic dog special is okay, nowhere near as good as the NOVA one.


 
Netflixed


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## Kayos and Havoc

Interesting thread, I have always felt they understand us more than we understand them. They are also far more accomadating of us than we are of them.


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## blehmannwa

I am amazed by how much dogs understand and the efforts that they make to communicate with us. I've had my pup for 3 weeks and he knows his name, my name, my husband's name and the name of one of our other dogs--the one that occasionally acknowledges his existence. 

Years ago I went on a large camping trip with about 15 other people. My big girl, Crusher, was about two years old. Some of the people she knew very well, some she had met a few times and others were strangers. We were gathered around the bonfire and imbibing tasty beverages. Crush was being velcro and annoying me so I told her "Go see Charlie" . Crusher knew Charlie very well and she walked around the fire and found him, Charlie greeted her and told her to "Find Cole"--Charlie's son whom Crush had met a few times. She went right to him. Now everyone around the bonfire starts calling Crusher and sending her to see other people. She went to everyone in the circle. I was so proud.
The next morning, she rolled in fresh moose poop...long ride back to town.


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## ShepherdsField

We've had some extremely intelligent dogs that understood lots of words, hand signals and body language. We got to the point with our first GSD Maxi, that certain words we would have to spell....and then she learned what we were spelling. He namesake, little Max was very vocal and actually tried to imitate human sounds. He had a vocabulary of over a dozen words and phrases. He would go MMMMMrommaa when I got home and other words like ride and park understandably. Most people wouldn't believe it....until they heard him. He died of EPI. Coco, our 5 year old GSD knows my body language so well, when a stranger pulls up he barks like a mad dog, but if I am calm, he sits beside me like a statue with no signs of aggression. He has the DH so well trained, he (the DH) knows who has pulled up in the driveway by Coco's bark. Both of our boys have found jobs in other cities in the past year and moved away. One day last week, one of them dropped in for a surprise visit, didn't call, we had no way to know he was coming. Coco heard someone and started barking and the DH said "Brandon's here." I said "No way, he didn't say anything about coming in" and he said "Well, Coco says he is here", and sure enough, he was. Came to the door a few minutes later. He had to come to court for a traffic ticket he got before he moved. I believe they understand more than we believe and if we pay close attention, we can understand them better as well.


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## Sasha's Dad

I do not know about Sasha "understanding" me, but I KNOW she can talk, sooner or later she will speak up and say something. She is 5 1/2 years old, but I KNOW, any minute now she will start talking. I admit, I am more convinced of it after a beer or two, but gosh darn it, I KNOW she can talk......


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## Catu

Diabla knows a command that means "go to the car". The other day I was at a park for an event with my dog and my mother. Since I already know that this ALWAYS happen I said my mom to watch... 

When we arrived to the parking area I said Diabla to go to the car. She ran and sit next to a Jeep Wrangler instead of next to my little hatchback. I don't know if she is trying to tell me something or if she reads my subconscious because she always picks the bigger 4x4.


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## cassadee7

Saber's only 14 weeks old but she already knows a heck of a lot. If I ask her if she wants to go outside, she sits at the top of the stairs and waits for her leash. When we are outside, if she is done pottying she sits and looks at me until I say "let's go in the house" and then she gets up and heads to the door. When it is about 15 minutes til her mealtime, she goes and whines outside my bedroom door (her food is in there). And then I ask, "do you want your food?" and she jumps up and dances and wags her tail, and runs back and forth in the hall. I go to scoop the food and say "wait" and she backs up and sits down and mutters. Then I say "I need your bowl" and she races off to find her food dish and bring it to me (and sometimes throws it at me). Then I say " go in your crate" and in she goes in and waits.

If I say "let's go for a ride" she runs to the back of the car to get in. If I say "let's go for a walk" she heads down the sidewalk. She gets all excited if I mention the word "treat."

And, well, Speedy isn't a GSD, but he is pretty funny because if you say "you stink" he will slink off and hide behind the couch to avoid a bath.


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## crewchief_chick

my husbands lab/pitt mix who now belongs to his mom (they bonded on the last deployment and became inseparable) you cannot utter the word mcdonalds around. he will start salivating and drench EVERYTHING!!! and if you are a car he will pace back and forth looking for those golden arches. and then he will not stop till you buy him a double cheeseburger


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## PaddyD

CaseysGSD said:


> I feel so special!! LOL


I think our dogs understand our meaning more than our words. They are very sensitive to tone and body language and context.


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## Tankers08

I believe that Tank understands a lot of what me and my girlfriend say and do. For example, last night my girlfriend went upstairs to get a drink of water and forgot to turn the water in the sink off. Well, when she went to go back to the stairs, Tank would not go. He sat down and looked at her, then looked at the sink as to say "Hey dummy, you forgot to turn it off!" Lol he's so smart!


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## webzpinner

I see the intelligence of my German Shepherd (and other smarter breeds of dog) to be similar the intelligence of an average 1 year old child, as far as language, social ability, etc. They have a large sound recognition "vocabulary" to objects/actions, but they don't grasp concepts behind them. They learn tasks like a toddler, thru repetition and praise, and they learn best by watching other family members interacting with the environment.


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## webzpinner

Sasha's Dad said:


> I do not know about Sasha "understanding" me, but I KNOW she can talk, sooner or later she will speak up and say something. She is 5 1/2 years old, but I KNOW, any minute now she will start talking. I admit, I am more convinced of it after a beer or two, but gosh darn it, I KNOW she can talk......


OF COURSE she can talk... I saw Cats N Dogs movies (LOVE the GSD in the 2nd one... such a pretty dog!), all our pets are secretly having conversations about overthrowing each other as our dominant companion.


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## vicky2200

I think some dogs (even other animals) can understand alot. When Dakota was a puppy he understood what " Go to the basement" meant. We never actively taught him it. We told him it once and he did it.. we were shocked. Ditto knows that I am mom and my mom is grandma. If I ask her where grandma is she will look out the window to see if she is here. I think this is just from us using those words to describe each other to the dogs. Dakota also knows these. Im not sure if they know my brother and sisters names. They of course know walk, potty, outside, ball.


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## Holmeshx2

I didn't read this entire thread however just came on and saw it at the perfect time. Jinx is driving me insane and I told her if she kept it up she was going down for a nap and the went over and closed her crate door and walked away... think that was a protest? lmao.


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## Wolfgeist

Lilie said:


> I think it really depends on how much time you spend communicating with your animal, and how much they want to communicate with you.


I definitely agree with this.


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## JazzNScout

Months after my dog Tyler died, I asked Morgan (GSD), "Where's Tyler?" 
Morgan looked at me, then purposefully turned away, ran out into the yard and came back with a VERY old favorite toy of Tyler's that I hadn't seen in years. I hadn't seen the toy for a much longer period of time than the period of time Ty had been gone.

It was very eery and touching at once.


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## PupperLove

Jackson made me laugh the other day...

I was trying to take some cute pictures of him to send to his breeder. So I told him "up". I wanted him to go up onto the chair, but he looked at me and jumped up ONTO the computer desk, legs braced, claws arched, and with a look in his eye of OK THIS IS SCARY, BUT WHAT NOW?!! He was towering over both speakers, the printer, and the monitor. I had my camera but of course had both arms out in the air yelling STAY! Because the monitor was about to fall onto the floor!! I have never taught him the "up" command, since I am trying very hard to keep him "down" since he gets over excited at times! So it was pretty funny that he actually did it right away. He may have gone "up" onto the wrong thing, but he definately knew what I was saying!


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## WarrantsWifey

PupperLove said:


> Jackson made me laugh the other day...
> 
> I was trying to take some cute pictures of him to send to his breeder. So I told him "up". I wanted him to go up onto the chair, but he looked at me and jumped up ONTO the computer desk, legs braced, claws arched, and with a look in his eye of OK THIS IS SCARY, BUT WHAT NOW?!! He was towering over both speakers, the printer, and the monitor. I had my camera but of course had both arms out in the air yelling STAY! Because the monitor was about to fall onto the floor!! I have never taught him the "up" command, since I am trying very hard to keep him "down" since he gets over excited at times! So it was pretty funny that he actually did it right away. He may have gone "up" onto the wrong thing, but he definately knew what I was saying!


Tell me you snagged that photo!!!


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## PupperLove

WarrantsWifey said:


> Tell me you snagged that photo!!!


I DIDN'T! I'm so mad but I was SO SCARED he was going to rip something apart! HE was totally terrified to be up there and things were starting to fall!! LMAO!


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## Heidibu

I agree that the dogs read our body cues first and foremost...and that they put 2+2 together with familiar words. The more I repeat words/actions, it becomes part of their vocabulary. One word commands and hand signals are obvious. But, the more we repeat phrases or whole sentences, they understand those as well. I love conversing with my 3.


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## Bristol

It depends on how much you repeat that word and spend time with them, becuase my german shepherd puppy isn't a year old and already knows 9 tricks we repeat it a lot so she will know what the word means.


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## GSDkid

I think it's more like, they rely more on body language and certain gestures to communicate with other dogs and so they are more focused on that with humans. I've accidentally said a wrong command but she did the right command anyways.

Where as, we humans are more in tune with sight & speech for communication.


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## Toffifay

brembo said:


> There is a NOVA special on how dogs communicate with people, it's really cool. If you have Netflix make sure to que it up, or do the online thing and stream it to your computer. The National Geographic dog special is okay, nowhere near as good as the NOVA one.
> 
> I can't talk to my dog. He might know one or two words that are in the sentences, but overall he's not getting the entire jist. What he can do is watch my eyes and mouth and body positioning to help with his interaction with me.
> 
> One tidbit from that NOVA thing was an experiment with chimps, wolves, infants and dogs. The experiment was a test to see which species "took a hint" from a human. The hint was a point, or a gesture towards the hidden food source. You'd think the best scores would go to the infant and the chimp, the primates that really depend on sight as the dominant source of feedback. Turns out the chimps were awful at it, the infants were only slightly better, the wolves were HORRIBLE while the dogs amazed the researches with just how subtle the hint needed to be. Even with puppies. The researchers wired up some people with vision tracking hardware and tracked how people (adults) scan other people's faces. Did the same with a host of dogs and it turns out that dogs go for the same main 3 indicators on the human face IN THE SAME ORDER. Dogs watch us like hawks, I can't twitch an eyebrow with my GSD twitching an ear in my direction. If I so much as think about eating that last peanut-butter cracker I will get the "please daddy...let me have some" face.



I saw this program and loved it! I think this was the same one that had the Border Collie that lived in Austria who could identify not only 200 different objects, but pictures of objects, as well! The owner could show the dog a picture of a carrot and the dog would run into the other room and pick out a carrot shaped toy from a huge pile and bring it back. amazing!


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## fuzzybunny

It's amazing what they learn without us teaching them. Bunny and Jazz know the obvious phrase, "Do you want to go for a walk" but I didn't anticipate them learning phrases my husband and I exchange between us in conversation like, "Can you take them out?" 

The one command I like the most was also taught by accident. When my husband would walk them he would always say to them, "O.k., were heading back now" and then turn around and head back. He wasn't trying to teach them anything but they learned the command and now when we say it they sprint in the return direction. It comes in handy if they're at a distance and we want to head back. I could shout "come" but for whatever reason "were heading back now" excites them and they run back as fast as they can.


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## Jax08

Personally, I think not only does Jax understand me but I think she's psychic half the time as well.


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## CarrieJ

I've always assumed if you have a more intelligent dog (I'm biased towards the herding group) that if they can pick up: sit wait stay come back down off leave it etc. Then they can pick up more words by association.

My last dog would get all crazy boy when you said Taco Bell, didn't matter what tone of voice or body language...he loved his Mexican Food. 
(even fake Mexican food)

*I know it's really bad for him...but he got his Christmas and Birthday Bean Burrito....and lived to be 12 and a half. I doubt Taco Bell gave him the spleenic mass that killed him.


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## DougGeneration

They do actually, I've proven that over and over again..


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## ginnysharma

I definitely think it is body language mixed with specific words and intonations in our voices. I can say to my Ella, 3yr old GSD, "Do you want a treat?" with out any questioning intonation and she will not respond positively. But if I ask her in a normal questioning way....of course she wants a treat! Same with when I ask her where our children are...."Where is Aidan?"(they are away at college). She jumps up and runs to the entrance of our house to see if they are finally home. So many words and more phrases..."go for a ride", "go for a walk", "want a treat", "get a toy"...ball, ducky, fatcat,etc...you can be specific and she will bring these to you to play, "want to go out and play". I also had a GSD before this one who would listen to our conversations and anticipate what we were going to do...that was spooky. We started to spell words out....RIDE, WALK, etc....she even learned the meanings of the spelled out words. All of this was unintentional on our part. GSDs are amazing creatures...and I know it is all conditioning...but wow!


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## SusiQ

My Raven definitely knows words and spellings. I can no longer spell out C-A-R or G-O or O-U-T, etc. in front of her. Instead, I have learned to use more obscure words like "travel" if I don't want her to react. She also knows that if I say that I'm going to "work" that she is NOT going with me. She remembers from year to year that if I put sunscreen on my face, we're going outside in the back yard, and believe me, I live in Northeast Ohio - summers are very far apart!


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## newlie

I think Newlie understands certain words: 
ball
cookie
breakfast
supper
outside
bye-bye
sit
down 
backup
shake hands
find
drop it
leave it
etc

One of the cutest things I taught him is when we are in bed, I will tell him "lay your head down" and he does (usually on me.)


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## selzer

I will be lying in bed, under the covers, and Babs will come up and position herself with her tail toward my head. Totally dark so no body language here. I will tell her, "I don't want your butt, put your head up this way", so she will get up and move her head so it is toward the head of the bed. Except when she is being ornery, and then she will move her whole body onto all my pillows. Which brings another torrent of words, or me just putting my head on her, and that never seems to last very long. They understand plenty.


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## Sabis mom

When Sabi was about a year old I was standing outside the door with my arms full of groceries and dog food calling to my husband to open the door. Sabi was standing inside staring at me, frowning. She glanced over her shoulder and then reached up with a paw and opened the door. To be fair it was a screen door with a simple lever handle, but she reasoned that I needed the door opened and had obviously watched us open it enough that she understood the action needed to make it happen. And let me be very clear, she did not jump up and hit it accidently, she very deliberately reached up a paw, hooked the handle and pulled it.
Over the years her proficiency with door handles grew to problematic, but if that is not an example of a dog understanding I don't know what is.


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## Lykoz

Yep most certainly do...
And I am not just talking about learned commands.
Dogs are masters at body language.

Not just dominant postures... But when you are sad too..
Yes they get it. They spend too much time with us, and we are their world...

So they have developed ways too communicate with us, just like we have developed ways to communicate with them..

It is a two way street.

I think reward training nurtures that bond. Because we are not training them to react to commands. But rather to chose to do commands.

The less choice a dog has, the less he will be 'himself' I believe... (The less he is understanding something not taught)
The more choice a dog has however, the less he will be inclined to listen..

Balance is important.

I dont think understanding us has anything to do really with 'taught' commands that are forced, or reactive.

Active dogs simply are looking for ways to communicate.. And do, and experience new things.


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## newlie

I don't know if any of you read the book "Chaser," it's about a border collie who has learned 1,000 words. I am part of the way through the book right now. Of course, Dr. Pilley is a retired scientist and has made this a project. He spent hours and hours every day teaching his dog, more than most of us are able to do. Still, it has been an interesting read so far. I tried imitating a little of his work with Newlie and really thought I was making progress until I realized Newlie thought every toy was named "ball."


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## Stonevintage

Yes, that's a whole other world of communication. The seizure dogs and panic attack dogs. Plus, they are still evolving to their needs, which seems to have paralleled man's for some time. If they are at the average of a 2 year old level now, what will they be like in the future? Just fun to think about.


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## wildwolf60

I think our current GSD, Jaeger, understands quite a lot! He seems to know what we are saying, and sometimes acts on what we say before we are done talking, lol. We have even tried not using any emotion, or names,or any gestures of any kind and he will still act on it. 
It depends a lot on the dog, and whether they are attuned to you I think, so it matters to them what you are saying. Then they pick up words and actions, and probably your tone in some cases.
But I have seen some amazing things from all the GSDs we've owned, and some were just better at it than others, lol. We had one who would go get the items we told him to get, by name, and he was not trained on those items. He just seemed to know, and did it. He also seemed to understand exactly what we wanted, without specialized training of any kind.


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## Dainerra

Dogs, Long Believed To 'Live In The Moment,' May Remember Events From the Past


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## danica

Yes, they can but I think its more emotional feeling they pick up, like hormonal scents and just being able to read a person, I know my dogs know when Im sick, happy or sad. Yes they do understand


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## Muneraven

Oh, they understand far more than we know. I think we severely underestimate how much dogs, and cats too, and even wild animals, understand. Human beings are awfully snooty about how smart we are and we don't recognize other kinds of intelligence as equal to our's.


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## GSDourBestFriend

I don't have to tell my GS to "sit" when I grab the treat bag. She already knows in order to get the treat she has to sit. So she sits when she seems me going for it. 

They understand movement and actions and can think for themselves. So I do believe they are truly a breed of animal (like many) that can understand human beings.

As for the emotional side, that is purely just being in-tuned with their owner and being around them. Sure a dog can sense fear, sadness and happy. When I get up in the morning and get ready for a walk, I get her amped up and she responds. If I were to walk around yelling in anger, I'm sure she'd find a spot to hide. Tone of voice and body language are easily understood by every animal. You show aggression, she may get defensive or submissive. 

Animals have always been interesting to me and the German Shepherd has always been my favorite just because they are intelligent. 

The end.


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## Nikitta

My 2 understand when I ask them if they need to go out or it's time to eat. I take them outside to potty separately or they wrestle instead of pottying, Xerxes will come back in and go in his kennel. I just say you don't have to go in there and he runs in the other room. hehehe Before I got Xerxes and Jasira, I had 3 GSDs. I never realized they were doing this until one night it hit me. I used to be addicted to an on-line game that I used to play constantly every night. One night I signed off and the computer played it's sign off music. All 3 dogs stood up when they heard it. They knew it was time for their last potty break. LOL That's when it hit me what they were doing.


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## Cheyanna

Fiona understands a lot. She is suppose to sit at the door before we go out. If I say, what am I waiting for? She will sit. My mom tried it with Gilda, nothing.

She helps with the chickens that free range in the backyard. If I have to keep the gate open to work, I will say watch the girls and she keeps them back. If the chickens get into a place they are not suppose to be I will say chickens! Fiona will help me round them up to get them out.

She knows all the standard words like park, hungry, etc. she also helps find the exit in busy crowded places or the car in a parking lot.


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## Michael W

They understand a lot; more than we give them credit for. And, more importantly, they believe what we communicate to them, which is where the problems arise, because the one thing they do not understand is inconsistency.


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## Steve Strom

Michael W said:


> They understand a lot; more than we give them credit for. And, more importantly, they believe what we communicate to them, which is where the problems arise, because the one thing they do not understand is inconsistency.


Hey Michael, you outta surf through 2006-7. Lot a good old stuff to bump there. Give the spammers some competition.


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## Michael W

Will try to; I'm new to this forum and the amount of information is daunting.


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## Thecowboysgirl

Wild Wolf said:


> Lilie said:
> 
> 
> 
> I think it really depends on how much time you spend communicating with your animal, and how much they want to communicate with you.
> 
> 
> 
> I definitely agree with this.
Click to expand...


Me too, and not just dogs. I have witnessed lots of animals communicating. I have read those studies about the dogs vs wolves and the dogs look to the humans for help while the wolves just destroy the puzzle.

some of the most impressive things to me are: my female knows the rules and pointedly tattles to me if another dog is being bad. I worked with a GSD barn dog years ago who would assist whoever the manager was. She knew who was in charge. When it was me, she came and got me and led me just like lassie to a teenager who was in big trouble with a horse she couldn't handle. The dog knew it was a problem, and knew I was the person who needed to know, and I was able to get the horse before anyone got hurt 

I taught my puppy not to mess with the old girl when she steals his toys. he comes and asks me to get his toy back from her and I do. (she mugs him, takes his, makes a pile and guards them. It's not nice. but she would put a hole in him if he tried to touch her toys so that's where I come in and why I taught him not to mess with her with her things)

Now he recently started asking me to take things from her and give them to him just that he wants. so an antler that she obtained legally, did not steal from him in a nasty way, he wants it and asks me won't I take it from her and give it to him lol. Which of course I wont. But a funny new twist.

I don't know where the limit is for a human and a dog with a deep bond, spend a lot of time together, lots of respect....don't know where the limit is as far as what they can communicate to each other...


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## jcm3

Our Schnauzer/Terrier mix Jax can pick out some things in regular conversation. I've tested him by throwing Jax in a sentence in the tone of the rest of the sentence when talking to the wife or the kids, and he'll look up curiously.

He would also start to get really excited and jump around when I'd ask the kids, "Does anyone want to take Jax for a walk?" If everyone said no, sometimes we wouldn't go and I didn't want him to get amped up for nothing, so I started spelling it out. "Does anyone want to take the d-o-g for a w-a-l-k?" Sometimes my 9 year old daughter (who really gets sarcasm already) will spell out N-O. lol


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## dogma13

Lol!We spell things out too!Walk,Outside,Bone.They can also string together a couple of concepts.I don't like to wait overly long when out for potty breaks in bad weather.If I tell them "First we're going to hurry,then we'll have treats!"Boy do they hustle to take care of business!The first time I said that I was actually just talking to myself trying to be optimistic on a cold,windy night.Surprisingly it works though


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## Stonevintage

It's often been said that dogs have the intelligence of a 2 or 3 year old human but IMO that's not a good comparison in any respect. 

There's been so much research done between wolves and dogs. It appears that wolves are much better at puzzle solving where dogs give up more easily and if a human is in the vicinity they look to them for assistance.

This is the trade off for such a close age old relationship with man. But I think it was an excellent one for them (and so fortunate for us):smile2:

Mine's getting to the point now where the routine stuff no longer needs verbal commands. Often, I can just make the Pssst! noise or snap my fingers and she'll think (what should I be doing) and she'll come or sit or back up, whatever I need her to do at the time. I know it's all based on routine but sometimes I think she has ESP because she seems to read my body language so well.:smile2: 

Last week, when we had a mouse in the house it took her one try to learn the name for that little creature that didn't belong in here with us! I trapped one and a 2nd was trap wary. For 3 days Summer parked herself at the entrance to the laundry room and was on "mouse guard duty". She apparently barked it into leaving the way it came. (dryer vent coil):smile2:


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## Lanky

Absolutely. Everywhere from words to physical actions to feelings.


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## Jenny720

They can understand so much even more without words.


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## LBethO

Spoken vocabulary
Body language
Habits
I swear Neika has told me she hurt. Her ears hurt, she had a urinary tract infection, foot was sore but she didn't limp. She speaks to me without words. 

The next time yours needs to be settled or reassured, try silently looking in their eyes and thinking the command. See what happens. GSDs are amazing.


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## Bentwings1

I like to look at what the dog can understand from their point of view. What if you were the dog and magically transported to a world populated by beings far more intelligent than you, much larger, slower moving but with a language of sounds that you could not duplicate. Distinctive oders and using devices you had no concept of nor could you ever use. 

Their mode of transportation was something very foreign to you but had reasonably comfortable resting places. They made horrible noises and went 4 times as fast as you could on trips. Scary speeds. These things were very big and fatally dangerous.

The new world is extremely dangerous for you to be free roaming so you are required to wear a restraining device very foreign to you.

Various strange sounds followed by hard yanks on the restraining device force you to do various things for no good reason in your mind. But you miraculously gets yummy treats if you give in to these. Associating the beings movements and strange sounds you gradually learn that certain ones can get good treats and loving hugs (that you hate) but that's easier than the yanks. Since you no longer have mom or dad and brothers and sisters are gone, you have no choice but to be around these strange beings. They provide good healthy food, not as good as your natural prey but still tasty. You get your own " home" and many other places you can rest or do things. The main thing is that when you hear, see, or notice your master's presence, you come running. He likes you to come to his front and will give you a reward every time. Usually he will ask you to walk beside him. It's ok as you have become comfortable with him. He won't hurt you but only asks you to do dumb things. Sometimes they are fun because you can do things they can't and get rewards.

Your master has discovered that you are particularly big and very strong. You have a very imposing look about you. He creates a series of noises and motions that direct you to really fight and scare off intruders. You receive very special guidance perfecting your abilities and special athletic training. You now know how to protect your master. and your home. You have perfect manners, you like most other beings and their young, they even have this furry thing with sharp claws that thinks he owns the place but you chase him for fun. There is no need to hurt him but he does bug you sometimes. Your confidence level is extremely high so there is no need to fight without reason.

You occasionally get to see and be around other " dogs". Most are extremely rude, some just want to fight and steal your food and clothes. But your master is very protective and will drive them away or fight them off while keeping you safe. Others are pretty nice and if you are nice, you get along. 

Ring, ring ring, it's morning and time get up. " oh, hi, mr. shepherd do you need to go out? " Tail wagging. 

Back to reality.

Byron


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