I've read that they understand body language but my dog just heard a noise, shot out of the patio door into the garden, barked a few times and then seemed to have a back and forth dialogue with the neighbours dog that went something like this;
Oreo: "I heard a noise, is it something to worry about?"
Scrappy: "I heard it too, was it from the left or the right?"
Oreo: "I don't know, I'm going to bark louder"
Scrappy: "ok I will too"
Oreo: "Good, maybe we can start all the dogs in the street barking......."
We are currently down to 6 dogs, the least we have had for 25 years. They do have a language. I'm always amazed at the things they can do. Yes, they read body language, but also emotion.
I had the friendliest dog in the world years ago see a woman, and they locked eyes, and Rocky sensed something, and ran at her, he stopped as soon as I told him to come back, he got with 50-60 feet of her. but the woman had a HUUUGE fear of dogs, she was still screaming at the top of her lungs even after Rocky was back in my car. People were looking at her like WTF?
SW-User
@DogMan That's so sad. It must have been terrible both for Rocky and the lady. Good job you had him so well trained ☺️
@SW-User He was one in a million, and mostly self trained. I swear, he could even read my thoughts. We traveled extensively, hiked, and explored the southwest U.S. The above pic is in Canyonlands, near Moab Utah.
@DogMan he wasn't a border collie was he? Our dog is doing the same. Our last collie knew how to open doors and used to let himself out into the garden.
@SW-User No, he was German Shepard and Dobie we think. But we did have a border collie, and they are crazy smart. Years ago there was a loose horse in our neighborhood, about 10pm, I was pretty sure I knew where he belonged, but wasn't sure how to get him there, until Nikki the Border Collie came out. The two of us got him down the block and into his corral. Nikki did most of the work, I don't know how she knew what to do.
Yeah I figured out dogs when I figured out body language and energy. If a dog's aggressive I just ignore it and it realizes it's place in the hierarchy.
Great story! lol Dogs *do* read us, but one of their biggest cues is smell. A dog has a nose so sensitive that he/she can smell a drop of his owner's sweat in a volume the size of the Empire State Building...!
So if we get fearful and sweat or our hormones change, etc.--they smell us, and *that's* part of their profile, besides listening for tone, volume, etc., in our speech, or watching us for threatening/violent cues v. loving/non-violent cues, etc.
But they are MUCH better at reading us than vice versa, typically!
It’s a mix of nosies and body language. However, if they can’t see another dog they can communicate just by sounds. Not sure how effective it is though.
I know they do!! Tone and # of barks, baying, howling, they definitely carry on conversations. My dog and the neighbors dog had this conversation yesterday: territorial intruder seen : yes: location: up sidewalk: does snow (a different dog) know about it? Not yet : snow enters chat : intruder is at 400 block
"Hark, the call of the dark one has arrived" "We are here, dark one, we know where all the humans sleep" "Let the purge commence. Soon we will castrate them and leave them in collars and chains. Orrooooooo"
@noexpectations1 my dog does that too! Like I will say "go in your bed" and he will literally grumble and groan like a teenager asked to do the washing up 😂
