Question:
I don't think I've met many pet lovers who don't talk to their pets. I think it's because we think of them as family(short family with tons of hair). So I was wondering, when you talk to your pets or use gestures at them, do you think of them as if they are supposed to understand what you're blabbering to them?

Choices:
Yes
No
I've never thought of it, it's a habit
I have pets that are hard/strange to talk to like fish
I don't talk to my pets actually

 

Well, ummm YA - doesn't everyone? I think the Yes and the habit are rather one in the same - I know I do it - but I don't really think about it...

Well....I have a dog that DOES understand a lot of English. Like one time she picked something off the floor and was gnawing on it. We couldn't see what it was so my fiancee looked at her and said sternly "spit it out!" and she looked confused for a moment and he repeated it "spit it out!!" and she did! With an audible PATOOWIE sound. It was so funny. She also understands "go get in your box" and "stop that whining!" and "don't leave that toy there! put it in your toy box!"

Now I know a dog that follows commands is nothing new. The thing that amazes me about Sophie is that we've never tried to train her to do these things....AND the fact that she usually follows the command EXACTLY the first or second time she hears it. There's no time period where she has to learn what certain sounds mean through a series of command and reward training. She just DOES it. It freaks me out.

Not only does Shadow understand me BUT he talks to me. No, I'm not crazy. As he's gotten older his vocal chords have changed and he no longer meows but rather has the "Charlie Brown Adult Speech" You all know what I mean...
So I ask him a question and he answers.

Hey, do you all say "excuse me" or "I'm sorry" if you inadvertantly get in the pet's way or accidently step on their tail???

Funny you should ask!
I'm talking to my big black cat as I type! (Kinda hard not to, as he's in my lap! )

And Georgia - yes, I do apologize... (Like for disturbing him just now...)

TIE - you have a big black cat too...and your dream home is a gothic mansion that looks like it could be haunted. And you like horror movies...sure you aren't me?

I always talk to my dog and she does understand me and my moods... I talk to the goat once in awhile but, he doesnt understand anything

i hate my cat !!! so the only thing i say to it is "shift!"

and im always talking (most of the time it's baby-talking ) to the dogs and the horses.

Of course I talk to my dogs I talk to them like they know exactly what I'm saying. If I ask them to 'speak' back to me, they bark That's why they are so much better then kids, you have to 'tell' them to speak

Also puppys one dog and mine are good friends also..so of course they talk to each other

Oh, they understand me. They understand every darn word that comes out of my mouth. They just pretend not to.

Conditioning means a lot!

Lyd is gonna hate me for this!

When I drain a can of tuna - I
save the water that it's packed in.
Then I ring the "tuna juice" bell and
my youngest kid, Annie, comes running
- she knows the drill!

It's hilarious - she'll come running
out of a solid sleep!

Cats are soooooo much fun!

Back when Mister was allowed to roam free, I could "call" him by holding my electric coffee grinder near the kitchen window...he knew that a few minutes after that sound the half & half would come out of the fridge!

I think people very much underestimate how intelligent animals really are. You wouldn't believe how much language they understand if you talk to them. I had a gerbil almost trained like a dog. The lovebird was catching on very quickly to all kids of words and understood. Dogs are pretty obvious. They react quickly. My cat always turns her ears even if she doesn't feel like doing what I want.

Has anyone else found that nearly all dogs are deaf in one ear? If I yell for mine to come they commonly don't move but just go on mooching about or running off. That might be from 40 yards away. So they obviously can't hear me. But if I open a tin of dogfood I swear they could be 800 yards away and they come running at the first tiny sound of it. So it can only be that they hear with the one good ear; it's just that when they are close they happen to have the wrong ear, the deaf one, turned towards me most times.

Do you think I should take them to the veterinary surgeon?

I talk to my pets all the time. I guess it's a habit but my pug does some of the things I say to her. For example: I'll say to her "Go get your baby" and she will go and get one of her toys and bring it to me.

Fred, I suspect that what you have described is not a hearing loss, but selective hearing....My cat can't hear my yell to get off the blessed countertop from ten feet, but clearly hears any food related sound, however quietly made. If you are concerned,or if this is a recent development, by all means ask the vet, but it is likely nothing.

We've talked to all the cats we've had over the years...even to the deaf one! The one thing we have to remember with her is that we have to touch her to get her attention if she's facing away. "Kitty kitty kitty" just doesn't work.

MrsS: Ah, it's worse than that. The wolfhounds can't here me at all from 90 yards viz. as soon as they get within reach of the gap in the hedge!

Lacie is the Miss-Priss of all dogs!

She will totally look at you and turn her nose up and look away OR she does this little lift-her-lip in a mini-sass.

If you REALLY want her to come. You call her, THEN you look away and IGNORE her! She HATES that! And she will come running!