Talking “Dog”
Saturday, October 3rd, 2009 by JennaPart I – Ways Dogs Communicate in Our Language
In “Watchers” by Dean Koontz, a hyper-intelligent Golden Retriever learns to communicate by typing his thoughts. In “How to Speak Dog,” it’s an Irish Setter who learns to type but this book is nonfiction! It’s written by Stanley Coren a renouwn Psychology professer who has won numerous awards for his research and publications. He describes a three-year experiment performed by Elisabeth Borgese’s Irish Setter, Arli, in 1962. Starting with dots, Borgese taught Arli how to count numeric symbols then she progressed to letters and soon to words.
Arli could distinguish the larger of two numeric symbols presented to him as well as decipher words by picking out letters. He was able to arrange tiles with the letters “G C O A G T” into “DOG” or “CAT” on command. Borgese soon moved Arli to a keyboard where he could take dictation. Unfortunately, Arli had trouble attaching meaning to the letters and difficulty connecting his action of typing with the printed page he produced. Borgese does recall a time when Arli was having gastic problems and was ignoring the keyboard. Borgese dictated “good dog get bone” and after a time, Arli made his way to the keyboard and typed “a bad a bad doog.” Occasionally, Arli would type without any dictation, producing such works as “Bed a Cat:”
cad a baf
bdd af dff
art ad
abd ad arrli
bed a ccat
Borgese decided that what he produced could be considered “poetry”–she even sent one of his poems off to a critic of modern poetry who responded that “the poems are charming. I think he has a definite affinity with the ‘concretist’ groups in Brazil, Scotland and Germany. Has he been in touch with them?” Borgese never mentioned that Arli was a dog!
Even dogs less rigorously trained than Arli have a phenomenal grasp on language. I’ve met dogs who are bilingual in English/Spanish and English/Arabic–that’s more than I can say for myself. Given the amount of words that dogs can understand and phrases they can interpret, their language ability is estimated to be about that of a three year old child.
Part II – How to Speak and Understand Dog Language
Fair is fair, if we expect them to learn our language we ought to learn some of theirs. I’m sure I’m not the only one who has ‘woofed’ back in my dog’s native tongue. I wonder if I sound like a three year old puppy? Unfortunately, I don’t even know what that woof means! If you want to learn to “talk dog,” Stanley Coren’s book will give you some pointers. For one thing, don’t point! Have you ever tried to indicate a toy by pointing? Typically your dog will look at your hand, not what you’re pointing at. Coren’s rationale is that dogs use their paws for walking so they don’t associate our “paws” with communication. The way a dog points is with his body language. Try turning your body, head, and eyesight to what you want to indicate and see if your dog understands. There’s a chart in the back of the book that translates barks but body language is easier for us humans to speak in. For example, if you’re dealing with a shy dog, try looking to the side instead of making eye contact. To dogs, eye contact is a show of dominance and can be frightening. You can portray yourself as non-threatening by approaching a nervous dog at a slant rather than head on, with your eyes focused on something on the ground.
Part III – How to Stop Barking
Given that Albemarle has recently passed a noise ordinance focused on dog barking, it is prudent to find the method that works best to quiet your dog’s “speeches.”
For more information about dog communication including miscommunication with cats and a dictionary of barks, you’ll enjoy “How to Speak Dog.” You can learn more about the author’s credits at his website.