Dog chat

[Peter Brown]

Ok, who would like to explain to me how my dog invented a language to communicate to me his wants. This is my first ever dog, and over the last year I’ve slowly witnessed him get comfortable, (he was a rescue dog) then develop whines, barks or growls in various tones to actually mean something.

[trubble76]

I recently read a report on this very subject. It proposed that this sort of behavior was specifically derived through selection as an ability to communicate with humans is highly beneficial.

I can't remember where i saw it though, i will try to find it for you.

Edit:
Ok now i think about it, i think it was a BBC programme.
I can't watch through this while i'm at work to check, but it might be addressed in this programme.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pssgh

[Reverend Blair]

As a long-time dog owner, I think it's likely something we've been breeding for since the beginning of domestication.

Wolves are a communicative species from the start. Much of that is through body language, but they use a lot of vocalization too. Given the many, many years we've been breeding dogs, and our own species vocal communication, it's not really surprising that the vocalizations of wolves would have been expanded through selective breeding.

BTW Peter, congrats on the new dog.

[M]

It's Esperanto. Dogs speak Esperanto, cats speak French. If you go into your kitchen and your cat is on the table, if you say"Monsieur!" sharply, he will get down. Every time.

[TBickle]

I've had many dogs and they can be quite communicative. The dog probably didn't learn how to speak to you. You've probably just learned what each noise and expression means.

[klr]

This thread about a recent BBC documentary might be of interest: http://rationalia.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=7769

EDIT: I did a YouTube search, but the video has been removed.

[Feck]

Dogs had to learn how to talk to humans or we would have got ourselves killed off millennia ago ... dogs saw our opposable thumbs and thought "great humins can carry stuff and make tools and toys for us! "

Now if people would spend more time listening to their dogs and less time telling them what to do things would be a lot less busy at the animal shelters .