You Talk, But Is Your Dog Really Listening?

Dog owners know that it doesn't really matter whether you live alone or live with other humans, you're still going to have daily conversations with your dog.  Those conversations are one-sided, often with you supplying your dog's thoughts and responses for them, but that's beside the point. My point being that you are conversing with your dog in spite of the fact that they can't respond in kind like your human family members can. Their lack of conversational abilities, however, doesn't keep us from having a running dialog with our dogs, and of course, this behavior has been studied by scientists.

Researchers have found that most dogs can understand roughly 80 to 165 words depending on their training, breed tendencies, and individual differences in motivation.  The majority of dog owners tend to overestimate the number of words their own dogs understand, that is, we give them more credit for understanding us than is due. We all would like to believe that are dogs are exceptional and there are some truly exceptional dogs out there that know more than 200 words, and even famously studied dogs like Chaser, the border collie, who knew the individual names of more than one thousand objects.

So, are there certain words or phrases that we use that are more likely to be understood by our dogs?  Absolutely. The word your dog knows best is their name, and that list of nicknames you have for them.  They also know those words that apply to basic requests like sit, down, come, stay, and wait. Knowing the words does not equal compliance, however, meaning that just because your dog knows the word "come" doesn't mean he's automatically going to do it, particularly if there's something else grabbing his attention. Dogs with actual jobs seem to have the ability to recognize more words and that makes sense. If your dog's sole purpose in life is to keep the end of the sofa warm and watch for squirrels, that doesn't require as much brain power and word recognition as the dogs sniffing for contraband, guiding the blind, or herding sheep. The average working dog knows at least 120 words, while many actually recognize close to 200 or more.  The average couch potato?  Fifteen to 80 words known. 

Beyond knowing their name and the words for basic behaviors, your dog also recognizes and enjoys the words and phrases you use that imply that they are doing a good job.  When you tell your dog how good they are, how cute they are, or how much you love them, those words of affirmation and praise register as rewards in their brain similar to when they are offered food or treats. As you might imagine, pairing food or treats with those words of praise really lights up their brains!

If you want to increase your dog's word recognition, take your time.  Pair the new word or command with the object or desired behavior, using high value treats for reinforcement.  Your tone of voice matters, so use an upbeat tone and plenty of praise.  Repetition helps, but even more so doing short sessions over the course of several days helps to solidify that new word, command, or phrase for your dog, just as it works for you if you are learning a foreign language for the first time.

I myself have regular conversations with my dogs. While I know they are basically just politely listening to my ramblings, I also know that they are picking out the words and phrases that have meaning to them and they do respond when they hit upon those words or phrases.  Does that mean that I'm wasting my time with the other 5000 words I babble at them all day long? Absolutely not.  They don't need to understand every word for me to feel heard.  I've had entire conversations with Henley because he's the most attentive listener. I'll get to the end of my thoughts and, just for fun, ask him what he thinks.  I do this because asking him what he thinks often results in a head tilt and then him going to get a toy, almost as if he's saying, "I don't have any idea what you just said but I'm pretty sure playing with this toy will make you feel right as rain."  And you know what?  He's right.  A little play time often does make it all better.

As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.

Henley sits like this when I talk to him and I love this about him. He is an intent listener who really does seem to focus on every word.  It's quite obvious, however, when I hit upon a word or phrase he knows well though as he'll often tap his front feet or give an open mouth grin, as if to say, "Hey! I know just what you mean!"

Do Dogs Enjoy Heavy Metal Music?

That was the question posed to me by the teenage son of one of my friends.  You see, my friend loves heavy metal music and always has. If you ride in the car with her, be prepared to listen to Metallica, Black Sabbath, and Iron Maiden. So why was her son asking me about dogs and music?  My friend leaves music on for their Labrador Retriever when she's at work and her son is at school. More specifically, she leaves on heavy metal music for the dog when they are gone.  I asked her son if he'd like to conduct a mini-experiment to determine the answer to that question and he was game, so here's what we did.

We set up a camera in the main room of their house where the music is played for the dog via an Alexa style home audio system.  Their dog has full access to the house, but this is the room where the family spends most of their time when they are home.  Their dog has several dog beds, one in each of the bedrooms, a mat in their kitchen, and a dog bed in this room where the speaker is located.  When the family is home, he tends to be where at least one family member is located, rather than being off by himself.  While I've never thought of him as being clinically anxious, he is a bit attention seeky in general and he does get a little whiny right before they leave the house, hence my friend leaving music on for him to "keep him company."  For the record, he's never been destructive in their absence, never had any house-soiling issues, isn't barking unnecessarily, and isn't covered in drool when they get home, just a few of the classic signs of what would be considered separation anxiety.

My friend and her son left the house together and headed for a local restaurant for lunch, where I met up with them.  We brought up the camera's feed on her son's phone so we could observe what we were now referring to as "the music room." I should note that this room is no where near the door they enter and exit their house.  Here's what we found: When they left the house, he wasn't in the music room, but within a few minutes of their departure, he was not only in the music room, he was laying on his bed, chewing on a bone (he has toys and bones all over their house). We brought up the sound on the video and could clearly hear a song by Judas Priest playing as the dog chewed on his bone.  He laid there chewing on that bone through three more songs (one by Metallica, one by Slayer, and one by Black Sabbath).  When a song by Iron Maiden came on, the dog got up, stretched, and left the room.  Did that mean he didn't like that band?  Not necessarily, though that certainly could be. It could also be the case that he needed to get up and get a drink of water or go out the dog door to relieve himself.  We'd have to set up additional cameras to determine where he went.  He didn't return to the room at all during the time we were at lunch.  When we were in the parking lot saying goodbyes, we noticed he'd returned to the music room and was now sleeping on the dog bed.  The music playing?  Rage Against the Machine!

So, what does this all mean?  I think the most likely explanation is the simplest one.  This dog has been listening to heavy metal music in the background of his daily life since he came to live with my friend as an 8 week old puppy.  He associates that genre of music with his people and thus having it playing in the background while perhaps not necessarily soothing, it is familiar. Would we observe the same behaviors if classical music was played or 80's pop?  Who knows.  My friend's son may want to experiment further with other musical genres if he can get his mother to agree to a few new playlists.

There have actually been a couple of research studies done on music and dog behavior, specifically looking at the behavior of dogs in traditional kennel-type living situations.  The first study found that playing classical music to 117 kenneled dogs made them sleep more and bark less.  When heavy metal music was played for these same dogs, it resulted in more body shaking.  In a second study, they played five genres of music to 38 dogs, measuring the dogs' heart rate.  Soft rock and reggae music were the two genres that resulted in the most significant decrease in the dogs' heart rate. This second study also found that any music played help the dogs to be more relaxed in general, meaning the dogs were laying down more when music was played; when the music stopped, they barked more. And for anyone thinking that classical music is the way to go in general if you are looking for relaxation long term in your dog, that's where you'd be wrong.  A study done in 2015 found that the calming effects of classical music faded after a couple of days as the dogs habituated to the sounds.  So, if the goal is to use music to calm kenneled dogs, varying the playlists, or setting the CD player on shuffle is the key.  But how does this all relate to your dogs at home?

Well, the researchers by and large believed that pet dogs likely had their own musical tastes shaped by what their owners listened to. Meaning, if you like jazz music and play that a lot when you are home, it's likely your dog is a jazz enthusiast too. Which would explain why my friend's dog spends quite a bit of his day lounging around in the room where the speakers are playing heavy metal music.  Though, he does appear to have something against Iron Maiden as my friend's son has started noting what song is on when the dog leaves the room and he's never stayed when it was Iron Maiden.  I find that very entertaining, though I don't think it will cause my friend to remove that band from her playlists.

As always, if you have questions about your pet's behavior, you know where to find me.

I have music playing in the background most of the time when I'm home.  I've got eclectic tastes so my dogs are exposed to all kinds of genres, depending on my mood or who's home with me.  Here's Henley chilling on one of the dog beds while Melissa Etheridge is playing on vinyl in the background. Yes, I still own vinyl and prefer it.  Hey, does that mean my dogs prefer vinyl too?