DO DOGS SPEAK?

Communication in a dog’s language includes the use of sound (i.e. barking), body language (movement and facial expressions). The sounds dogs make, or the movements and/or gestures made with their face and/or body express their feelings, the same way people might do, although human and animal expressions can completely differ in the meanings attached to them.

Dogs learn to respond to different sounds, body language (movements and gestures) and facial expressions. Animals instinctively communicate with other dogs and this is not something they learn from humans. So, a dog from Argentina will understand a dog from England, and so on. They will, however, have difficulty understanding the English or Spanish spoken language, or any other language, since every language has different sounds associated with the words in the language.

As a dog trainer for the last 35 years, I have not encountered difficulty in communicating with dogs, including dogs coming from other countries where the spoken language has been different than my own. Based on both my knowledge and experience with dog training as well as in linguistic professional, I can confidently say that I a dog’s level of understanding is based on our ability to learn how to communicate in their language by using our own voice, body language (movements) and facial expressions.