do dogs understand?

[babycakes200]

hi, this mite seem like a strange quest, but i was in spain recently and i just wondered would dogs that live in spain understand commands in english?

[jules77]

Not unless the command is accompanied by a hand signal. Sit isnt the same in spanish. My friend imported a dog from Denmark, and the owner talked to him in English 6 months before he came here.

[Kleiber]

They may understand the tone of voice, but not actual commands. I heard a story about a Welsh sheepdog that was sold to a farmer in Japan & the Japanese chap had to learn commands in Welsh, so he could communicate with hid dog!!

[wolf63]

Whilst I agree that dogs understand spoken language their natural language is 'body language' and the tone of voice is crucial too.

I used to have a really stupid Lab/GSD and I would tell him how stupid he was but in a nice voice - he always agreed with me and would be pleased with himself.

All dogs understand "Do you want......................" regardless of the language.

Cats make us understand their language.

[Kleiber]

You're absolutely right, wolf!!!

[shaneystar2]

We are a German /English family .My old boy understood quite well the command SIt and the command Sitz .He could also understand exactly what the German rellies said to him .
It's the tone of the voice not the actual word .If my Mum in law said to him kase (cheese) he knew exactly what she was on about !! And if I said to him ..where is Oma ..his ears pricked up immediately .
They just know the sounds not the meanings and associate whatever with that sound .

[Noweia]

If a dog in Spain was trained using commands in English, he would understand them! But if he was trained using Spanish commands, he wouldn't understand the English equivalents, unless retrained to do so.

[pinkkitty]

Lol @ Wolf - my dogs know the meaning of "do you want...." better than anything else. Cue much frantic tail wagging and wiggling when they're offered something.

I tried talking to my dogs in loads of different accents, and they just looked at me as if to say "what the hell are you on about?"

My dogs are bilingual, they understand Welsh and English. But not French, i've tried!

[Dassie]

It's not a question of "understanding" a language as we know it but of noise (word) association and that of our movements.