Do you talk to your dog? Do you carry on conversations with said pet? Don’t worry, you are not crazy and you are not alone.
Benefits of Talking to Your Dog Studies have shown that talking about your day, even to your dog, lowers blood sugar and stress. Everyone needs to unwind that consider their day, but not everyone has a caring partner, family member, friend, or roommate to talk to after a long day of work.
As much as 70 percent of American households with pets say they consider their pets to be part of the family. It is not so strange to think those people would talk to their dog like a human. However, just because the pet may show signs that suggest he or she understands what you are saying does not mean that they do.
What The Dogs Think So what do our dogs think of us when we talk to them? Don’t worry, they can’t tell if you are crazy or just talkative. They enjoy being shown attention and most of them love being the center of your attention. They will keep watching and “listening” as long as you keep talking.
Rico the Boarder Collie A German study done in 2003 found that their test subject, a boarder collie named Rico that is able to understand over 200 words and was able to learn more about as fast as a young toddler can. This means Rico has the about the same size vocabulary as apes, dolphins, and parrots trained to understand words.
Learning New Words Rico was able to understand which toy the testers were talking about and retrieve the toy in question from a box full of toys. In some tests, Rico’s owner would tell him to fetch a toy that he was unfamiliar with. 7 out of 10 times, Rico would bring back the correct toy. He was able to figure out which one his owner wanted because he knew the names of the other toys. he was able to eliminate the others in order to find the correct one.
What is even more impressive is that Rico was able to remember the name of the new toy 3 out of 7 times a month later. That is pretty impressive for a human, let alone a dog!
Wrap Up Dogs may be smarter than we think they are. They might not be able to understand most of what we are saying when we ramble on about our day at work, but they are always there willing to listen and not judge. Maybe that is why they are mans best friend.
About the author:
Kayleigh has always loved animals and has spent time volunteering at the local dog shelter. The love of her life is her four year old Rottweiler, Lizzie. She enjoys writing for YeePet.com since it combines her love of animals with one of her favor...
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By the way, that is my dog in the pic and she arranged her toys in a line like that. This was not the first time either.
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