More About Dogs Who Comprehend Casual Human Speech

The other night, I was talking with Ian, gently poking fun, in the third person (or third dog) at Ruthie, our terrier, in the presence of Golden, and Ian issued a proper caveat, that we should be careful, or we might get in trouble.

I had to ask: In trouble with whom?

Why, in trouble with Golden, of course.

But why would we get into trouble with Golden?

Because Golden, hearing us talk irreverently about a dog, might think we were referring to him, and take offense.

Upon further questioning, which I couldn't resist, Ian confirmed that he believes that dogs can comprehend human discourse. I don't mean of the "Sit," "Stand," "Stop-eating-that-diaper" variety; I mean paragraphs of insensitive humor shared between two or more human conversationalists. He made it clear that they can't talk: but they can understand speech.

Then the other night, we had Golden upstairs hanging out with us in the boys room, and Ian was torn about whether or not to put him in the crate with Ruthie for the night. So, very logically, he took Golden downstairs, opened the crate, and instructed him to nod if he wanted to go into the crate with Ruthie, or shake his head if he preferred to go back upstairs and sleep with Ian and Daniel. Right on queue, the report goes, Golden nodded his head and went into the crate without prompting.

Ian reminded me that this was the second time that he worked out a communication system with an animal. The previous time was when he caught a red salamander, and I urged him to let it go before the end of the evening, on the assumption that it would probably die in captivity otherwise within a day or two. Ian took the salamander out to the driveway and told it two things: if it wanted to stay with Ian, it should linger rather than scampering off, and if it changed its mind, it could come back and meet Ian in the driveway at the same time the following evening. In this particular case, the salamander apparently elected life in the great outdoors. Ian was in tears that evening, as he told me about letting it go, but I was very proud of him, that he put the young lizard's well-being above his own. It is no coincidence that we have drawings of red salamanders on our mailbox, and red salamanders almost always make the list of Ian's favorite animals [yes, particularly red salamanders].

As funny as his conviction of animals' speech-comprehension may be, I suspect that his deep empathy is not lost on a creature such as Golden.

(February, 2011)