What words/phrases does your dog/cat understand?

[kenny]

Yennyfire's silly pet name thread got me thinking ... always a dangerous thing.

Our doggies understand ...

Leave it! This makes them drop whatever they have picked up in their mouths.
Come!
Let's go for a walk.
Stay!

Go on! This is used during walks when they are stalling but I want them to walk, in front of me.
Want a Kong? Kongs are rubber thingies you put a treat in.
Let's go to sleep. This makes them march to their crate for bedtime.

EH!, (spoken sharply, firmly, and authoritatively) means stop doing whatever you're doing.

What does your dog/cat understand?

 

[dk168]

The dog understands:

Stop
Stay
Come
Go
Good boy
Chicken
Bacon
Burger
Sausage
Toast
Chewy stick
Food
Beach
Walkie
Leave it
Bedtime
Go to your bed

The cat understands, or chooses to respond to:

Good girl
Chicken
Food
Don't be mean to the dog

DK

 

[kenny]

DK, does your doggie really understand the difference between all those different foods?

And don't you ever have to tell the dog to be nice to the cat?
I thought dogs were the bullies.

 

[Niel]

hmmm.... let me think. I know ill miss some.

who's here?

Go see!

Squirrel.

No.

Come here.

Sit.

Stop licking!

get down.

treat.

wants some food?

up/ big jump.

car ride.

hey! (which means stop barking)

lets go.

 

[Kelinas]

Mine answers more to Korean than English. And shd tends to follow hand signals.

Hand out (like high five) means sit.
Going from vertical to horizontal (palm down) means down.

Palm down, flipping my thumb towards the right means show me your tummy!
Come here sign makes her roll towards me.

A fist means stop.
2 fingers up mean go.

 

[Efe]

Mommy
Daddy
Kiss - they will come and give a kiss
Sit
Stay
Settle
Down
Snacky
Go to your safe place - crate
Come
Bad dog/good dog
Quiet
Stop
Peanut butter
bath
Bah and Hup - separate phrases for each dog - basically means stop in your tracks
Car - they know to go to the side of the road and sit until the car passes
That's all I can think of right now.

 

[arkieb1]

My scotties respond generally to any words with food, their names, when it's time to run in our larger yard rather than their smaller one and some specific words like;

Biscuits
No
Pee pee (I have one that tinkles on command)
Cat (they hate the cat and when you say cat they run around looking for the cat)
and very basic things.

I used to own a cat (a Tonkinese that is now dead) that fetched things he had about a 50 to 100 word vocabulary for understanding things. He was by far the smartest pet I have ever owned. And he communicated back with different sounds, he had a noise he made that was when he called my name, my husband who isn't as "into" animals, even recognised a different noise he made when he was specifically calling my name. He used to be able to tell us when someone was outside at the door or walking up the driveway, we used to call him our watch cat - instead of watch dog because he did a better job of alerting us than the dogs do.....

All the dogs and cats have different tones for things when communicating to us, the dogs for example have high screaming sounds that mean different things and barks and yaps ranging in tones that mean other things. It's a matter of identifying patterns and when they use them to figure out what they mean.

 

[Kaleigh]

I'm not ready yet... This Charlie girl lives to go o the car...

I say you didn't eat your breakfast.. Go do that while I finish up here.....

She understands everything.... To the point I no longer spell... She got that down too...


She ia a trip!!!!

 

[missy]

They probably understand more than we think they do but here's what I *think* they understand:

My cats who are now gone (Billy, Butch and Buster) used to play fetch with me and I used to say c'mon let's play and they understood.

My cats now understand:

time to eat
come here
time to get in the carriers (not that they obey lol though sometimes)
time for bed
stop that
give me a kiss
jump up
good girl/boy
no
do you want to be rescued
don't jump
jump
do you want your butt squeezed (that's unique to Fred-he loves that)
do you want to be brushed

I'm sure there are other phrases that are eluding me right now.
And of course they get tone of voice. They know when we are pleased with them and when we are not.

Arkieb, that is so true. My cats are very communicative (especially for strays vs purebreds) and have different pitches/tones when they are communicating. Francesca in particular has a very whiny tone when she wants us to pick her up. She has trained us well haha.

 

[OreoRosies86]

Bear is a smart little cat. He responds to his name and will come running with a big "MEOW!"

Other words: "Ut-tut-tut!" he will stop scratching on the furniture
"Hungry?" he runs to the food bowl
"Go get it!" he will do a flying leap and swish his tail.

Oreo is still getting the hang of human speak, but is starting to respond to her name!

 

[misssoph]

My border collie dog seems to understand a large amount of spoken language, dozens of words if not more than 100

 

[dk168]

DK, does your doggie really understand the difference between all those different foods?

And don't you ever have to tell the dog to be nice to the cat?
I thought dogs were the bullies.

He definitely understands chicken, burger (as in my home-made ones) and bacon!

Especially chicken, both pets will run into the kitchen whenever I shout "chicken".

I seldom buy roast chicken at full price for the pets from the hot food counter at my local supermarkeht, only when they are reduced.

The cat is the bully in the house, and the dog is scared of her!

Other words the dog understands:

All gone
No more
Time for bed
Time for a cuddle (the cats understands that one too)
Give me a kiss

DK

 

[yennyfire]

Zoe knows/responds to:

Off
Leave it (as in don't pick it up in the first place, used for things that get dropped that would make her sick or hurt her)
Drop it (i.e. as in "if you drop it, I'll throw it again")
Go bed
Down
Sit
Stay (this one has varied success depending on surroundings
Get your ball/Where's your ball
Where's Nate/Halle/Daddy/Mommy
Car?
Bus (as in, let's go get the kids off of the bus)
No
Outside
Want turkey/eggs/beef?

I'm sure that there's more, but that's all I've got right now!

 

[packrat]

Opilio comes when London calls her. The cat can be in the basement or clear out in the yard and when London calls her and makes this certain smoochy noise, she comes running. Doesn't do it for any of us.

Sadie was pretty smart and understood pretty much everything. I used to drive JD nuts and tell him it was the tone of voice used. Sadie would run to the door, hop and spin and chuff if you asked her if she had to poop. He used a sort of baby-talk voice. So I would do it too, but say "Saaaadie, should mommy beat her doggie? Ohhh mommy smack a doggie ina faaace?" in a certain voice. And she'd do the hop, spin, chuff. JD would yell that's not the same thing!

 

[diamondringlover]

I swear I think our dog is part human!!!! it amazes me some of the things she can do and some of the things she understands..I have had a total of 3 dogs in my adult life and Josie is by far the smartest...out cat doesnt understand as much and doesnt respond as much, she was a stray and I think who ever dumped her abused and ignored her the one thing she does understand is the word Chicken...she loves chicken!!! but that is about it..for the most part she does what she wants when she wants to do it lol...she rules the house.

 

[JewelFreak]

My border collie dog seems to understand a large amount of spoken language, dozens of words if not more than 100

I'll bet your border collie could teach YOU words, while fixing your checkbook, tuning up the car, doing the wash, & making out a shopping list! They are so smart!

My dogs know a lot lot lot of words, but keep it secret. They always know when we're going to the vet even though I never say the word -- it takes 15 minutes to catch 'em to put on a leash.

They also know "are you hungry?" and "breakfast" (which I use for both meals), the usual come stay sit down -- though they understand that selectively depending on their own agendas at the moment. And....

Do you want to have some fun? (Means we're going to Petco -- cause for immediate jumping in the air & woowooing)
Off! (Drop it or stop eating it)
Be nice (stop chewing on the cat)
Bed time
Easy
Outside
Walk
Gentle
Treat
Bone
Let's go

And a bunch of other words I can't think of right now. I'm sure if I came downstairs in the middle of the night, I'd find them with English books & earphones.

--- Laurie

 

[MMtwo]

Sit
Shake
Lay Down
Get Back
Leave it!
Drop it!
Wait (Also with handsignals)
Go
Bath? She will run away
Go for a walk?
Go for a ride?
Where's the cat?
Where's Dylan? (she'll find my son)
Where's Katie? (will find daughter)
Be nice!
Gentle (when eating from fingers)
Get your bone
Go Night Night
Wanna treat?
Time to eat
Go outside

 

[GliderPoss]

This is a hilarious thread! Love how many "food" words pets know... We have two mini Dachsunds and they are very clever. A few things I can think of off the top of my head are:

CHAIR (Basket, couch or whatever you want them to sit on - helps to point sometimes)
WALKIES & WHERE IS THE LEAD? (Runs to laundry cupboard and when I open it they collect their leads out and bring them to you)
WHERE'S THE EMU? They run to the front window to look out for emus & kangaroos (not kidding! )
BATH (They run & hide)
KISS KISS (They kiss your nose )
HUP (Get up on my lap)
GET DOWN/SIT/STAY/NO/YES - usual commands
WAIT (command to freeze, usually when offering a treat)
TIME FOR BED (they will go to door and wait to be let out to their kennel)
WHERE'S BUNNY? (Soft toy they play with)

 

[ForteKitty]

My Monster (cat) knows:

All the other cats' names. When we yell at one cat, they all look for the "bad cat".
bad boy. When he's bad and gets caught, he'll flop over and pretend he didn't do it.
mama
daddy
chicken
nom nom
din din
daddy time (when the husband gets out of shower, Monster has to jump on his shoulder for daddy time snuggles)
"we're going to clean the litter" means it's time for him to stand by so he can get the first clean litter poop in.

And this was really freaky, but he wanted to get on the top shelf of the cat tower once and was denied by another cat. He spent a good hour sulking. Well, he was sleeping behind the couch when the other cat got up (no visibility to cat tower), and my husband said, "hey Monster, your spot opened up", and I kid you not... Monster woke up and walked straight over to the cat tower that's across the room!

The other cats aren't as smart, but they do know the other cats' names, and they know dinner time and all that.

ETA: forgot about "night night time". They all know that one.

 

[Sky56]

From my years of in-the-field scientific experimentation, most cats love the sound of the made-up word "PAJ." It is pronounced like "Taj" in "Taj Mahal." It's a rare cat, even skittish ones, who don't take note of the word, said luxuriously and repeatedly in a soft fashion. Oftentimes, the cat will come over to me for a pet. I like to do this on my walks when I encounter cats in the street.
Somehow, it resonates in their cat brains as a pleasurable sound.

 

[kenny]

One of our dogs HATES the word, bath.

She'll put her head down and slink away.

 

[Deactivated member 42515]

I don't have a lot of time so I'll get into more later but Livi knows all the names of her toys. I'll say "go get your ___" or "where's your ____" and she will go and get said toy.

She's so smart.

 

[Sparklelu]

The dog know lots, but our cat Sammykat ( who passed away after years ago at the ripe old age of 21.5 ) could talk!
If she wanted to go out on the lanai she would walk to the door meow her regular meow get our attention and clear as day meow the word owwwtttt. I'd say want to go out and she would repeat the word and paw at the door! Wish I had recorded it!

 

[SMC]

Phinney knows:
sit
stay
down
kennel
wait
leave it
drop it
ball
bang! (rolls over and plays dead for maybe 2 seconds)
upstairs
up (to get up on the bed or couch)
off (gets off bed or couch)
over here (will go to where i'm pointing)
touch (touch the object i'm holding out)
that's enough (this is her cue to stop barking or being annoying but it doesn't work when she's too excited)
too bad (she gets a time out)
hand (swats me with her paw)
roll over
potty
where's daddy? (goes and finds DH)

 

[Autumnovember]

Dog one undestands in English: come, sit, stay, down, no, good boy, bad boy, treat, outside, walk, go to bed, water, give me a kiss, paw, and wheres Chris. He also understands when its time for us to nap

My second dog understands phrases in Russian: good girl, eat, sit, go for a walk, lets play, lets go to sleep, no, snuggle, and Dima's home.

 

[April20]

He (our yorkie-poo) knows:

Out
Treat
Chicken
Mama
Daddy
Go get it
No

I'm sure there are others but is #1 is out. He runs like a crazy man to the back door when he hears it. I said something the other night and the word "out" was included. He threw himself off the bed running to the back door. Silly boy.

 

[texaskj]

Way more than I can list. He's a fairly rare hunting breed and knows words, hand signals and whistle commands. He's smarter than some toddlers I've known. Hunting commands are different than what most people use.
Hup = sit and stay
Fetch it up = find it
The dog's first name = fetch

 

[NTave]

Want to go for a ride. Incidentally she also knows "car" if she hears a conversation.
No
Crate
Drop it
Let go
Stay
Down
Sit
Paw
High five
lay down
Want a treat?
Knock it off
Come here.
Get off the rug.
Out.
walk
And probably a dozen more things I cant think of. She is very intuitive and protective and I enjoy her company immensely. I swear she understands everything else too