Of course you understand some dog barks, you just don’t think about it because humans process language innately, we have specialized brain structures for it.
I’ll bet you can recognize “I see a threat” and 'I’m in pain" when you hear them. Maybe even distinguish them from “happy excitement”
My dog doesn’t bark but she can express herself in many other ways. She boops me when she needs my attention. Walks to the door and sits when she wants to go out. Brings me a ball then drops it repeatedly when she wants to play fetch. She puts her paw in my hand when she needs care (tick bothering her, or else). She doesn’t need words, not even barks. She also understands a bunch of hand gestures with no word prompts, just a finger snap for attention then she sees me do 👆 that means sit. 🫳 moving down means lay down, 🐶👈 means stay… and so on…
I’m more of a cat person, but I always thought it was really cool how well dogs and humans can communicate from 30,000 years of living together. I remember hearing about an experiment that showed dogs could read human body language (even humans they didn’t know) better than chimps, our closest relatives.
My dog knows when my wife gets a panic attack before me. She’s not a service dog or anything. Je was not trained for it. But if she starts hyperventilating or sobbing, she will go to her and boop her and try to put weight on her to comfort her. Sometimes it’s great sometimes it’s annoying but every time she gets a compliment.
Cats can too. My cat reads my body language and understands some words.
If I say treats she bolts from wherever she was sleeping right to me. Are you hungry brings her to the food bowl. Time for bed sends her off to the bedroom waiting for me.
I think it says more for our own intelligence that we can create languages that other animals understand than anything. The chimp thing is interesting though. Another thing that always stuck with me is that throughout all the times people have tried teaching chimps sign language they’ve never once asked a human a single question.
Dogs and cats seem to ask what we mean sometimes. Maybe chimps are just really dumb.
If you can’t understand your dog’s communication, that’s on you. Most people can.
Omg… so true!
Being able to read their body language is more important.
So do dogs not have different barks, the way cats often have different meows? I’ve never considered this possibility, but it feels like it should be the same. They do whine, for instance, but idk if there’s a food bark.
They definitely do, especially if you include borderline barking like whining and “boofing”
