dog talk

My dog speaks woof in English and French. Okay, maybe I exaggerated about the two languages but he understands vien and come and many other things in either language. We can tell by his body language, double takes and the ear rotations that he knows what my husband and I are saying to one another in normal conversational tones.

He has a rather large vocabulary from a barely audible squeak to say "pay attention to me" to an eardrum shattering bark that says "I SAID PAY ATTENTION!" In between there's a whole series of sounds indicating desire to go out, play, eat, retrieve the toy from under the sofa, etc.

He is smarter than most of the other dogs I've had (Sorry Albert, Amadeus, Mika) evidenced by his problem-solving skills.

I thought I was anthropomorphizing him when I felt he was trying to talk to me.

Then I read this article https://www.niutoday.info/2019/08/05/speech-pathologist-pushes-animal-communication-boundaries-with-case-study/

Christina Hunger, a speech therapist, has helped her dog, Stella, communicate with her https://www.hungerforwords.com/through a series of buttons. When the dog pushes certain buttons words like play, eat, out are spoken. Not only does Stella push a single button, she will push combinations for more complicated desires.

This is Stella. Now although she can use the buttons to make her wishes known, it is not possible ot have a deep political or philosophical conversation with her. Hunger says she has about 22 words they use together.

I suspect if we had similar buttons, Sherlock would quickly learn to press them. He probably would stomp on "Biscuits" many, many times until we responded. On the other hand, maybe it is better that we continue with his variety of woofs and soul-penetrating stares and body language.