Ugh, My dog learned spelling!

Yes. Both my dogs are very smart ,and even when they are sleeping and I say a word that means something, they both wake up.

With both my dogs, we have to spell "go" (which to them means a car ride), "outside" and "treat". I used to have a super-smart chihuahua who, if I said in a very nice tone 'want a bath?' he would slink off and hide with his tail tucked. Sometimes when we came home, he would meet us at the door with his tail tucked, and hanging his head and we then knew he had gotten into the garbage or something he KNEW he was not supposed to. It was very plain to see he felt guilty and was saying go ahead and scold me, I have it coming. He's been gone for about 6 yr. and I still miss him. This is a great thread, I love hearing about other people's dogs.

we have to spell the usuals - out-walk-car, but the best is...
every night after dinner, my husband has been giving Kita about half a dozen jelly beans. now once dinner is done he sits in his recliner, she's right next to him waiting for the jelly beans. to the point if he dosn't pay attention, she starts fussing with his shoes - or the newspaper until he gets the jar.
she quickly learned the words "jelly beans", so we took to calling them "JB's" - but now she knows JB's.
They're now called "those colored things" - we'll see how long this lasts

E a t

F e e d

F o o d

G o

All have to be spelled.

I feed my two at different times in the evening on purpose. Mainly because my schedule is different and because I do not want a strict routine. Might be 5PM or 8PM.

And, I seldom let them pick the time, which they try to do. But, when I do decide to feed, all I have to do is say "OK or slide forward in my chair to get up---and BAM, they rush to their places!

My little iggy is nuts about riding in the vehicles, so I got to spelling bye-bye. Now, he knows what THAT means! He knows what 'soup's on' means. He picks up on the non-verbals even better. The soft slam of a cabinet or the refrigerator door brings him to the kitchen with a stuffed toy in his mouth and he takes his position under my feet at the stove. I suspect he intends to trade the use of his toy for some grub. He leaves it every night by his food dish for awhile after he eats. Isn't he generous?

He also knows what "I'm going to bed" means and whomever goes first he accompanies and takes his toys to the bed and officially tucks whomever is retiring in.

If we say squeaker, he gets a toy.......none of whom squeak anymore. He usually kills the squeaker in the first fifteen minutes.

He also knows the word squirrel so runs to a window to see if he can scare it away.

And if I say "See you later", he pins his little triangle ears back and cows down, dejected because he knows that means he shall be home alone. If I forget something and turn back around and come inside, I usually hear toenails hit the floor because he quickly goes counter surfing. LOL. That's the thing about greyhounds, even tiny ones, they can jump up and get to anything. I had a bird loose in the house numerous times, and after I get it safely out I even find candleholders mounted high on the wall tipped over where he has jumped and knocked them.

I have friends that used to live in El Paso, TX. Both their children lived in Albuquerque, NM. When ever they mention going there, their dogs would get excited. They finally fiqured out that Albuquerque and cookie sounded similar to the dogs.

Dogs are smarter than you know. If you watch them you will be very afraid that maybe MAYBE they are smarter than you. They know your thoughts --- well some of the smarter ones know your thoughts if you are one of the dumber humans.

Dogs/cats are very smart. Period. Why would you even try to spell out words when your dog probably knows what you are thinking? Try a little experiment. Think what you are going to do and look at your dog/cat. SEE WHAT I AM TALKING ABOUT?

Dogs pick up and key on body position and slight movements. When many people form habits, they also adopt movements that predede those habits. Subtle body movements are an integral part of dog to dog communication. It is totally natural for dogs to sense an action from their humans action. And time of day can also be important.

Example: I have a recliner. If I collapse the foot rest in the afternoon between about 4PM to 6PM, both dogs jump up in anticipation of being fed. They used to jump and run to their places. But, they have learned I may not be going to feed them. So, they just jump up, ready if I give the indication I am going to feed them. Which is simply that I now look at one of them. The look signals the dog at which I look that I am going to feed. That dog's action triggers the other one.

If I don't look at either one, they lay back down before I even get out of the chair.

Definitely have to spell the obvious words for my girls now..a bittersweet memory is when the love of my life dog, Boo and I would go down to see the vet oncologist, he would always get excited when we got to the "high five" interstate exchange in Dallas because he knew we were almost there. He knew he would be babied and pampered while there and get lots of cookies despite being poked and prodded. Miss that guy something fierce.

well, our dogs (a German Shepherd & three Min-Pins) also understand spelling: our word for a treat is 'din-din' & even when we spell it, they come running too! Or when we spell 'papa' or our son's name, they perk up & know who we are talking about & run to the front door. When we come home from shopping, we barely have turned the corner to our street - & they cannot see the car yet- but they know the sound of our car engine I guess & all are waiting by the gate for us! One in winter will sit & look up at the chimney around 5 PM & bark... he is waiting for the smoke to come out of the chimney when we start the fire in the wood stove about thast time! After we switched to a pellet stove (no smoke!) he would sit & wait & wait... finally after a few weeks he gave up waiting for the smoke!

We have to spell OUT & Go bye byes in the car. Bath is another one. If I say anything about a bath both my Chihuahuas put their tales between their legs and hide under the bed. We can ask them if they have to go out & they will go nuts, jumping all over you until you say ok or alright & then theyll run to the door. If its raing outside I can tell them they have wet feet when they come back in & theyll stand at the door waiting for me to wipe their feet off. They are VERY smart creatures lol. Now they share the house & love with our 2 lil goat babies.

We found that our cats learned EAT when we spelled it out too. (Spelling EAT sounded to close to the word as you said it.) So we scrambled the letters of EAT and now we can talk about eat by using the word TEA. No more spelling! So far they have not figured out what tea is yet.

I spell cat, squirrell, park, ride, his friends' names, treat, and walk. I've had to do this since he was one year old and he is now three. There are more words but I can't remember them right now. He is a lab/golden retreiver mix, our fifth dog and the smartest dog we have ever had. I opened an Amazon box the other day and he felt it was for him before I opened it, it was.

Squirrel

walk

treat

Dont say those words unless you mean it.

i don't have to spell but i have to hide to put my coat/shoes on if i'm not planning to take the dogs with me. when they know they are going for a ride, they get so excited and with one being 160#, the other 155#, it's almost like WWIII trying to get out the door! we are working on basic obedience and they're getting better at corralling their enthusiasm.

my co-pilots. 😄