Talk Dog.

First, we have to remember that dogs won't understand new words until we taught them the words. To dogs, a new word we bark out will sound like just that - a meaningless bark. If you're fed up with the confused look on a well-intentioned dog's face, you'll have to start teaching it some words.

Consider that humans don't expect dogs to know what "sit" means, because we can fairly easily train them to understand it. So why should we expect that any dog will understand commands like "come," "down," and "go"? We shouldn't. That's why you'll want to focus on maybe a half a dozen to a dozen words and work on them each individually so that your dog is trained to respond to them.

Second, dogs learn by actions, not by words. They only learn words when they're associated with an action. If you've ever noticed that a dog will come when you call it because they believe you have food (simply by the tone of the way you called), then you realize the power of associated behaviors and positive reinforcement. A dog will easily take up new habits when it realizes the possibility of reward.

Third, dogs respond more powerfully to non-verbal commands. Many experts say that human communication is over 90% nonverbal; it's even more so when we speak to a dog that doesn't understand most of our words. That's why you'll want to monitor what your body is saying to your dog.

Dogs respond powerfully to cues about status. It picks up on subtle behaviors like the fact that you feed yourself first or walk out of a door first and responds accordingly. They're also more apt to pick up aggression when you feel tense. That's why you'll not just want to monitor your body language, but how you feel - because your emotions often have a way of communicating in your body language.

If you're interested in learning more about how dogs communicate, focus on these principles. Don't look for many secret answers or commands that dogs are bred to understand; instead, work on training your dog to understand where you're coming from. That will help you to speak each other's language that much more effectively.

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