Lack of Language Doesn't Mean Dogs Don't Communicate & Understand

Today is a continuation of dog guardians discussing the question:

Have you had experiences with your dogs, past or present, where they seem to understand you or read what you're thinking where you can't attribute it to training?

I do think we give off cues at times that we may not be aware of that our dogs read in our behavior. I want to distinguish between those cues we exhibit and when our dogs just "know" without any outward signs from us. Certainly our dogs learn certain words if we use
them regularly. One possibility I raise in my book is, "did Maggie somehow receive the vision I had in my mind of what I was about to do, or what I wanted her to do?" Do your dogs do the same?

Bonnie from DogRead shared her special story about her black lab, Ruby, who Bonnie felt recognized her deep desire for a black female puppy:

"Oh so many times this has happened to me, but I will speak of only one. We raise/train Labrador Retrievers... After 10 years, I decided to breed a wonderful girl I had purchased four years before. She is known as my girl, Ruby... I finally decided with some nudging from Ruby to take the plunge and let her become a mother. My intention, of course, was to get another Ruby - YES - silly I know as that just cant be, of course, but our minds work in funny ways sometimes. We did the breeding and waited with baited breath for the day of delivery. My husband and I assisted all through the night but, alas, in the wee hours of the morning, I finally spoke the words out loud. 'We are not meant to keep any of these puppies as there is no little black girl.' We had black boys, yellow girls, and yellow boys, but no little special girl for me to wrap my arms around and once more feel the joy of being a Mom.

No sooner than I spoke the words -- Ruby got up and looked at me -- tired from her night of labor... She turned around, actually hunched over in front of me and delivered a little black girl into my hands. To say the roof came off the house is minimal. How did she know? She seemed to be done with her birthing. No one will ever tell me she didn't understand the ache my heart was feeling. To this day all of us, including Ruby, cherish the presence of our 'new' little girl, ... Cabot."

Sometimes I think our dogs try to make a point of communicating to us in ways we can't miss, as Ruby did by plopping Cabot in Bonnie's lap, that tell us "yes, I understand what you're saying. I get the ache in your heart and what it is you want. I KNOW!" And all they want at that moment is for us to get it that they know. Sometimes our canines make it so obvious, as Ruby did, that we can't miss it. Or like my Maggie did when I sadly said, towards the end of her life, "I haven't heard her bark today..." -- and she turned around and barked, then looked at me as if to say, "I get it! I do understand you! Please get this before I have to leave you!"

I did get it with Maggie at that point, and wished I'd realized it much earlier in her life. How is it that they know? Perhaps they do receive images we have in our minds. Or perhaps they receive information from us energetically, in a way humans can't yet understand. The important thing is for us to recognize that just because our animals can't speak doesn't mean they don't understand us -- our words, thoughts, and emotions. Maybe we can enhance our dog's lives by tuning in to the ways they are communicating to us in their own language.

Dawn Kairns
Author of MAGGIE: the dog who changed my life
www.dawnkairns.com
www.maggiethedogwhochangedmylife.blogspot.com

"There are only two ways to live your life: As if nothing is a miracle, or as if everything is a miracle." -- Albert Einstein