[Greater Swiss]

asking your dog questions?
My DH brought it up the other day. We ask Caeda an awful lot of questions. Most commonly "what's that?!",
Or if she's doing orbits around us all excited "where are you going?"
Or "wanna go for a drive?", "want to go to social", "do you want a treat?"
playing "where's the dot", "where's your ball", "what're you doing", "are you tired yet", "wanna go outside" etc....

Yeah, I think we're crazy dog people. At least we're not actually expecting a reply lol. Has anybody else caught themselves doing this kind of thing?

 

[Willowy]

I talk to the dogs and cats all the time. Mostly watching TV, I'll comment on the screen action. At least they don't tell me to be quiet, LOL. They tend to get excited if I ask a question so I try not to, except for "wanna go out?" or "is it doggie dinner time?"

 

[Niraya]

I do it all of the time with Bella! We have full blown conversations. I have a very VERY talkative dog. So it's very normal in the house for a person at any given time to be heard talking to her lol or her talking to us.

 

[luv2byte]

Asking my dog if she wants a treat & having her spin circles is sufficient answer for me! or asking to go bye bye & they run to their leash..yup, very clear responses. Grin

 

[ThoseWordsAtBest]

I'm the worst person alive. At work I will be talking to another HUMAN and after I say something I'll turn to whatever dog is closest and say "Right (insert name here)? Do you agree?" People must wish I would drop dead.

 

[Avery]

I ask Mumble lots of questions. Sometimes I expect a response. For instance, if I ask "You need to go outside?" if he runs up/jumps on me excitedly I take that as "yes" and if he's mostly indifferent I take that as "no."

What I really try not to do is put words in his mouth/speak for him. But that's a hard habit to break. I just feel so silly when I realize I'm doing it.

 

[03firefly]

I talk to my dogs like humans. I talk to any animal like it's a human actually. I think my dogs like it, they seem to know I'm talking to them and even if they don't know what I'm saying I think they like the attention. I also think they've started understanding what I'm saying (not full sentences, but certain words). If I'm petting a dog on the couch and leave, they most likely will jump down. If I'm petting a dog on the couch and tell them I'll be right back, they'll most likely stay and wait for me to come back. The same works for running outside, like to get the paper or get something from my car. My dogs get excited if I'm going to the door, but if I tell them that they're not coming and I'll be back, they continue chilling and don't bother coming to the door. I tend to say the same things every time, so a lot of it is consistency. On walks all my dogs know that "let's go" "Alright" "come on" and "Ready" mean that we are going to start walking again after a brief stop or when we're done meeting a dog and need to move on.
Aside from those little key phrases and words, I talk to them about anything. And for asking questions - well, I ask them as many questions as I would anyone else. If they are looking at something, I ask them "what's that? Bark at it!" I ask other things, too "How are you?" "What are you doing?" "Where's your toy?" "Do you realize what you're doing?" "Do you want to play?" "Can I have that?" "Are you hungry?" Anything, really.

 

[Vicky88]

I always talk to Holly, so does my family.

 

[BraxtonsMom]

Yes! The best is when I ask Braxton, "Where are your boys? Did your boys leave this mess?" I am referring to my 3 sons, when I say "Your boys" LOL! The animal probably thinks I'm nuts.

 

[Amaryllis]

Where's your ball, kabota? You wanna go to the park? Watcha doing, kabota?

Yup, talk to my dog all day like he's going to turn to me one day and say "in the kitchen under the table".

 

[Canaqua]

I talk to the dogs, and cat, and horse as if they were people all the time. I do it most to the dogs because they actually seem to be listening.

The only one who ever speaks English back to me is the cat, he will actually say "Hello" back to you when you greet him . It comes out as "Hehwwoahw", but it's unmistakable and he does it in the right context. My husband loves it, I'll hear him out there in the driveway when he comes home from work going back and forth with the cat, "Hehwwoahw", "Hehwwoahw"...the neighbors must think he's nuts.

 

[Zoey's Mommy]

Cesar Millan would flip his lid if he heard how much we talk to Zoey, lol! We even make up rhymes and songs. *blush*

 

[JulieK1967]

I hold forth with all of my pets, LOL. My cats can get very vocal with me when I chat at them. Molly definitely perks up when she hears the rising intonation of a question being directed to her. She understands that "where is [insert toy name]?" means she should go find that toy.

 

[Greater Swiss]

Glad I'm not alone! lol noticing recently how often we do it started making me think we were a little crazy. I talk to her a lot too...just chat away. She quite often gives me a funny look and if I'm not talking exciting enough she just lays down. The best is our cue for her to bark is "talk to me" and then "Keep talking". lol

I'm the worst person alive. At work I will be talking to another HUMAN and after I say something I'll turn to whatever dog is closest and say "Right (insert name here)? Do you agree?" People must wish I would drop dead.

hee hee, at work the other day I ALMOST said "good girl" to somebody. I think that one would have gotten me sent home on stress leave lol (hey....there's an idea!). A couple of times I've almost talked to my DH in my "Caeda voice", that I use when I'm asking her questions or training her...though in my defence I was in the middle of training her and he was talking to me.

 

[Avery]

We even make up rhymes and songs. *blush*

We... we do that too. A lot of things rhyme with Mumble.

 

[KBLover]

asking your dog questions?
My DH brought it up the other day. We ask Caeda an awful lot of questions. Most commonly "what's that?!",
Or if she's doing orbits around us all excited "where are you going?"
Or "wanna go for a drive?", "want to go to social", "do you want a treat?"
playing "where's the dot", "where's your ball", "what're you doing", "are you tired yet", "wanna go outside" etc....

Yeah, I think we're crazy dog people. At least we're not actually expecting a reply lol. Has anybody else caught themselves doing this kind of thing?

I do, and I expect a response via behavior that I can capture.

It's how I got him to learn how to bark at the timer and the tea kettle. He heard it go off and I said "what's that?" in an excited whisper. He started going towards it and barking at it, which I marked and rewarded.

I then put the timer on two seconds, and went it went off again, I said "what's that?" again. And so on.

But it started from doing it when he heard the sound.

Of course, there's the "where's Dora?" "where's the ball?" "what's that sound?" all looking for a behavioral "answer" to my question.

If he does just suddenly start acting restless or excited, I'll ask "what is it?" hoping he'll "show" me what he's excited about. Once he ran down the stairs and stood by my shoes - I took it as a sign he needed to go out, so I put the shoes on and took him out - maybe he'll make a connection.

In my attempt to continue making him more comfortable and calm about other dogs, I asked him "where's the dog?" while watching Westminster. He looked at the TV, watching the dog, and I marked and rewarded it. Don't know if this will work, but I figure if he even connects the "where's the dog?" game to seeing a dog, it's a positive association and that can only help.

If I ask him "where's the dog?" and there's no dog on TV, he'll look back at me. If I keep doing it, he's looking around the room and sniffing and trying to find that dog. If he can't, he'll alternate looking at me (for help, I presume), looking around the room, and looking at me while whimpering because he can't find the dog that isn't there.

He "asks questions" of me all the time. I think it's fair I ask him a few too.

Where's your ball, kabota? You wanna go to the park? Watcha doing, kabota?

Yup, talk to my dog all day like he's going to turn to me one day and say "in the kitchen under the table".

Perhaps he will - via behavior. Dogs communicate through behaviors - he can answer you that way.

Encourage him to find the ball and get it next time you ask. It's a good mental game and could lead to an 'aha' moment for the dog.

 

[Spirit_of_Cotons]

Are you kidding me?! I always have a conversation with Luke, asking questions, talking to the little tike, etc. If he hears a noise he doesn't know, he turns to look at me and I'll just say, "Oh it was this..." Or if he sees something out back, he'll run to get one of us and we'll come back with him saying, "What do you see Luke?" And if there's nothing, we say, "Good job you scared it away."

Oh I'm constantly talking to my dog and I swear he answers. Besides what does normal mean again; I know it's not in my dictionary. I'm weird and I don't care!

 

[KBLover]

Are you kidding me?! I always have a conversation with Luke, asking questions, talking to the little tike, etc. If he hears a noise he doesn't know, he turns to look at me and I'll just say, "Oh it was this..." Or if he sees something out back, he'll run to get one of us and we'll come back with him saying, "What do you see Luke?" And if there's nothing, we say, "Good job you scared it away."

Oh I'm constantly talking to my dog and I swear he answers. Besides what does normal mean again; I know it's not in my dictionary. I'm weird and I don't care!

I bet he does through his behavior.

They ask us questions through behavior, so it makes sense they'd answer that way too.

I show Wally stuff to sniff all the time when he hears something and looks at me like "what was that?"

 

[Amaryllis]

Cesar Millan would flip his lid if he heard how much we talk to Zoey, lol! We even make up rhymes and songs. *blush*

My husband sings "my kabota" to the tune of "my sherona" all the time.

I don't sing because I happen to like the dog and nobody should be subjected to me singing.

 

[Tofu_pup]

A couple of times I've almost talked to my DH in my "Caeda voice", that I use when I'm asking her questions or training her...though in my defence I was in the middle of training her and he was talking to me.

I've done it. It's one thing to do it at home, like saying,"I would looove pizza for dinner...yes, I would!"(in a high pitched voice). I can live with that.

But it happens at work with my boss too. That's the trouble in working with dogs. "I would love to take Friday off! Isn't that right Sieerrrraaa?! Isn't it?"