[FourIsCompany]

I know it's against most training methods, but I always tell my dogs when I'm leaving the house. Since they were babies, if I was leaving without them, I'd tell them I was going to the store. They understand that to mean that they're not going with me, so they give up on the excitement and go lay down.

When I'm playing Frisbee with Jaia, and I'm done, I tell him, "This is the last time". That means this is the last time I'm throwing the Frisbee for this session. After he catches it, he doesn't bring it back because he understands the concept of it being the last time.

I have a LOT of these phrases I use with the dogs to relay what's going on with me or what my plans are and they fully understand the concepts. I talk to them in normal English all the time. So, I think I know exactly what you mean.

I have also spent a lot of time studing their "language" and I think I really understand a lot about what they're "saying" too.

 

[FourIsCompany]

I don't think they understand the meanings of "one" and "more", either. We could use any words we want as long as we were consistent. But they DO understand the concept of there being one more treat to find. And then that's all. Not two more, not some more, but just one more.