Dogs can understand what we say.

[Old Rabbit]

I heard on the news a whle back that a study showed that a dogs
brain shows much the same response to language as the humnan
brain does.

I think most of us who have had a dog or most any pet already know how well
they can understand us.  Though there are some amazing examples.

Here is a link for more info on the subject.

http://www.animalplanet.com/pets/can-dogs-understand-what-we-say/

[cause the rat]

That's a nice but rather short article on the subject. I don't have the link to this so hopefully i can find and post it later.

What the dog understands is the last part of the word. Or what's after the first syllable of each word. So think of each word without it's first sound. All could be ball, call, small, and so on.

[Old Rabbit]

Yes I heard that in the past that dogs don't pick up on multi-syllable  words. So the last sound
of a word is likely what they respond to.

However the language construct we use is our invention not theirs.. So they do pretty well
following recognizable short sounds.

Would be an interesting test as some names people give their pets are multi-syllable. Like
say Charlie .. Would they respond to "lie" as well as the whole word?

[cause the rat]

I trained my last dog with what i learned. She knew over 20 toys by name. Each name given didn't rhyme with an existing toy. Finny thing with Dottie. She would get the toy I wanted. Then take it back and grab the toy she wanted to play with. 

[Rocket T. Coyote]

The GSDs I worked with were trained to respond to verbal commands. My brother's dogs would also respond to me because we sound alike.