Coren - How To Speak Dog: Mastering the Art of Dog-Human Communication

ALSO BY STANLEY COREN

The Intelligence of Dogs

Sleep Thieves

The Left-Hander Syndrome

What Do Dogs Know? (with Janet Walker)

Why We Love the Dogs We Do

MASTERING THE ART OF
DOG-HUMAN
COMMUNICATION

STANLEY COREN

A Fireside Book
Published by Simon & Schuster
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FIRESIDE
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Text copyright 2000 by Stanley Coren
All rights reserved, including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form.

Illustrations copyright 2000 by Laura Hartman Maestro

First Fireside Edition 2001

FIRESIDE and colophon are registered trademarks of Simon & Schuster, Inc.

Book design by Ellen R. Sasahara

Manufactured in the United States of America

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The Library of Congress has cataloged the Free Press edition as follows:
Coren, Stanley.
How to speak dog : mastering the art of dog-human communication / Stanley Coren.
p. cm.
1. DogsBehavior. 2. Human-animal communication.
I. Title.

SF433 .C667 2000
636.7'088'7dc21 00-023768

ISBN 0-684-86534-3
0-7432-0297-X (Pbk)
eISBN 978-0-7432-0297-8

This book is dedicated to my longtime friend
and respected colleague Peter Suedfeld,
to his wife, Phyllis Johnson,
and their non-dog,
Buckshot

Man has great power of speech, but the greater part thereof is empty and deceitful. The animals have little, but that little is useful and true; and better is a small and certain thing than a great falsehood.

LEONARDO DA VINCI,
Notebook, circa 1500

There is a traditional story which tells us that King Solomon had a silver ring that bore his seal and the true name of God. This ring gave him the ability to understand and to speak with animals. When Solomon died, that ring was hidden in a great house with many doors. When I was young, I wished that I had a ring so that I could speak with my dogs.

While I knew that this was just a folk tale, as an adult I became more inclined to believe that wise King Solomon could speak with animals, even without the magic ring the legend tells of, because you and I can also learn to do this. The magic in Solomons ring is an understanding of how animals communicate, and it is hidden in science, which is the house of many doors. The knowledge that is needed is similar to the knowledge you need to speak any language. To speak to a dog, you must first learn the vocabularyspecifically, what constitutes the words in his canine language. You must also learn the grammar of the language, namely, how to string those words together and combine them, so that you can form sentences that can be used to send and receive meaningful messages.

This book is about dog communication: how they speak to each other, how they understand messages that humans send to them, and how humans can translate the ideas the dog is trying to transmit. Understanding how dogs communicate allows a much greater ability to know what they are feeling, what they are thinking, and what their intentions are. It also provides more ways to tell them what you want them to do and to control their behavior. This doesnt mean that one can have profound conversations with dogs about natural history, moral philosophy, or even the latest Hollywood films. On the other hand, I find that my conversations with dogs are often richer and more complex than those I have with my two- and three-year-old grandchildren, and often they deal with very similar topics. Knowing canine language also prevents some common misunderstandings between human beings and canines.

During our language lessons we will learn about some remarkable dogs, and just how clever some everyday canines can be. We will also see how humans have affected the linguistic ability of dogs during the long history of the domestication of our first animal companions.

Some of my scientific colleagues may object to the use of the word language when I speak about the communication ability of dogs. It has long been believed that language is an ability confined to humans. It will become clear, however, that there is a great deal of similarity in the communication patterns of humans and dogs. As a psychologist, I am perfectly happy drawing conclusions about human learning based upon data obtained from rats or monkeys, and the same is true of most researchers. This would be clear folly if one believed that human learning is radically different in kind from that found in other animals. Therefore, Im often surprised that when the question turns to language and communication, some behaviorists lose their belief in the continuity of abilities across species and insist that there is a radical difference separating human language from animal communication. Whether true language is unique to humans is an interesting question with a long and fascinating history that will unfold during our attempt to learn how to understand and speak the language of dogs.

I would like to thank my wife Joan, who made extensive comments on the first draft of this manuscript, and also our daughter Karen, who had some helpful suggestions as well. I would also like to thank my dogs, Wiz, Odin, and Dancer, for their subtle explanations of certain aspects of canine language.

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Conversations with Canines

The argument was very sound,
And coming from a masters mouth
Would have been lauded for its truth.
But since the author was a hound,
Its merit went unrecognized.

JEAN DE LA FONTAINE (16211695)
The Farmer, the Dog, and the Fox

It is probably the case that virtually every human being has, at one time or another, wanted to be Dr. Dolittle, or to own King Solomons ring, so that he or she could understand and talk with animals. For me, the animals that I most wanted to speak to were dogs. I remember one Sunday evening, I was sitting on the living-room floor in front of the big family radio with my beagle, Skippy. I was leaning against the side of an overstuffed chair waiting for a regularly scheduled radio show featuring my favorite movie star. The theme music startedI think it was actually the folk tune Green Sleevesand then a few moments later I could hear her voice. She was barking in the distance and coming closer every second ...

Long before our current wave of canine movie stars, such as Benji and Beethoven, and their television counterparts, Eddie, Wishbone, and the Littlest Hobo, there was Lassie. She was much more than a dog; she was a friend and devoted companion. She was a guardian of the right, a courageous protector, and a fearless fighter.

The dog that may have done the most to shape the popular conception of dogs and their intelligence was a character born in a short story published in the Saturday Evening Post by Eric Knight in 1938. The story was so well received that Knight later expanded it into a best-selling book in 1940, and in 1943, it was translated into a heartwarming tearjerker of a movie called Lassie Come Home. It was filmed in rich colors and set in Britain, where Lassies poor family is forced by their financial troubles to sell their faithful collie to a wealthy dog fancier (whose daughter is played by a very young Elizabeth Taylor). Lassie escapes from the Duke of Rudlings harsh kennel keeper and manages to work her way from Scotland to England to get home to her young master (who is played by Roddy McDowall). The role of Lassie was not portrayed by a lovely female dog at all, but by a male dog named Pal. In fact, all of the Lassies ever since have been female impersonators. Male collies were preferred to play the part, since they are larger and less timid than female collies. More important, when an unspayed female dog goes into heat (which they do twice a year), she often loses much of her coat. It would be very distressing to movie watchers, and it would be a film editors nightmare, to have the fullness of Lassies coat vary from one scene to another.