Do dogs get excited about particular words? Or is it sentences in question form?
Or is it a combination of the two? That is the question (pun intended).
There is no doubt that some words are heavily loaded, such as treat, cookie, walk ... Does your dog perk up because of the words or because you asked them whether they want one? Do we actually need to spell certain words in conversation if we don't want our dogs to get excited in vain?
Some argue that it is the question form that causes the excitement.
Something good always follows after a question.
"Do you want a cookie?"
"Do you want to go for a walk?"
"Who's a good girl/boy?"
I don't know about you but it seems that nobody asks questions such as:
"Do you want to go to a vet?"
"Do you want your nails trimmed?"
Or do they?
And what would happen if they did?
With Jasmine, she did understand words or statements. The reason I'm confident about that is that when I asked something new, something she hasn't heard before, there was the thoughtful look on her face. I could see clearly she knew it was something different and she was trying to figure out what it meant.
If we used the word "w-a-l-k" in conversation, she would still perk up and expect one.
Other words, used in conversation, though, didn't seem to matter to her much. Unless used in question form.
And here is the other thing.
Could we influence how our dogs feel about certain things if we simply announced them in a form of a question?
Or would we simply spoil the questions by tainting them with an unpleasant outcome?
Does your dog get excited when you ask them a question? What about if you use the same word in a conversational tone?
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