Does your dog learn names of people?

[SlowSpyder]

My girl dog, Zydra, a lab mix/mutt rescue dog, not really sure what she is, she 'knows' my son's name. If I ask here "where's Nicholas" she will search the house for him. It is a game we'll play, he'll hide under covers or under his bed, in a closet, etc. She always knows to go find him when I ask.

I hadn't seen other dogs I've been around do that and wasn't sure if that was uncommon. She's a really, really loving dog and has grown very attached to my son. She's really good with kids in general. So anyway, I was curious if other dogs commonly did this or if this was somewhat unique.

 

[KidNiki1]

i think this is fairly common among smarter dogs. they understand words like toy,ball,treat, outside, etc so it stands to reason that a name is something they can learn to associate with an object. just in this case the object is a person.

 

[esun]

Not my dog, but dogs in general are quite remarkable (I saw this story some time ago):

http://www.northportlandvet.com/events/can-your-dog-correctly-identify-1022-different-toys/

 

[Braznor]

Any dog can do it. They are very clever beings except they don't talk. Oh wait they are even cleverer than I thought.

 

[BrunoPuntzJones]

Agreed on the breed and how much teaching. Dumb dog with more teaching will know more than a smart dog with nothing.

My border collie knows family names, names of the other dogs, names of the toys, fetch whichever toy, 2nd to last throw, last throw (knows to take the Frisbee back to the garage after the last throw), bring it (bring the frisbee/tennis ball closer).

There is a nifty video of a dog Chaser than can learn by disassociation. Like get a new toy and throw it into a pile of 10. Say the name of the new toy and he can figure out the new toy name based on that he sees something he doesn't know, but knows the 10 others so, so concludes the new one is the name being called.

 

[96Firebird]

Try saying "Where's *another name*" and see if the dog still tries to find your son. Sometimes they just associate a phrase more than a name, but it's all the same to me. My dog knows the words walk, sit, outside, toys, etc...

 

[Ns1]

My dogs recognize my name + SO's name

One of my dogs also recognizes his brother's name, so we have him fetch his brother.

 

[Platypus]

Yep, my dog recognizes my name and my boyfriend's name as well as a bunch of our friends. If we say "go find ______!" he'll go right to that person and wag

 

[nickbits]

My dog knows my cats's name.

 

[DrPizza]

I had a dog that understood a pretty large vocabulary of English words. So, we couldn't say those words. Pretty soon, the dog knew what "R I D E" spells, along with "V E T" and "P I Z Z A"

Our min-pin vocabularly clearly includes: bone, out, squeeky, ride, chicken, cat, kitty, ball, stick, mommy, daddy, door, eat, laser (we can't use that word anymore - he just about has a nervous breakdown), Lucy, Gia, "get the", (probably at least a dozen more.)

His vocabularly doesn't include "stop, knock it off, shut up."

He's also pretty good at communicating things - when he wants water, or to play, or food, or to go out. And, when I get home, he lets me know if anyone came onto the porch during the day - he gets all bent out of shape over that.

 

[AMDZen]

Dogs are smart as shit and this isn't uncommon at all, although some dogs are easier to train then others and some breeds are much smarter than others. Some idiots think Labs are dumb but they are smart as shit

 

[techs]

I can't tell if he's playing dumb but he never responds to "get a job"

 

[Tweak155]

I can't get my dog to distinguish between Toy and Ball, to it - they are the same thing.

But as soon as I say "where's your toy?", she instantly looks for the nearest toy regardless of what it is. She loves tugging / fetching.

Not even a year old yet and she can do the following:

Sit
Lay
Come
Fetch / return / locate nearest toy
Shake
Stay
Other paw (opposite paw she shakes with)
Go to bed (she gets in her kennel)
Comes to my whistle
And she rings some dangling bells when she wants us to let her outside to play or do her thing....

Haven't tried to teach her more yet, but it's not bad for still being a puppy.

EDIT:

Oh and we can say "go to the bathroom" and she will just before a long car ride or whatnot.

 

[SlowSpyder]

Ok, cool... I guess it can't be too uncommon since she learned it without me really even trying... she just caught on, really. Once I noticed she was starting to associate his name with his person, I helped it along. But really she started to learn it on her own, pretty smart!

I have to wonder about those first interactions between man and wolves so long ago. They really are amazing animals. It'd be pretty amazing to all the sudden realize you have some wolves on your team when you're hunting!

 

[KidNiki1]

Dogs are smart as shit and this isn't uncommon at all, although some dogs are easier to train then others and some breeds are much smarter than others. Some idiots think Labs are dumb but they are smart as shit

i have never heard anyone say labs are dumb.

i have a black lab and i recently bought her a toy that has a slide to make it either squeak or not squeak. the slide is very small and hard to move. she loves it when it is squeaky and will chew it for maximum squeakiness and throw it around and whatnot. but if i take it and slide it to non-squeak and give it back... she will bite it once or twice and when she realizes it doesn't squeak, she will sit with it and chew on just the part where the slider is until she moves it back to squeak. then she resumes playing with it. it's the craziest thing.

 

[BoomerD]

Yep...the dogs know our names, the grandchildren's names, our daughter's name, and the cats' names...plus, we can't even spell r-i-c-e because they know what that is...and start barking in expectation of getting it for dinner.

 

[alkemyst]

suprize buttsechs.

 

[AMDZen]

i have never heard anyone say labs are dumb.

i have a black lab and i recently bought her a toy that has a slide to make it either squeak or not squeak. the slide is very small and hard to move. she loves it when it is squeaky and will chew it for maximum squeakiness and throw it around and whatnot. but if i take it and slide it to non-squeak and give it back... she will bite it once or twice and when she realizes it doesn't squeak, she will sit with it and chew on just the part where the slider is until she moves it back to squeak. then she resumes playing with it. it's the craziest thing.

I have a yellow lab and trust me, there are idiots out there that think they are "dumb" because they have so many quirks. I'd say its more that people who've never owned a lab think they are just slower then they actually are. My Yellow lab is teh best. I love labs.

His name is Moonshine aka Moonasaurus aka Moon June Spoon aka a million other nicknames

 

[Wyndru]

I don't know let me ask him.

He can't speak though, so he will have to write it out for me.

 

[Broheim]

all dogs can be taught to associate names with people, it's just different from breed to breed and dog to dog how easy it is to teach them.

 

[pontifex]

I had a dog that understood a pretty large vocabulary of English words. So, we couldn't say those words. Pretty soon, the dog knew what "R I D E" spells, along with "V E T" and "P I Z Z A"

Our min-pin vocabularly clearly includes: bone, out, squeeky, ride, chicken, cat, kitty, ball, stick, mommy, daddy, door, eat, laser (we can't use that word anymore - he just about has a nervous breakdown), Lucy, Gia, "get the", (probably at least a dozen more.)

His vocabularly doesn't include "stop, knock it off, shut up."

He's also pretty good at communicating things - when he wants water, or to play, or food, or to go out. And, when I get home, he lets me know if anyone came onto the porch during the day - he gets all bent out of shape over that.

hahaha. sounds like my dog.

If i say "go get a toy" he'll go get one of his toys.

 

[Bushwicktrini]

His vocabularly doesn't include "stop, knock it off, shut up."

Are you sure your dog isn't my dog's dad?

 

[gorcorps]

nvrmind

 

[BlahBlahYouToo]

Yep, my dog recognizes my name and my boyfriend's name as well as a bunch of our friends. If we say "go find ______!" he'll go right to that person and wag

All this time I thought u were a guy.

 

[Platypus]

All this time I thought u were a guy.

I am.