I want to share something about dogs and how they communicate. Dogs have their own ways of communicating, and it is funny how we can understand them so easily. If they stand at the the door and bark, they have to go out, if they whine at their water bowl, they are thirsty, and so on.

Here is what our dogs are doing when we think they may be talking with us. Many of our dogs do learn what some words or phrases mean. Some examples are:

•”Do you want dinner?”
•”Where is your leash?”
•”Want to go for a walk?”
•”Let’s go to the park.”
•”Want to go play ball?”

Believe it or not, it is really the inflections of our voices that dogs understand. You can see by the way they turn their heads or lift an ear that they are listening and communicating with us.

A dog’s hearing, like his sense of smell, is so much better than ours. Dogs hear at much higher frequencies so any sound, especially the sharp and high ones, is much more intense and louder. If you can smell or hear something, you can bet your dog can smell and hear it way before you can. This is why our dogs make such wonderful watch dogs to help protect us, not to mention all the other wonderful skills our beloved best friends offer us.

This ability to hear so well is also a survival tool for our dogs. It has evolved with them because they needed to know if a predator was coming so they could protect themselves. They needed a sharp ear to always be on the lookout, and this is what the look of the cocked head and the lifted ear is about.

Dogs have the ability to turn their heads and move each ear independently of one another to 185°. This allows them to hear all around and behind them. They also use this ability to communicate to other dogs. Next time you are out walking your dog at the park, take a look at your dog and the other dogs’ ears. You will see all of them using their ears. It is really rather funny when you just start looking only at ears and tails. I can spend hours just laughing and taking pictures.

I am a very light sleeper at night and always have been. Even when I was a child, I was always seeming to sleep with one eye half open. If I sleep like this, can you imagine how our dogs sleep? They can hear a sound as fast as one six-hundredth of a second from when the sound began. Our dogs use their ears as their antennas or like their own short wave radio or mobile phone system. When your dog has his head turned, you can be sure he’s monitoring what’s going on.