A dog's vocabulary expands throughout its life.
These pets are able not only to perceive human speech as a set of sounds, but also to extract some meaning from certain words.
All words that a dog is able to remember are associated in the animal’s mind with specific commands or instructions.
The average dog can "learn" up to a hundred of these words. But this does not happen immediately, but gradually.
For some dog breeds this threshold is much wider.
The record belongs to a Border Collie named Chaser. She learned 1,022 words in her life.
The pet's conditional "vocabulary" can be replenished with new concepts throughout its life.
As a bonus, dogs can read gestures, facial expressions, and the intonation of their owners' voices. By the way, cats have this ability too.
It has also been proven that pets remember words that sound calm more readily and quickly. But breaking into a scream is counterproductive in this case.
The best way to reinforce any command is to reward it with a treat.
Author: Dmitry Bobrov
