[RKDinOKC]

From most of the dogs I've seen and heard that are very vocal, most tend to imitate the sounds you make. That's how I've gotten my goldens to talk and tell me what they need. My first golden is the one that taught me this. Her best communication was that she would bark at me to let me know she wanted something, then I would go thru my list of things like water, outside, hungy, etc. She would bark when I mentioned the one she wanted, , but it sounded exactly like "yesss." Then one day I was working at my computer and she came up and barked. I was pretty involved in what I was doing and just turned to her and said, "What do you want?" She actually replied, "I want out." Was so surprised I had to stop what I was doing and go let her out.

My last golden, Camber had quite a lot of english she used. My Mom's speech therapist even agreed that she was talking after hearing her. Made the comment if dogs could move their lips she would be speaking perfect english. She even brought her kids to hear her. Camber's first word was "Roll over." Was training her one day and noticed when I told her to roll over, she said roll over back to me instead of doing it. So I praised her. Then I said, "Can you roll over?" and instead of saying it back, she rolled over.

Was visiting my nephew and their pit bull was at the back door whining. They told me she whines like that all the time when she wants out. I told them they need to listen a little more carefully because instead of just whining the dog was saying "I want out, open the door." I was really surprised it was so close and they didn't hear it.