Federico Rossano

instances of dogs that have alerted that there was smoke and indeed there was a fire that was starting in the house and so there could be things that you know they could communicate about now the question is is that language right so you know they could bark and that would also tell you that there's a problem i think what we can show is that they can combine some of those patterns

in ways that are non-random.

They are definitely intentional.

I think we are far from being able to show that this is in any way more sophisticated than what maybe a baby can do when combining two words together.

Well, for example, there's several instances of dogs communicating about pain.

So for example, if a dog pushes belly out, belly out, and then 10 minutes later they vomit,

maybe they were trying to tell you that there's a problem.

If they tell you ear ouch, and then they have an ear infection when you go to the vet, maybe they were trying to tell you that they have a problem.

So some of these combinations occur.

And then, of course, it's like communicating about pain is something that in and of itself could be beneficial for people.

And in the same way, of course, there might be information about what's happening around you.

Or most importantly, I think is

The fact that they can tell you when they're hungry, when they're thirsty, when they want things, when they are upset about whatever noise, for example, happening outside or heat.

And dogs communicate about this in their natural ways.

It's just that for most people, this might be hard to understand.

Sometimes buttons can help make it a little more transparent.

now do dogs want to end up communicating to us a little bit more about poop and food than we would like to admit i feel like that's probably on their mind more than most things yes yes yes absolutely and it's funny a lot of these dogs that i'm looking at go through the what i call the poop phase which is what my little children have gone through as well where they really like to talk about poop and going outside and pooping and whatever

But in general, they love to talk about food, of course.

They want treats.

They want food of any kind.