Can Dogs and Cats Talk to Each Other?
My dog and cat sometimes bark and meow at each
other like they understand each other. Since
humans don’t speak dog or cat, and thay don’t
speak our language, can dogs understand meows and
vice versa?
Maya
NC
My instinct is to say no. But I can’t prove it.
It is generally accepted among scientists that animals have limited language capabilities. The majority of their communication is believed be visual (through body language). Vocalization is not thought to play a very major role in animal communication.
Also, since cats and dogs don’t attend school, their communication patterns are believed to be hereditary and instinctive. This means that in theory dogs and cats should be able to communicate with each other only minimally, since they only inherit the ability to communicate with their own species.
That said, nobody really understands the true degrees of communication that occur among (or between) cats and dogs. In the past, scientists doubted that animals had emotions or personalities, just as they now doubt that animals can communicate extensively with one another. Most people now recognize the uniqueness of individual pets, and it is becoming clear that animals lead quite rich emotional lives.
One thing is sure: some degree of communication absolutely is possible between species. For instance, no schooling is necessary for a human to recognize that a snarling dog should not be touched. And pets are quite able to recognize anger, sadness, and happiness in their people.
You have questions. 
Gee1 It took how long for Docs and scientists to acknowledge that chicken soup WAS good for colds! Sometimes it takes so long for the “doubting Thomas” to recognize blatant truths. Of course animals communicate with each other! Often far better than we humans do with each other. I had a “Noah’s Ark” type of home when my five kids were growing up. Two cats, two dogs and a monkey which I had inherited from a friend’s theses program! The monkey had been raised side by side from birth with his son. It was treated just the same in all ways as the human child. My friend kept a close eye on the “siblings” development. The development stopped being par at the ages of two with the human child sprinting ahead! Think on it! By the way, my friend received his degree! LOL I renamed the monkey “Percival Q.Trouble”. Enough said????
Why can’t there be communication between different species? Because all-knowing humans say so? It wasn’t that long ago that we thought the world was flat. That we didn’t even know what gravity was? Why is it that because we do not understand something we think it can’t be so? Because cats and dogs are not as far “evolved” as humans?
Isn’t understanding body-language communication? It is in my book. What proof do any of us have that dogs and cats do not understand barks and meows? Open your minds people. There IS species to other species communication going on all the time. Just because not everyone understands it doesn’t make it not so.
Happily communicating wtih other species all my life,
Cindie
Anyone who has seen me (a cat) hanging out with dogs knows I can communicate just fine with them. It’s all done through body language. I go to pet expos and play with the puppies, to pet store contests and get along with the adult dogs, and other events where there are dogs. I live with other cats, no dogs at home, yet I know how to communicate with the dogs when I’m around them.
As a professional Animal Communicator who uses telepathy to connect and communicate with animals, I know that they can, and do communicate with each other, and with us, using thoughts and images.
While physical signals are part of an animal’s language, they rely just as much on instantaneous telepathic messages that we cannot always perceive or understand.
There is so much more going on in the hearts and minds of animals than we know. Science may not yet have found a way to measure interspecies communication, but it will. Rupert Sheldrake’s work is a good place to start, for those who are interested in the magic of animal telepathy.
I have 7 cats, 2 dogs and forty horses. Some may think that communication between them is not possible but I agree that body language and sounds do send messages other animals understand. As a human I sure do get the message. When my oldest cat wants me to follow him to the empty water bowl , food bowl or he wants me to let a cat in who is at the door, he comes to me and pokes me with his claw and then walks along looking back to make sure I am following and leads me to where he wants me to be. If that isn’t communciation I don’t know what is. He has done it for ten years, and he is 13 now. Each of the cats has it’s own way of “talking” to me. I have been around them so long I know exactly what the sounds or the crowding of my space means at this point. I guess I am the one who is trained, but I enjoy knowing that they will talk to me in their own way when they can. When I am upset there are certain ones who just seem to stay nearer to me than usual. And I can tell by their behavior if they are ill or well. Even the horses have a certain look in their eye when they are sad or upset. I have one who wants in the barn with the others and she almost cries if I don’t let her in with them. Her head hangs down and she looks at me so plaintively when I don’t let her come in. I get the message. No, I am not nuts. Just a bit more aware of body language than the average person from years of doing nursing care and having to observe humans body language. No one will ever convince me that animals do not have personalities of their own.
I firmly believe that both cats and dogs can talk.Both to people and each other.My recently deceased cat of 21-years,Spaz, had a large vocabulary.When he was hungry I would speak the name of the different flavors of food that was available. When I spoke the one he wanted he would meow.He would always finish his food when I gave him the type he indcated by his meow.When I would give him a flavor that he didn’t approve with his meow,he would’nt eat at all. He would also “tell” me when he wanted to go outside and when he wanted to come back inside. There is no doubt in my mind that Spaz knew exactly what he was “saying”.
May be with just a look or sometimes with our body language, fingers to lips in my home means “breakfast” or “dinner” & with out a word we all line up to sit in front of the food container!…….Me & my lil’ bro Kona just love yappin’ it up together & we bring our home to tears……of joy (laughter) we are a vocal bunch ~ & not with barkin’ ~ we love singing to each other! Our songs always ends with in a game of “chase”……No matter what ~ we all communicate in one way or another & it’s fun!
i have a dog that loves to bark. he barks all the time. he stays outside and when someone comes in my yard or pulls up in a car he will bark and my two dogs inside will bark but when my outside dog just barks at someone goin down the rode or a car goin down the rode the other dogs dont bark so i have to say that dogs can communicate.