If you talk to your dog, you’re really talking to yourself

What if I just intonate to my dog? Still crazy?

My dog definitely has a limited vocabulary.

A lot of it is intonation, but they can definitely acquire a small vocabulary as well. They are also more receptive to facial expressions and body language than most humans. If you have a dog and don’t communicate with it you’re missing out. All species are way more intelligent than we give them credit for. Our human hands are a bigger factor in our status in the animal kingdom than our minds. If sea mammals had hands we wouldn’t be top of the food chain.

Barking is one of the worst things dogs do. Pretty much nobody likes it, but they do it anyway, many of them constantly.

This is the main reason having a dog is crazy. I know they say dogs love you, but if so they would shut up.

What if my dog talks to me?

Humans bred barking into them as a desirable trait for protection. Thank your ancestors.

Cats, on the other hand...

It depends what you are talking about.

If you are ranting to your dog about the Ukraine crisis and the high cost of housing, then yes, you are crazy.

If you are building a bond between dog and owner through common expressions of endearment, then you are doing a normal thing that humans have been doing for 50,000 years.

My dog finds me boorish and dimwitted. If it weren't for the walks and "treats", he'd have nothing to do with me at all.

I'm not surprised in the least that he completely ignores me.

if you have a dog and don't talk to it, you're a psychopath

Animals handle a lot more than intonation. They can also sense feelings and emotions. Say one thing happy, then the same thing angry and you get a different response. This much like humans who use words spelled the same which different things depending on how they are said (in context). Humans had the same innate ability, at some level, before language evolved, and some people are still good at it (intuitives and readers of body language).

If you chase squirrels with your dog it will never disown you.

Oh, man!

It's guys like you that are every dog's dream.

I am not worthy (and my dog knows this).

I had a wanderlust beagle. Not trustworthy off leash. My solution was a 25 long leash which I made myself from nylon strap.

The most amazing thing the dog would do was if there were ducks ignoring him because he was "too far" away. I gave him the entire leash length and he would bolt after them, and not to catch them. What the dog did was, as the ducks slowly took off like overloaded cargo planes, was race along in between them and then jump up as far as he could go with them. The first time my dog did that what immediately came to mind, was Snoopy, his flying dog house, and his battles with the Red Baron.

Wow, dogs are smarter than we often think.

We had a golden retriever that just wanted to fit in, most all the time. One day we went picking blackberries and brought her on the leash as we picked the berries off the bushes above her. The next thing we know, she's ripping berries off the bush with her mouth and eating them. She continued doing this for as long as we picked berries.

I don't know if other dogs do this, but there was no doubt what she was doing.

Sure, they can't speak English but they seem to understand English.

Otherwise, how can this group of Huskies individually respond & leave the room when their names are called out?

The owner doesn't use any hand signals/gestures & doesn't even look at the dogs when she calls each one out by their names.

This is unbelievable! - I've watched this video dozens of times! These Huskies seem to be Human.

True, they don't speak English or any other language. The do recognize words. Tell my dog to "sit" in English and it doesn't move. Not at all. You can repeat it but she will still just stand there. Tell my dog to "sit" in the language we use in our home and she will sit right away.