Frankly speaking, dogs understand better how we pronounce words rather than what we say. For example, you can call the dog for a walk with a joyful expression and a voice full of enthusiasm, and most likely, the pet will already be impatiently waiting for you at the door in a moment. However, the same words spoken in an aggressive or angry tone will make the animal wary.

But we can’t say that dogs don’t understand our speech at all — it’s not totally accurate. When processing sounds, dogs use 2 parts of their brain. One part is responsible for processing the meaning of the word, and the second one is for intonation and visual cues. When a dog hears a word, its brain first processes the intonation with which it was said (this is done by the more “ancient” part of the brain), and only then can they understand what exactly was said. This is processed by the more evolutionarily young part of the brain (like in humans).

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