Ok....so this is not dog behavior. Does anyone else do this? My niece and I are always putting "words" in our dog's mouths. No matter what is going on, we interject our emotions on our dogs....just for the humor... or fun of it.

For instance, her dog, Eli is intensly into fetching the tennis ball...no stopping him. Finally she and/or I have had enough. Our shoulders are about to become dislocated and Eli will really be sad that no one will throw his ball. So we say, "Eli is saying, you bitches! The ball is right there by your feet. Don't you see it? How much more plain do I have to be?" LOL. Or when we're on our hikes and one of the dogs gets too far and we call it back, we say that the dog is saying, "Good God, what are you so worried about? I know what I'm doing here in the woods. I can smell my way back just fine. Haven't you heard about dog's?"  So, we carry on these conversations {for our dogs} all along our walks.

Are we the only ones?

Carrie

Ok....so this is not intellectual. Sorry, just trying to make some fun with something that's non controversial...well....at least I hope so. LOL.

Carrie

I'm sure Anna tries to talk to me. She stares so intently that I say, "OK Sweet, what do you want?" and she will trot to her empty water dish, look at it then look at me. Sometimes she is at the top of the garden when I make a cup of tea but I bet she's sat behind me when I pour it! There are times when I'm certain she reads my mind!!

Best wishes, John

I do too, when we throw something for tula and shes had enough I always tell the kids she is saying "ok you idiot you threw it you go fetch I am not your skivvy and I have had enough" coz thats the look she gives :-)

I have a Tula also, when she was born I just made it up, but turns out it is a real name after all.

Tula is a puppet on the telly its a hoob my youngest sons favourite one  :-)  we get some weird looks but all the kids know who tula is and they like it LOL

Well my Tula is 9 years old, were the hoobs invented before that :D ???

Tula is also a town in Russia :)  

I do it with mine all the time :D  Usually about their interactions with each other.

I say the same too Sal and the cats; "Whats the mater" "What do you want" "Do you think so"

And I do have a terrible habit of saying to Oscar (the cat) "Where's your sister?" and has he ever answered me in 20 odd years NO - but I still say it. ;)
Karen

I love some of your names you have for your dogs. I think Anna is so sweet and old fashioned. And Tula....I never heard of it, but I like it a lot.

Oh good....I'm so glad that there are others out there that do this pretending game. Of course, when it comes right down to it, I guess they don't think like that, but being the funny humans we are, it's part of our pet thing, like when children dress up the pets in their clothes.

I remember my Lab, Bonnie, now an old girl was up in my son's room with him and his friends and they put a Sonic's Basketball coat on her. I still have the picture. I said, "Oh boys....the poor dog." And they said, "She likes it. She thinks the Sonics are cool." (talk about not supervising kids with the dogs...never thought a thing about it in those days)

Kazz...is Oscar's sister the dog or another cat? Oh yes...I do wonder what they think while we're chattering away. No wonder our "commands" get muddied up in all the chatter. It's bla bla bla, la di da, bla bli bloo bli, ta ta ta ta ti ta.... sit. That's probably why my dogs respond better to hand signals than to my voice. LOL.

Carrie

Yes, this sort of madness goes on in our house too :D  Of our two, Cadmus especially is a very expressive dog and you can tell his every mood from his demeanour.  He's also a terrible sulker and if displeased will take himself off to lie draped over the arms of two chairs which sit side by side and will lie there scowling at us and sighing very loudly.  We have great fun pretending about what he is saying :)  Plus, he seems to know we are talking about him and will sulk and scowl and sigh even more.  If anyone was a fly on the wall in our house, they'd think we were absolutely bonkers the way we carry on with our dogs :)

Lesley

Carrie get a tennis racket for Eli's ball, it will save your shoulders from aching so much. :-)

Do we put words in our dog's mouths? Well I don't but my kids do. They are always having conversations with the dogs. Joe pretends to be Alfie and Kristina pretends to be Harry. Joe is convinced that little Alfie is gay so he does him with a very camp voice. LOL :D

We also picture them how they would look if they were human. We see Alfie as an aristocrat sitting on his leather chesterfield sofa in a smoking jacket, drinking champagne or pims eating smoked salmon with a cigarette in a long holder.
Harry would be one of those builders in a donkey jacket with his bum hanging out of the back of his pants whistling to all the ladies as they went by but he'd look cute in his hard hat. He'd drink pints of stella down the pub and be a good pool player :D

Don't get me started on human traits in animals (okay - I actually typed animal traits in humans :D :D :D )

As I've said before, Purdey is now the elderly lady of the family - talks in a Penelope Keith type voice as she grumbles and scolds everyone - it is actually rather late for this bacon bagette, you know - what kept you?
Thor - as he knows he is an Aussie, and he likes watching telly, he has modelled himself on Paul Hogan - aka Crocodile Dundee.    Gypsy, who doesn't want to upset anyone, but gets bullied is like Purdey's side kick - "ohh yes, we're so sorry Purdey dear - shall we get you the tomato ketchup - ohh yes, please - if you do have a bit to spare for me"

Loki is an Essex girl - we're beginning to think that she actually aspires to be a footballer's wife - the way she will drape herself around a guy in shorts has to be seen to be believed!

and, as everyone here knows, Buster the Persian Rasta cat is not pleased with me at the moment - he looks a bit more like David Beckham - I've given him a shave "hey man - dew yew fink dis is cool - cos it aint!"

Margot

All the time. :D  They can understand everything you say.  If you ask them "Do you want to go out" if they have to, they run to the door.  If you ask them "Do you want something to eat/drink" if they have to, they go to the door.  And there are many other words/phrases they understand.  But yes we do put words into their mouths. :D

                                                                                     Kate

Ooh I'm so glad that others are like me :d  I talk to my dogs all the time and they watch me intently.  I suppose we have to seeing as there's nobody else here other than them and me!!

We have little songs that we sing, which mean nothing at all but the dogs love it :d   HOORAY, I'm not mad after all!!

My friend vicky accompanies Zorro, Delilah and I on our walk twice a week. I do zorros voice and vicky does Delilahs :)  Delilahs voice  is delicate and posh, zorros is babyish and excitable.People must think we are totally insane as the "dogs" chatter to each other :D

lol Lokismum :-D :-D... and the other posters...I can now tell my son my 'embarassing behaviour' (pleeeeeese Mum don't doooooo that)..(long conversations with and singing to the dog who purrrs when I stroke her ..head on my shoulder)  is not just a symptom of my early senility but a well known phenomenon!! My dog is a laidback hippy who likes Bob Dylon, Letty the Lab at work looks down her nose at us and is inclined to large hats and tea with cucumber sandwiches. My long gone siamese used to sing with me much to everyones disgust :rolleyes:

Ha ha ha....I get a kick out of you all. "Hooray, I'm not mad after all." "senility."

Harriett, actually we have a thing called a chuck-it. Do you have those there? It's kind of a flexible plastic handle thing which has one end rounded (1/2 of it) that will fit over the tennis ball so you don't even have to bend over to pick it up. It just slams over the ball, hugs it, and you fling this with wrist/forarm action and it goes a loooooong ways. But sometimes we forget to bring it along on our walks. Eli needs his ball. It assists in his recall tremendously. LOL.

I loved your description of your dogs....smoking jacket, hard hat.....ha ha ha ha ha ha ha.

Carrie

Are we insane or what???

We "read" our dogs to what they would be saying and say it, in a silly voice so people know!!!...the most common thing we get from the setters is ^&"% off....has been many other things aswell!!!