Is this news? Dogs can associate words with objects
I mean, the study below is making headlines in the news today, but for anyone who has ever owned a dog, you were well aware that this is true long ago.
We had a female German shepherd/husky mix and you could tell her to go get a ball. She'd get a ball.
Go get Frisbee. She'd bring the Frisbee.
Go get stuffy (stuffed animal). She's fetch a stuffed animal.
Go get a stick. She'd retrieve a stick.
Go get rope. She'd return with her tug rope.
Occasionally, she'd bring the wrong item, but it was pretty rare.
That our four-legged companions are able to recognise words that prompt actions will come as no surprise to dog owners who tell their pets to "sit" or "fetch".
However, the study, which analysed brain activity in 18 dogs, provided evidence that they can activate a memory of an object when they hear its name. The study was carried out at the Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest and published in the journal Current Biology.
"There has been a long debate on a non-human animal's ability to understand words referentially," said Marianna Boros who co-authored the study.
https://uk.news.yahoo.com/dogs-associate-words-objects-study-063116682.html
= new reply since forum marked as read
There were three of them one of them the daughter of the first one was a bit of a rascal. She wouldn’t bring me back the frisbee, so I would go inside and she would lean it up against the door. So once, I swear, I said, I’m gonna count to 10 if you don’t bring me that frisbee, I’m gonna go inside. The dog brought it back at about the count of seven 
If so, I need to find out more about your training methods!
Cats can understand 300, but they ignore you 
We had a little dog who barked her head off whenever she saw people walking on our street. We discovered if we said, in increasing volume, "Do you want a bath?" she'd stop barking. We had a fenced in yard and when she was out there, she'd bark and chase along the fence. One day, I heard one of the neighbor kids say, "Do you want a bath!" It was hilarious.
but I'm at a few hundred words of comprehension myself. My wife congratulates me regularly.
they had been indoor/outdoor cats and she used the treat bag to coax them in for the night. Even though they were in all day, if we tried to retire to our beds without offering treats, they assured us no sleep would be allowed before treats were offered.
if I ask him "show me where your bone is" - he will run to it. We've had labs previously and they would often learn words associated with food! Also, they learn "leash" really fast.
