More accurately, has anyone ever found their Sib listening and executing Russian commands, even though they were raised in a non-Russian-speaking environment?
 In Greece>Athens>Kallithea, were I live, we have many Russian speakers. In a nearby dog park a guy told to Ulva: "Ishuda", which means "come" and she immediately went to him. Normally she ignores most people talking to her, as a snooty baroness she is. Then I tried it myself to see what happens and... it worked! I tried other, random words; nothing. When I told "Ishuda" she came. After a while I heard a Russian-speaking guy giving commands to his Staffordshire. I heard "siestch", which means "sit". After a quick lesson on the correct pronunciation, I tried it... for another time it worked immediately! (Keep in mind that when I did the "lesson" the dog was not around)
 I have her since 2 to 3 months old, is it possible for her to remember commands from such a young age? That is, if she was trained by Russian speakers as a newborn puppy - something that I do not and cannot know, since I adopted her from a shelter.
 Now, to involve some more sci-fi; would it be possible to have the Russian commands hard-coded into her DNA???

Anyone with similar experiences?
Try it yourselves and post what happens!

Some commands to play with are:
ISHUDA = COME
SIESTCH = SIT
FOO = LET GO / LEAVE IT

I doubt they have the words are hard-wired into DNA LOL

Having said that this is what my wife says who is Russian. I have tried to write phonetically.


Idi-suda = come here, however is training Russians usually use Ko-mnyeh

Sidet = Sit

Le-yeah zhut = Drop - (this one is hard to write phonetically the, the zh is kinda like a zhhhhhh sound that a vacuum cleaner would make)

Stayut = Stand up, stay

Foo = yuck, leave it, drop it.

Stoy = Stop

Thanks for the info. I 'll try these as well!

I guess that makes sense since Siberia is a large part of Russia and Siberian huskies came from, well, Siberia. Although at the same time the Chukchi people spoke Chukchi and even though most of them speak Russian today I'm not sure when they made that transition from their native language. So maybe it is a possibility that the Husky's ancestor was "programmed" to obey Russian commands and that was just passed on down through the generations until today? (SCI-FI!!!!! =D) That's a shaky conclusion though, so I suppose it will just have to be one of life's many mysteries. Maybe some other members could try out my stupid theory and give their husky a Russian command to see how they react, although as usual I'm probably completely wrong. xD

I 'm still eager to hear from people who have tried, with successful reaction from the dog's part or not...

I'm skeptical, but curious, so I will probably attempt this with Dizzy tonight. Nothing else to do in this heat!

The other thing that occurs to me, is that maybe its just that because its a foreign word, it sounds different and has a bigger effect because she doesn't hear it in everyday conversation.

I would think it is the tone rather than the language that the Husky is responding to. Still, it is a fun experiment.

Well, its official, Dizzy does not speak russian. His mom was imported from Spain though, maybe he speaks Spanish?

Just ask Dizzy hablo espanol?
sentarse sit down
dejarlo leave it
come venir
come here venir aqui
stay quedarse

I will ask Bourbon tonight if he speaks russian

wpskier222 wrote:

Well, its official, Dizzy does not speak russian. His mom was imported from Spain though, maybe he speaks Spanish?

Well, if he does treat, him a fajita!

Ha, I'm sure he'd learn Latin for a fajita! Lol

HuskyLear wrote:

Just ask Dizzy hablo espanol?
sentarse sit down
dejarlo leave it
come venir
come here venir aqui
stay quedarse

I will ask Bourbon tonight if he speaks russian

Only for the sake that Dizzy learn correct Spanish
ask Dizzy... hablas Espanol?
Sit Down = Sientate
Leave it = Dejalo
Come = Ven
Come here = Ven aca
Stay = Quedate
Laid down = acuestate o echate

now... cuban, boricua, colombian, argentinian, chilean, venezuelan, peruvian, mexican or any other Spanish form could change that a bit... so better stay with English or Chukchi

Ha ha. My hubby says pronunciation is different in Spain as well. The sound we think of as a soft c, the sss sound, is pronounced like a th sound. So, Bar-th-lona. I think I'll stick with english and try to brush up on my dog speak. He gets kinda confused and annoyed when I woo at him, so I might need to work on my pronunciation with that too.

In all seriousness though, I have wondered if an understanding toward language is programmed into dog dna.

oops you're correct
Sentarse - infinitive form [not conjugated] "To Sit"
Siéntate - imperative form [ordering] "sit down"
which would be the same mistake with quedarse, and venir/ven I got the conjugation wrong then the hablo would not be a question. I must say not bad with only HS spanish unless you speak spanish then I butchered it.

Must be what I do wrong with the Woo also cause I get looks of "WTF are you doing mom? Are you okay?"

Dog DNA maybe the pup did have russian command throw at it during the first two months. ???

Not necessarily a specific language, but just more likely to recognize and respond to language cues from humans. I think dogs are the only domestic animals that learn language cues.

nah... they read your mind... and play with us doing the opposite just to have fun

Haha, nice topic, but a little bit old Well, my Husky understands Russian, but he live in Russia so it's not a surprise. He also understands English, maybe next time we will learn German:D
Well about your theory...I don't think that Russian commands are hard-coded in DNA, but some gestures are the same in many countries, so I think they don't hear, they look at you. Moreover, Husky are very friendly dogs that't why when they see that you look at them, they come to you.
But if i'm wrong then I'm goint to Europe and talk to Huskies

I'm sure it has to do a lot with the tone of voice. I feel like my tone would be similar for "come" in any language because I try to make it sound exciting.

We were at the park one day and a guy stopped and asked to pet Klaus. When he found out his name he started talking to him in German because Klaus is a German name. I don't speak it of course, but Klaus thought this guy was the bees knees! Maybe it's just because the different language sounded so different for him? Not sure, but he loved this guy!

lol, my mom uses both version of the Spanish commands for Leo and Joey, depending on her mood lol. i wounder if he too would sit in Russian, cause i agree with Lily they I'm pretty sure they can read your mind.

This article is interesting about research being done on the understanding of human speech in dogs. It doesn't specifically determine whether or not dogs have an intrinsic understanding of our language, however, it does show some interesting responses indicating that dogs understand language in similar ways as us and that both tone and learned commands are important.
iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/dog-brains-process-human-speech-same-way-we-do