An American university professor has been teaching dogs, cats
and horses to understand and use sign language for the past 10
years, according to this report. She has had most success with
dogs and teaches them one symbol at a time. At first she teaches
them signs for commands associated with things they like such as
food and toys, then trys to teach them more complex commands.
She has managed to teach dogs to let their owners know when the
phone’s ringing, and to indicate what their symptoms are when
they’re ill. One area in which sign language trained dogs would
be especially useful, she thinks, is in search and rescue. She
hopes to be able to teach the dogs to communicate such things as
whether people are injured, their sex and how many of them there
are. She is also trying to teach dogs signs meaning alive and
dead. There is also a simple form of sign language for deaf
dogs, and there are suggestions for signs you could use with
them for commands and to communicate other things on this page.
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