do they understand what you say?

[hulkie123]

This post is about my little Hulkie (Hulk the littlest of my three little men they are 5 mth)
He comes up to bed with me every night. every night I ask for a kiss and give him a little kiss on his break and sit him next to my fish tank and say to him "where are those bloody fish". In the last few days when I ask for a kiss he has started try and give kisses back with tongue too (still cant break the dog out of that!) and he is try to find the fish whenever I say that even if we are outside. though the cutest thing he does now (he has a perch by the foot of the bed) when we go too bed after we have given kisses and chased the fish through the glass I place him by the window and get in bed he waits patiently by the window until I say Hulkie go to bed and he literally runs up to his perch and settles on the top of the perch and starts cleaning himself. now what I wanted to know is this because I keepdoing it or is he understanding what I say and actually learning from that?

[MissK]

Hahhaha! I have a dog who rides in the car nicely until I see someone walking and I point to them and say "Do you know that guy?" Dog then goes berserk. How does it happen? I'd rather not know!

[Donovan]

I think it's a cross between the actual words, your inflection, and other context clues all mixed together.

So in a way, yes, they understand. But try saying those things with a different tone of voice or at an unlikely moment and they'll just look at you like you're dumb

[MissK]

Donovan, pleeeeze don't solve the mystery. You know the answer is going to end up "training". Let me keep my illusions, pleeeeeeeze.

[hulkie123]

on other news my dad has taught Greyfriars ( my gray ringneck) to go and get him his cigarettes. its the funniest thing really he runs down dads arm when he is in his chair hops onto the chairside table gets a smoke out of his case and waits til dad picks him up though I should point out that he doesn't give dad the smokes he hides on dad back and chews on them before dad can get to them I think its a jealousy thing? he and Chook our adult Pink and Grey are always fighting for Dads attention those two birds are attached to him like a fungus

[sanjays mummi]

Sanjay definitely understands words, "fig" gets him bobbing and swaying with pinned eyes, "shower" gets him lifting his wings in anticipation, and "kiss" sends him all unnecessary, he also understands "bedtime", and of I've been out and ask "have you been good?" He Always replies in birdie word.

[Our baby]

In reply to yr question my ringneck knows what no is when i an my wife are in our room our baby will walk over to the curtin's an look around an start to climb up as soon as i see what he is doin i or my wife will say no ollie come down he try's to get away with it looks at us in a funny way an if he is up on the curtins i will rattle my car keys an say lets go for a drive he comes str8 down they are very smart

[SunniDai]

I think it's a little like a song and dance thing. I tell Sunni "you are soooo nice" and she makes the kissy sound. I also think they learn to say things at appropriate times. When one of us approaches her and she doesn't want to be touched, she will ask "what are you doing?"
They are smart little things.

[cassurinajoan]

My boy has a tree branch attached to a wooden base in our living room. It is just close enough where he can reach the corner of the wall, which he constantly tries to chew on. Whenever we see him doing it we make an "ahht" sound, he immediately knows he is doing something wrong. Sometimes he keeps doing it (three strikes and he gets put to bed for a few minutes), other times he will just put his head resting on the wall and sit there looking at us as if to test how far he can go before he gets in trouble. Hilarious, but somedays we think we've met our match.

[sanjays mummi]

Sanjay gets really head bobbing excited when I say "do you want a fig?", and understands "bedtime" and "night night" perfectly well.

[sanjays mummi]

Erm, have you been on the bird seed?