Bilingual Dogs, DNA, and the Slow Boat From China

When I was about 14 or 15, I used to pet sit a friend's dog when they went on vacation. The dog's name was Cindy and she was a pound puppy, a nondescript, yellow dog. She was a nice enough dog. She didn't ask much of me and I would often take a nap on the couch after walking her to cool down from the summer heat. During one nap, I had a dream about a little brown-haired boy who was mute and coming to live with our family and be my new little brother. He was waving to me from an ocean liner coming from China but he was not Chinese looking. He looked like he might be my brother. In the dream, his name was Nicky.

Later that summer, my mother's poodle passed on and she decided to get another one. We all drove up to a breeder who bred nearly all chocolate poodles. My mother wanted a chocolate one this time. On the way home in the car, she started tossing out ideas for names for him. I kept quiet and said nothing, which no doubt was agreeable to her. She settled on Pere Dominique and announced, "We'll call him Nicky for short." I had my new little brown, mute brother from my dream! But the part about coming on the slow boat from China was not clear to me yet.

The Chinese Connection
As Nicki grew through his puppyhood, he would make funny little sounds which my mother said sounded like he was speaking Chinese! It did indeed sound just like that! Of course I didn't know any Chinese or I could have tried to see what he might be saying. So that seemed to explain the part about the slow boat from China. But there was to be more. Just a few months ago, I was watching a new show on PBS called, "The History of Dogs." In the show, geneticists travelled the world taking DNA samples from hundreds of different breeds of dogs, as many as they could find, to trace the common ancestor of the dog much like humanity's common ancestor was traced to one woman in Africa.

The common ancestor of the dog, it turned out, was Chinese! They also discussed a new theory about how wolves evolved into dogs within one human lifetime, which they now know thanks to this DNA analysis. That theory is that dogs evolved from wolves who raided garbage dumps on the outskirts of Chinese towns. BARFers should note that this would make rice a biologically appropriate food, though it would have to be cooked to simulate the conditions that this evolution took place under!

Then I grew up and forgot about how my poodle had spoken Chinese until I adopted a pound puppy four years ago and named him Macintosh. He is a gorgeous collie/pointer mix. Actually, we just got his DNA Canine Heritage test back today which showed collie/shetland sheepdog as the only markers and in the secondary category. As a puppy, he made the same sounds like he was speaking Chinese and revivifed my memory of the previous Chinese-speaking puppy. However, there was a twist this time. He also spoke English.

Pardon Me, Do You Have Any Grey Poupon?
Once, standing outside a bedroom door, he started to make his Chinese sounds and then they became more and more English sounding and then he said in a very heavy accent but clear enough, "I wanna go in there."! Well at that point in time, I was already practicing professional animal communication and the idea that my puppy was actually enunciating English words out loud was not something that seemed totally bizarre to me. In fact, I have known for a long time the wonderful reality that truth is so very much stranger than fiction that I simply have no use for fiction and find it rather predictable. We'd had a beautiful white collie years ago, Lolly, who had said quite clearly to us, "herro!" one morning after we said 'hello' to her.

But that was all that Macintosh, "Mac" (yes named after my favorite computer) said in English. He did continue to speak Chinese for a while but eventually this faded away and was replaced by the coonhound-type baying of a pointer. And so we didn't have any talking dogs again for awhile. That is until tonight.

Enter the Germans
Rocky is a 22 month old German Shepherd puppy, that's him in the picture on my profile there. He came to live with us only about 6 weeks ago. His littermate, Jessie, came to live with us back in January and you'll be hearing plenty about her as she is my new heart connection to the Universe. My heart is equally available to all the animals in my charge, but for some of them, they are living entirely through and for my heart and that is Jessie. We are as close as Julie and Amaroq. Now Rocky and I have had to keep each other at arm's length because Jessie is jealous and right now that translates into bite wounds, one from which Rocky is healing at the moment.

As I prepared to leave with Jessie tonight for her positive reinforcement class, I realized I would have to crate Rocky. He is so hyper and I knew he'd be so strung out from Jessie leaving that he would be better off sitting safely in his crate. As I locked him up, he howled in a tortured, high-pitched voice. It's hard to translate into the written word, but it sounded something like 'i row ruh oo, i row ruh oo, i row ruh oo!' and became more and more high pitched until the words became clear, "I doan luh yoo, I doan luh yoo, I doan luh you" over and over as if to scold me for leaving.

Flashbacks to the Dragon
This reminded me of Chopin the cockatoo who once said the same thing to me when he was scared but of course being a parrot, he spoke it perfectly, "I don't love you!" Because of course, if you leave, then they won't love you or this is what they'll tell themselves to comfort themselves and what they'll tell you to get a little revenge.

Then much later this evening, I was sitting at dinner with my husband in the kitchen with the windows open and the cool evening air floating in. Jessie and Rocky were in their room with the windows open to but they were crated, on 'time out' for having played a little too rough. Through the window, I heard the high pitched howl of Rocky again vociferating his displeasure with me and speaking the words, in English, "I don't love you," this time berating me for having crated him.

So Mac is bilingual and speaks both English and Chinese, I wonder if Rocky might also know German being a German Shepherd. I will let you know! I can tell you while he is still in this puppy stage, and using positive reinforcement, I'm going to try and get him to do some more talking. Can't hurt to try.