I see on home video shows dogs trying to pronounce words, does this mean they are slowly evolving?

Question

I see on home video shows dogs trying to pronounce words, does this mean they are slowly evolving?

Answer 1

Absolutely not.  Have you ever seen a dog attempt such a thing spontaneously?  No.  Some human is trying to get the dog to "talk" , nothing more than a trick.  Human language, talking, means nothing to a dog, it is just noise.

Talking, verbal communication requires intelligence.  Something a dog does not have and never will.

Answer 2

Well, they are slowly evolving, just as everything on Earth is.

The sounds dogs make that imitate human speech are more of a result of their cultural evolution as companion animals to humans. There are a lot of things that domestic pets do that their wild cohorts would never do, and it's all because they've lived with us for a long, long time.

Truly. My dog can smile. She really can. They have much more expressive faces than wolves.

The talking isn't real talk though, it's more down to training and conditioning of the dog, which has learned to respond so well to its human owners.

I used to have a dog who could say "hello." He was one of those dogs who "talked" as much as barked, and when he made a nosie that sounded like "hello" we were all so surprised and delighted that of course we made a big fuss of him and gave him pats and treats, so he made the noise more often because he liked the attention.

Answer 3

no.. based on this question i can only assume you know VERY little about evolution..

if you'd care to explain a little more we could go more indepth if i misunderstood something...

Answer 4

Are dogs evolving?  Yes, everything is evolving, it's a never ending process.  As for the dogs, it is far more likely that the dog made a noise that to a human sounded sort of like a word or phrase.  Just like we have a habit of seeing images in clouds we humans also create words out of noises.  So, pet owner hears pet make a noise that could be interpreted as words.  Pet own assigns words to the noise like "I love you" out of the dog going "Owoo ow ooo".  Pet owner encourages dog to keep making that noise and turns it into a rewarded action so the dog keeps going "Owoo ow ooo" on command.

Answer 5

Would being able to speak a human language mean dogs are evolving or would it mean some are good imitators.

Some are good imitators. But some humans are good at sports or academics and have the opportunity to pass their genetic attributes onto a new generation. If dogs that could imitate human speech (however poorly) were allowed to breed, we may eventually have a whole species of dog that can tell us, "I love you."

"Spay or neuter your pets."