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JAMA. 1971;217(8):1097.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text PDF and any section headings.

From time to time, men have speculated whether animals have a form of speech. Certainly they communicate by sounds. A group of countrymen lying by the fire while their dogs chase a coon can recognize the change in dog voices when they have treed their quarry. Anyone who has been foolish enough to try stalking a flock of crows will have learned the difference in the caw-cry of the sentinel bird.

Also, men readily communicate by speech with animals— not quite with the facility of Dr. Doolittle—but effectively enough to issue commands. The wagon driver's "haw" (turn nearside), "gee" (turn the other way), "whoa" or "ho" (stop) are familiar examples. A well-trained German shepherd of our acquaintance has a "vocabulary" of about 33 words, some strung together in sentences having three to five parts, and 11 are not command words but words of identification. In addition, she communicates freely with . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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