What language does a dog speak?

So while I type this I am basically talking to myself in my head. Right, when you read you are reading silently in your preferred language. Sometimes I am sitting on the couch and I think to myself, hey I am thirsty i am going to go get a pepsi.

So my question, when you have a dog when they have to go to the bathroom, do they think to themselves hey I have to go to the bathroom, I am going to pee on that couch? I believe they do, some people will say animals only act on instinct which may be true but they still have to have the thought of doing something. So while they are thinking to themselves are they barking in their head? Or are they actually using the language of the house to talk to themselves? Kinda like buck in married with children?

I'm guessing they bark in their heads, much as they appear to do when they are dreaming. Although like humans, sometimes they externally vocalize what is going on in their head while asleep. You can watch dogs bark and growl while asleep. So, I assume they think in "bark" related language.

Number of thoughts are probably limited.

They bark, but do American dogs bark in English and Japanese dogs in Japanese?

Quote: GwoAE

So my question, when you have a dog when they have to go to the bathroom, do they think to themselves hey I have to go to the bathroom, I am going to pee on that couch?

If you've ever house trained a
puppy you learn exactly how
a dogs mind works.

They cannot think in a linear way,
if they could they would invent
things and open doors by themselves.
They work on instinct and training.
You train them where the bathroom
is so when they get that urge that's
what they automatically think of.

They have no choice. They do not
look at the couch and decide. You
made the decision for them with the
training. If they have to go real bad,
they may have an accident, but with
a well trained dog it's rare.

Some dogs may understand up to ten words or so in a best case scenario, but I think they go by tone of voice much more. Same as we do when confronted with a language we know nothing about. We at least can pick up the mood of the speaker.

I paid a professional $500 to help train our dog and about the only thing I took away from it is to use a high pitched voice for praise and a low pitched, slightly angry, voice for punishment. He also said to keep verbal communication very short and simple, like "good" and "bad." Our dog turned out pretty well so I think he was right.

Quote: AZDuffman

They bark, but do American dogs bark in English and Japanese dogs in Japanese?

That was my follow up question in the discussion

Quote: Wizard

Some dogs may understand up to ten words or so in a best case scenario,

Many dogs can learn a lot more words, if the word is associated with a specific object like a dog toy.