I had the pleasure of interviewing Professor O’Connel from the Political Science department at Dickinson College, this week about his dog Maverick. Maverick is a 6-year-old caviler King Charles spaniel who is absolutely adorable. Professor O’Connell got Maverick when he was a puppy and was able to train him through his puppy years.

When talking to Professor O’Connell about some of the words and phrases Maverick knew I was very impressed. The thing about dog communication it’s very complex because it is different for every dog. Depending on the owner they will use different words for their dog that they will know more than others. As Professor O’Connell would say ride to Maverick telling him that they are going on a car ride. To add on a study showed that the average dog can understand up to 165 words and possibly more with training. This presents the concept of showing us humans dogs know a lot more than we think they do.

Furthermore, dogs do a lot of things to show their owner what they want to do, or where they wanna go. For instance, Maverick would get up at 6:30 and look at his owner Professor O’Connell until he got his food, and that’s one way they communicate through us is eye contact. Not only is it just eye contact there will be several times where the dog will follow the owner trying to tell them something like they wanna go outside.

In addition to this, Maverick is overall a great dog as he loves other dogs and humans and gets along with them very well. Maverick loves to chew on his toys all day and take the occasional nap. As Professor O’Connell says he is a great companion to him and he couldn’t imagine his life without the little guy.