It’s not that hard, their facial expressions and body language aren’t that different from our own. We don’t even have a tail and manage to read one another reasonably well for the most part. If we did, we wouldn’t miss the significance of a tucked tail (fear) or one standing straight up (alerted, could be interest, could be defensive).
you would be surprised how many times I am at the dog park and two dogs start to go at it having fun mock fighting and one of the owners gets scared that it is a real fight and I have to explain to them the non verbal ques that the animals are just playing. the bigger the dog the less likely the owner will realize the dog is playing. I always tell them to watch the ears and the tail for signs that it is a real fight. I also tell them that if one of the dogs is not having fun the bark will get higher in pitch.
Dogs know everything we think, feel or do.
We barely comprehend them.
They can learn hundreds of our words, in any language.
We only vaguely intuit their one universal language of barks.
Who is the “dumb animal”, really?
;D