Do dogs ask "Why"?

Edited because a change of mind: they dont []

Lucy asks "What would you like?"

Blackhawk asks "What's in it for me?"

I am leaning towards the opinion that dogs are a basic action/reaction type animal. Like "doing this makes good things happen, doing that makes bad things happen" and not really capable of analyzing things in a 'why' sort of way. Not sure though.

No I don't think they go that far. I don't think mine are capable of saying Why Do You Have to Leave us alone part of every day? They know they'd prefer both of us to take them with us, but not to question that this is the way it's done.
 
Dog Why questions and why I hope they don't think in those terms.
1.) Why do I only get to eat twice a day and you can eat whenever you want to.
2.) Why do I only get X amount of food.
3.) Why are you always the one who decides when we have to go home on our walks.
4.) Why can't I have cookies, all the cookies whenever I want.
5.) Why do you get to sleep whereever you want on the bed?
6.) Why do I have to go to the vet? (maybe they do ask that one?)
7.) Why don't you just shut up?

hehe...
 
also - Why don't you sniff my bum when we first see each other?

Well of course they dont ask those specific questions but as long as the animal is capable of reasoning then they find a way in their brain to get an answer of whats happening

I agree that the whole idea of "why" is too cerebral for a dog, especially in the broader sense of "why are things this way?"  kind of questions like Stacita posted.  I just don't think they have the cognitive capacity to compare your lifestyle to theirs and ask questions about why they are different.  That is so abstract.  Dogs really just live in the moment. 
 
But, of course it's so tempting to believe that your animals can think the way you do.  You want to understand them and relate to them.  So when Ace brings me the ball to throw, puts it in my lap, nudges me, sits and looks at me pleadingly, sighs, then nudges me again . . . it's instinctual to interpret that as "Why won't you throw the ball for me?"  Because that's what it would mean if I behaved that way.  But really I think all he knows is that sometimes I do throw the ball, so the strategy works sometimes, so he'll keep doing it.  No why about it. 

ORIGINAL: Stacita

No I don't think they go that far. I don't think mine are capable of saying Why Do You Have to Leave us alone part of every day? They know they'd prefer both of us to take them with us, but not to question that this is the way it's done.

Dog Why questions and why I hope they don't think in those terms.
1.) Why do I only get to eat twice a day and you can eat whenever you want to.
2.) Why do I only get X amount of food.
3.) Why are you always the one who decides when we have to go home on our walks.
4.) Why can't I have cookies, all the cookies whenever I want.
5.) Why do you get to sleep whereever you want on the bed?
6.) Why do I have to go to the vet? (maybe they do ask that one?)
7.) Why don't you just shut up?

 
I agree they dont ask that []

But really I think all he knows is that sometimes I do throw the ball, so the strategy works sometimes, so he'll keep doing it. No why about it.

 
Yeah that's what I'm thinking too. It certainly is tempting to think that they share our way of thinking. I like to look at Scout's facial expressions and imagine what's going through her head, and sometimes it really isn't realistic! Like espence said, when they angle their head back and forth and stare at you - there's such a human aspect to that movement.

I don't believe that dogs think or are capable of reasoning "why."  I do think that certain dog breeds have unquestioning obedience to commands and, if well trained, will not hesitate to follow commands-no matter how injurious those commands can be. (For example protection dogs, S & R dogs....)  Other dogs, like hounds, are generally very into self preservation. 
 
But do they reason why?  I don't think so.

Ask a badsenji to do something he doesn't want to do and he will ask "Why?"
 
Or say "I don't wanna."

Ask a badsenji to do something he doesn't want to do and he will ask "Why?"

Or say "I don't wanna."

Yah - that's Ginger. Except her response is, "Make me!"

I think dogs are capable of asking the "Why"/"What's in it for me"/"How" questions at a very basic level. Of course, they are not using language to form the "Why", but they don't need language to form abstractions and cause-and-effect relationships.

If they weren't capable asking these questions, how would they learn commands, develop fears, etc.?

Me teaching my dog to sneeze on command:
Every time I sneeze, my owner acts all happy and gives me a treat. Why? I want that treat. Hm... Is it me sitting down? No. What is it? Etc. Aha! "Achee".

Dogs do that head twist, I am led to understand by a physiological expert, because they don't have a macula (a part of the eye) and see best to one side and the other. Head twisting is "getting a second opinion". So as far as getting the answer to a question, that question would be "What?" rather than "Why?" []

I think dogs spend a lot of brain power on the question "What?" and very little on "Why?" "What is that?" "What should I do here?" "What can get me what I want?"

When dogs are forced to stray mentally outside the zone of questions that can be phrased with "What?", fear starts replacing thought. When we punish a dog, for instance, for eating the cake we left on the counter, an hour later, there's no cause-and-effect ability for the dog to fall back on. If something like that happened to us, we'd rationalize even the impossibly irrational (case in point, the abused child that convinces herself that it was something bad the child did). To the dog, it's just random violence - and if he's thinking at all, it's "What will he do next?" and not "Why did he do that?"

We have to remember to interact with the dog within that "What?" framework - and make sure the answer is right there. I watched and tried to learn from a master this weekend, working puppies on sheep. He too uses P+ - but it happens to make the dog say, "Ah, not there!" and when the dog says, "So what CAN I do?" the answer is the easiest thing TO do.

Clicker training makes the answers VERY obvious and the path to them very easy. On dogs that are as frightened and shut down as Eddie, I have to build the language first so he never has to ask "Why?" Thus, he is basically getting something for nothing until he's learned to expect the "What?" - the treat after the click. When I see that for sure I can proceed but not until then - "Why?" is too scary.