How do dogs communicate?

We all know that animals different from us. So many differences that we can mention, but the most visible difference between human and animals is the way we communicate. We realize that animals do not use the same language as we have. They do not communicate like the way we communicate. We have language that helps us to communicate easily with others. Maybe animals have their own means too, but it is very different from ours.
Our language has five characteristics, which are: duality, displacement, creativity, patterning, and structure dependence. We cannot find these five characteristics in animal communication. Besides that, we also have many languages around the world. Different country uses different language, for example English, Indonesian, Italian, etc. Language allows us to communicate orally or in written form. While, animals do not write message or letter, they deliver it orally. What I mean is we can use so many things to send message to other people but animals cannot do that.
To learn more about animal communications, I observed animals around me. I observed my dogs. I have two dogs, so I observed both of them. My dog’s names are Maksym and Nuno. They are male. Maksym is younger than Nuno that is why he is more active than Nuno. Most people think dog communicates by barking, but actually not only barking. They can also communicate by gesture. By barking, dogs can express what they feel and also send messages, may be if they want something or they want to show something.
Dogs have different sound of bark. They use different intonation for different purposes. When I observed my dogs, they barked loudly and fast when some stranger entered my house. Their bark sounds like a threat. If I could translate it into words, it said, “If you enter my territory, I will bite you!” In this matter, my dogs felt that my house is their territory, so when someone entered my house, they felt threatened. Dogs recognize people by their smell. If they smell someone whose smell is not familiar with them, they cannot recognize him/her. So, the dogs will bark. They stopped barking when they were tired or bored.
My dogs are also sensitive with sound. If they heard something unusual, they barked. If they did not bark, they showed different gesture. They moved their head especially their ears to left or right direction. It was as if they were questioning something, like “what is it?” they were curious of that sound, and then they will run to where that sound comes from.
My dogs greet my family by wagged their tails fast and happily. They showed their happy face. They will wag their tails every time they feel happy. They use this gesture to express their emotions. When my dog Maksym wanted to get out, he barked loudly but short, I mean he barked, and then stopped than barked again. He barked like this when he want something. If he wanted to play with me, Maksym brought something in his mouth, usually stick or bottle, then he came to me and showed the thing that he brought. If I took that stick and threw it away, Maksym ran and took it. If I asked him to bring it to me, he brought it back to me. What I learn from this experience is that actually dog can learn how to communicate with people. If we teach them to do something patiently, they will respond to us, they are smart.
Actually, dogs respond to our voice, they recognize their name by memorizing our voice every time we call them. They do not memorize ‘what it said?’ but ‘how it sound?’ Every word produces different sound, and dog memorizes each sound they heard.
Besides that, dogs are also memorizing something by repetition. In my experience, every time Maksym feel hungry he will carry his plate in his mouth and he will come to me. He does this because when he was a baby, before I fed him, I asked him to bring his own plate, I gave him his plate and I asked him to bring it to the kitchen. He did it repeatedly, and if he did not do it, I taught him again until he remembered. Since that, when he felt hungry he showed me his plate. Maksym did this action as a way to send message to me that he was hungry. He used plate as a symbol of hungry. He also respond to my order, when I say “sit!” he will sit, when I say “stand up!” he will stand up, and when I say “give hand” he will raise his hand.
When my dogs felt scared, they hid their tails and they hid in a hidden place or they stayed close with people. If they were angry, they growled, they showed their teeth and their tails were upright. If they were happy, they played together.
Based on my observation and experience, I conclude that animals, in these case dogs, communicate by their voice (bark), and gesture. Just like us, they show their emotions too. They get their ability to communicate instinctively and by learning. Animals can learn to communicate, just like human learning other language.