I am 90% sure my cat knows her name. If I call the dog the dog comes, if I call the cat the cat comes. I am 100% sure the dog knows the cats name and 90% sure the cat knows the dogs name. I don’t believe horses pay much attention to names but possibly could be conditioned to a name. My cat can’t stand my chihuahua and leaves the room at the mention of his name.
Dogs do not know their names. What the dog hears is a command that says “Give me your attention.” People assume that a dog understands their name because from our point of the view the difference is very slight.
When you teach a dog their “name,” what you have actually done is conditioned them to associate the noise with the expectation that you are about to do something that concerns them… or a noise that they should go find whatever object or person you’ve “named.”
Likewise for cats, and horses, and everything else short of primates. All they hear is a noise that means, “Listen up.”
that’s different from humans how?
Yeah, that’s pretty much what a name is, an identifier word.
Do they think “I am Fido, hear me roar!” ? Probably not, but then again neither do most people.
And yes, dogs can definitely learn that ‘Fido, sit!’ means that they are to put butt to floor, but ‘Spot, sit!’ means that the other dog is supposed to. Which means that Fido knows his name isn’t Spot 
Dogs seem to recognise a fairly large amount of words. If I am talking about my dog to my girlfriend and he hears something he doesn’t like he hides. bath, spray, cut nails, walk, the names of a few of his friends, types of food. I would say he has at least 50 words he recognizes.
Definitely my cats know their names, and that of each other. I can say “hey Spook, want to go outside?” and He’ll think about it and come running if he does. Squeak ignores the phrase.
Later I will tell Squeak, “Go find Spook and bring him in.” which he will do. He’ll go outside and bring him right back after which he is free to follow his interests.
Other times I will be distracted and Squeak will run to get me, meowing that I should come. He’ll lead me to the door where Spook is waiting to come in.
Spook is less inclined to do that in return, but then Squeak will just find the window nearest to you and “yell” and beat on it when he wants in. If both are outside, Squeak will sometimes do that for Spook, then run off to deal with his interests.
Spook is a Chartreux type cat, big, plush, silent and patient. He uses pantomime to indicate what he wants, such as reaching for the door knob. Squeak is a small long haired tabby who readily speaks his mind.
Both come when called by name, but often together, since that usually means something interesting is happening.
Here at the zoo, I’ve seen the following animals respond to various people calling their name. Responses range from running over, pointing/flicking ears, vocalizing, etc.
- several goats
- miniature horses
- a donkey
- a miniature zebu
- capuchin monkeys
- CA desert tortoises
- rabbits
- fruit bats
- parrots, including macaws, cockatoos and ecelectus
- a crow
Dogs I understand appear to be specifically human oriented; they are better at picking up human social cues and understanding humans than any other animals. Even animals that are both highly social and smarter than they are, like chimps; dogs have evolved to be specifically good at understanding humans. They may be the longest domesticated animal, and have certainly interacted with us socially and on a command/obey level much more than other animals; they’ve had a long time to get better at it, and had plenty of Darwinian incentive to do so.
How about a dog that knows a thousand words?
Sorry, but as mentioned before, dogs can recognize their name spoken by someone unknown, and recognize the names of others. There’s some pretty good indications that dogs at some level grasp the concept of a name as an identifier. It’s more than just simple conditioning.
Dolphins do too.
Link points to a National Geographic article outlining a study in which dolphin communication is analyzed, and individual whistles appear to signify certain individual dolphins.
My 2 cats know their names. They each come to their own name and ignore the other name. Cassy knows my husband’s name(s) and recognizes his voice on the phone.
My wife told me about an Irish racehorse that had its name changed, and apparently didn’t like it - whenever it was announced with the new name it turned in a rather lacklustre performance, but when they went back to using its original name its attitude and performance both improved greatly.
of course dogs know their names.
I have 3 and they clearly know each other’s names, too.
I think my cat knows his name, he comes when I call him. but he’s very attached to me and doesn’t like to be out of sight (unless he’s sleeping somewhere). We’ve often wondered if it’s the voice, or tone of voice, he responds to rather than his name. Now, if we re-named him “Catnip???”, that’s a word he knows. My husband used to give the cat a pinch of catnip trying to curry favor, and when you say “catnip???”, he trots right over to my husband and sits, waiting for his fix.
You can change a horse’s show name but it’s terrible bad luck to change their barn name. Usually horses go through life with one or maybe two barn names.
Perhaps some very smart horses can recognize names as referring to themselves, if they are exposed to it often enough. Since they can learn verbal commands, they can distinguish individual words as having a meaning. However, I call my cat by name 20 or 30 times in a day but I only saw my horse a couple days a week. I don’t think horse owners end up reinforcing the name that much. (and in my experience barn workers call all the horses by unflattering or humorous nicknames). However, most all horses can recognize voices and characteristic whistles as belonging to their owner/handler. I used to whistle like the all-hands sound on Star Trek and my horse would come galloping up. However it was because she recognized ME not because she recognized it as referring to her (you can tell because she would ignore the seemingly identical whistles of others).
Whereas one of my cats easily learned a sign language name after he went deaf (hold hand out, wiggle your fingers). And my smarter cat recognized multiple names as referring to himself. Cats and dogs coevolved with human society.
People don’t live in close proximity to their horses and horses are very much less tuned in to human society than cats and dogs, so there’s really very little benefit to responding to a name for a horse. And it’s just a very different relationship, since you must protect your own safety at all times. A horse can kill you accidentally and without any malice (I actually know someone whose horse tripped while walking and fell on her, killing her instantly) and has prey instincts to flee that can be very dangerous to people. It’s like the different way you might interact with a normal four year old, compared to a large adult man with the intellect of a four year old.
Dogs learn names quickly, and at a young age. We once had a litter of Aussie pups that we didn’t sell until they were three months old—and of course, we named them almost as soon as they were born. (Hey, you have to call them something in order to talk about them, right?) By the time they were six weeks old, they each knew their own names as well as the names of their litter-mates and the other animals in our household. Evidence? They’re look at the person or animal being named.