Ours figured out P-A-R-K pretty quickly, so we ended up using the euphemism “butter”, which she still doesn’t recognize as a food or as a euphemism for “park”. She also has a ridiculously high food vocabulary, and I think she’s learning how “bath” is spelled.
If we ever said “bad dog” within earshot of Mum’s old dog Tessa, she would immediately lay down with her chin on the floor and look up at us with big brown aplogetic eyes. So we had to start spelling it out when referring to other misbehaving dogs.
We couldn’t say the word ‘brush’ around our former cat, Mew, unless we had it in our hand and were prepared to use it on her. She loved being brushed, and we could get her to come running to wherever we were just by calling out, “Do you want to get brushed, Mew?”
Our dear departed Rocky, who was The Best Cat in the World, Ever, knew the phrase “tuna fish sandwich.” My husband could say, “Hey, would you mind making me a tuna fish sandwich?” and Rocky could be in the kitchen before I was. I miss that cat.
My daughter’s peke knows the usual ones: outside, supper, cookie, treat, bacon and (most especially) bread. We have to say things like, “We’re out of those sliced carbohydrate products,” and “Would you like some sliced pork product with your eggs?”
Stella definitely knows O-U-T, G-O, and W-A-L-K. In fact, there was a short period of time where she could spell “out” but wouldn’t respond to the spoken word. It wasn’t long after we switched back to saying out that she caught on. Now both options result in much barking and spinning around.
We have a border collie who knows a lot of words. We used to spell out W-A-L-K because whenever she heard the word she went crazy, but she learned how to spell it. So now we use French, and she doesn’t understand that. But she also knows treats, food, foods, ride, tinkle, poopies, outside, kissies, bootie scratch, and various other words. She knows that when I go into the kitchen and start cooking, eventually I will be sitting at the table, so she goes and lays under the table and waits. She also knows that if she places her fanny in front of me, she’ll get bootie scratches; that gets old sometimes, and I’ll ask her for some kisses in exchange, and she’ll turn around, kiss me a few times, and then stick her backside in my face again.
Our other dog, a dachshund, only knows treat and food. He’s a hungry little monster. I grew up with cats, and got used to seeing the cats prowling all over the furniture. I have to admit it startles me, though, when I walk into the dining room and see the dachshie on the table. :o I’m having to retrain myself to make sure that there is nothing on which he can jump to get onto the table.
Our dog does exactly that! As soon as she hears me spritzing my hair she’s beside me looking up at me wistfully. She also gets sad when she sees my rucksack in the hall as she knows I’m leaving again (she lives with my folks).
She always knows when we’re getting ready to go out, so we have to tell her we’re going to ‘work’ (which also means shopping or the pub 
). She understands W-A-L-K now too, so we have to say ‘Will we take Madam for a W?’
What I really love though is when we’ve decided to take her for a walk, so it’s OK to say the word. She’ll be lying on the floor, apparently asleep, and my dad will say quietly to me, ‘So, I suppose we should take Molly for a walk then?’ The way her ears prick up and her head goes to one side as she sits up and looks at us is hilarious. Then we say, ‘OK, go and get your lead.’ Mayhem ensues.
My beloved dog when I was in high school knew “walk,” so we used to always spell it.
He was pretty good with tone of voice, so all I’d have to say was, “Do…you…” and he’d know the rest of the sentence was “want to go for a walk?”
Unfortunately, we had to give him away. (I’ll post about this some time when someone opens up a “What have you not forgiven your parents for?” post.) My best friend took him. A few weeks later, my friend called me…wondering why my dog started howling whenever MAS*H came on. The local station had the re-run at 10:00 at night. At the end, I’d take him for a w-a-l-k; then it was bed time. He knew the theme song.
With our two dogs we’ve always had to spell O-U-T. The Lab caught on so we started misspelling it O-W-T. She’s gone deaf since. We still spell it because of the Weinerdog and I suspect the Lab can read lips.