If Dogs Could Talk

It would seem as unnatural as if  a human had decided
on a species change. But as Karel Capek put it in
'Dashenka'  'If dogs could talk we would find it
 as hard to get along with them as we do people'.
 What I want to know is if they learned to talk 
would they lose their listening skills? When I
 had a bond with  Oscar it was neither a fantasy
nor a hallucination for me to believe that he
 absolutely understood me.