In fact, that is the expert consensus on language skills among animals (according to John McWhorter's "The Story of Human Language"). Animals understand and can "talk" about things in the here and now but not in the past, in the future, or in abstract terms.

(My source was published in 2004 but I haven't heard anything to the contrary since then.)

[–] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 5 points 6 days ago

Dogs are actually able to think ahead much further than cats. My grandma speaks with her dog like a human child and it works surprisingly well. When I visited her she announced to the dog "He's gonna walk you tomorrow morning" and there was barely any excitement as a reaction. The next morning though I got woken up by a cold snout attached to a now very giddy animal. There are lots of other stories like this one. But I've tried similar things with my cat to no avail. They can only focus on the current or very next activity. I've taught her to sit down and wait until I have time if she needs something but even that only works when she's in a good mood and if it does her patience is still used up after 10 minutes.

I don't know how well this holds up scientifically but I usually assume the intelligence of a 9 month old baby for cats and that of a 2 year old toddler for dogs. It's served me well when training or otherwise reasoning with them.