Lack of Communication

Today I learned that verbal communication with Little Dog doesn't always work. It most cases it's a matter of me not understanding what she wants - she stares, she barks, she snorts at me and jumps at my fingers, but I have no idea what the message is.

 At what must be an agonizing amount of time for a puppy with this much to convey and no way to convey it, she just flops down and does this:

I guess a belly rub will have to suffice until she broadens my canine vocabulary...