They can read our emotions, follow our instructions, and anticipate our wants. It’s one of the many reasons we love them so much. As the research shows, speaking to dogs in dog-directed speech really does make them want to spend more time with us, and that’s a good thing.
Well trained dogs oblige their masters. They sit, stay, and come when asked. Our faithful companions respond when we speak directly to them. Are our dogs listening in on our conversations at the dinner table? Do they understand when we speak to other people? Do they understand our private phone conversations?
5 Reasons to Talk to Your Dog
A powerful relationship can develop between a person and their dog. One of the primary motivations for people to adopt dogs in the first place is the possibility of a relationship built on mutual love and respect. Dog owners should be interested in anything that strengthens this bond. While some dogs will open up their hearts after the first belly rub, a genuine, long-lasting bond will require patience and work. Your dog must be completely at ease around you, and part of that requires that they are accustomed to hearing your voice.
Keep your dog interested by conversing with them while you are engaged in other activities. There are many opportunities for active bonding throughout the day, such as when you’re exercising or showing them a new trick, but talking can transform even the more passive moments of the day into opportunities for active bonding. Your dog will listen to you talk about how smart and attractive they are because it starts a conversation and gives them something to focus on.
We were interested in determining whether the nature and content of communication affected the social bonding between animals and humans, says Slocombe.
It is well known that speaking to a baby strengthens the bond between a parent and child. A recent study suggests that talking to your dog in the same way you would a human infant has the same bonding effect, even though many pet owners see their animals as their own children.
Benjamin — who is a Ph. D. University of York student who is a candidate in the psychology department summarizes the results.
Adult dogs were more likely to want to interact and spend time with the speaker who used dog-directed speech with dog-related content than they were with the speaker who used adult-directed speech without any dog-related content, according to our research. ”.
The duration of the two speech types was measured, and the dogs were then given the opportunity to select which speaker they wanted to engage with.
Plus, whats even more interesting about this is that, while you might think its the way you say certain things, rather than what you actually say, that your pet picks up on, science says that probably isnt entirely true. Although saying “youre a bad dog” in a super happy voice might trick your pup (although thats totally mean, IMO), theres some reason to believe they actually, to some extent, understand the words youre saying, according to a study of 13 dogs by a team of researchers from Eotvos Lorand University. “We showed dogs praise words and non-praise words, in both praising and non-praising intonation,” lead researcher Attila Andics, of the Department of Ethology, told Reuters, “and we found that dogs just like humans can separately process word meaning information … in the speech signal and intonational information.”
If you arent quite sure what this might look like, pet-care site The Spruce Pets details a few hand signals you can use to train your dog. For instance, if you want your dog to sit, the outlet explains, “hold your hand palm out next to your body, and then bring the hand up until its parallel to the floor.” I mean, personally, I cant help but gush out loud over my dogs when I talk to them in any context — even when Im trying to teach them something — but I guess this is worth a shot.
Of course, this might come off as a little stupid to your dog. However, according to ScienceDaily, the study’s authors thought that this might be the result of the dogs exerting extra effort to try to understand their owners’ wishes when the owners spoke the strange words. In essence, when you say something to your dog that they don’t fully understand, they make a lot of effort to please you (yet another reason why all puppies are so amazing).
So, while youve probably taught your cute canine to respond accordingly to different words like “sit” or “roll over,” you might not have considered using other types of prompts to communicate with your pup. “When people want to teach their dog a trick, they often use a verbal command because thats what we humans prefer,” Ashley Prichard, a Ph.D. candidate in Emorys Department of Psychology and first author of the Frontiers in Neuroscience study, said in a statement, as per ScienceDaily. “From the dogs perspective, however, a visual command might be more effective, helping the dog learn the trick faster.”
According to ScienceDaily, the researchers discovered that, in contrast to how human brains typically respond to trained associations, the dogs’ brains responded more strongly to the unfamiliar words their owners said during the experiment than they did to the words they had previously practiced for months with their owners.
FAQ
Do dogs understand when you talk to them?
Although he may not understand everything you say, your dog listens and concentrates on what you say in a manner similar to that of humans. The researchers found that, just like humans, dogs react to the emotional tone of our voices as well as the words we say to them.
Do dogs like when you talk to them like a baby?
In fact, a recent study found that dogs respond favorably to baby talk, which was published in “Animal Cognition” last month. Two different speech types were tested on dogs by researchers at the University of York in the United Kingdom.
How do I tell my dog I love him?
- Ear rub. When you rub your dog’s ears, it will naturally experience an euphoric high.
- Have a daily playtime. …
- Teach them new tricks. …
- Have warm and hearty conversations. …
- Take time to cuddle. …
- Surprise your dog with a treat. …
- Hang out together. …
- Treat your pup with respect.
Is it good to talk to your dogs?
Contrary to giving them treats, talking to them won’t have negative consequences like weight gain. Including pets in conversation is one way to show them how much we love them because pets are meant to be spoiled. Speaking to our dogs and cats is essential to the research that demonstrates the value of pets for both physical and mental health.