If you’re a person with two eyes, two ears and a heart, chances are, you’ve enjoyed a video of dogs talking, and it can be uncanny how much their voices sometimes sound so human. Sometimes, they can even seem to be repeating the phrases that we say to them, such as “I love you” back to us. This raises a few questions: Do they actually understand us? And just as importantly, should we talk to them as if we’re talking to another human? Is talking to your dog important?
Well, in fact, talking to your dog is important, and a great idea for many reasons.
1) It’s not just what you say, but how you say it.
Growing up, if we wanted to suggest going for a walk, but didn’t want to alert the dogs, we had to say, “Do you want to go for a W.A.L.K?”, spelling each letter out as discreetly as possible. That’s because while dogs obviously don’t know how to spell, (or could even understand the concept of spelling), they can certainly recognize the correlation between particulars sound we emit (the word “walk”) and particular actions (going for a walk). If they cottoned on, all heck would break loose at the front door as they excitedly awaited an excursion.
In fact, our dogs are listening!
In March of 2018, The University of York published a study, which aimed to discover when dogs were listening and/or understanding us when we speak to them. What they found was that of the two modes of talking, either in our usual conversational tone like we’d use with a fellow adult human, or in a tone like we often use for cute pets and babies, neither tone really made a remarkable difference.
What did however, was the content. Basically, so long as you include content that is relevant to them (ie. walks, treats etc.), they are very interested and more likely to respond. They may just tune out if you ramble on too much about this season of Masterchef.
2) Old dog, new language.
Stella, a Catahoula/Blue Heeler mix from San Diego is actually pretty great at communicating. She knows 29 words all up, but what’s impressive is that she doesn’t simply “recognize” them. She says them…sort of. Dogs may be restricted in their vocal capacity, and when they “speak” to us, it’s most likely simply a phenomenon called “intelligent imitation“, copying us without a true understanding.
https://www.instagram.com/p/B_C_HySBR0k/
Stella however, trained by her Mom who is a Speech Language Pathologist by the name of Christina Hunger, has trained her to use buttons correlating to spoken words to express her desires, emotions and thoughts. The results are remarkable, revealing that Stella is able to not only express herself with words, but string words together to form compound ideas. It’s clear that these are intentional and prove that if our dogs recognise the meaning we ascribe to words, they too can form these connections.
Note, how Christina speaks to Stella in a normal adult tone of voice.
3) It’s good for you.
It’s no secret that companionship is a pillar of the human existence. Having a friend can be an essential way to share anxieties, decompress and metabolize your thought to enable you to better understand situations in your life. It’s known that pets can make tremendous therapists precisely because they won’t judge, correct comment on, or form opinions about ourselves or our shortcomings. Just don’t be surprised if they don’t pay a lot of attention unless your biggest problem in life isn’t having too few bones to chew.
4) Talking to your dogs helps to grow your relationship with them.
Regardless of how many “words” your dog knows, they are highly intelligent creatures when it comes to communication. They just have their own way of doing it. Regardless, just as we can sense when a dog is happy or sad, or angry or anxious, they too are able to read our emotions and respond to them. Dogs can understand when we’re trying to communicate with them, and ongoing, regular vocal communication can strengthen the bond you both share.
5) Your dog is always learning.
You can teach an old dog new tricks, and you can also teach them new words. They listen and respond more when words relate to them, but they only learn these new words in the first place because their owners have used them enough times around them for them to memorize the noise patterns and their relationship with an item, concept, activity etc. So no matter what it is, talk to your dog about it. Challenge them. Talk about bed time. Say hello and goodbye. Good and bad. You don’t have to be a Speech Language Pathologist to become a teacher.
So what do you think?
Do you speak to your dogs? What do you say? How has that affected your relationship with your pooch?
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