Your pooch may already be your best friend, but changing the way you talk to them could make your bond even stronger. That’s because new research reveals dogs comprehend human speech much better when it matches their own slower pace of vocalisation.
You're probably already talking to dogs slower than you’re aware of: if you imagine yourself saying ‘good boy’ or ‘good girl’, you likely elongate the words more than if you tell a friend you’ve had a ‘good day’. Well, the researchers behind the study, from the University of Geneva in Switzerland, say this could even be something we’ve learned to do to make better connections with our pups.
"This is a really interesting study. It is significant in that it specifically highlights the changes that humans naturally make in our communication with dogs," Dr Nancy Dreschel, an associate teaching professor at The Pennsylvania State University in the US, who was not involved in the study, told BBC Science Focus.
"What I found surprising was that it isn't just the tone of our voice, but the actual speed and rhythm of our speech patterns that we change."
Published in the journal PLOS Biology, the study involved analysing the vocal sounds of 30 dogs, plus the sounds of 27 humans across five different languages when talking to other humans. The researchers then analysed the sounds of 22 humans across the same languages – but this time when talking to dogs.
Next, they examined both humans’ and dogs’ responses to speech using electroencephalography (EEG), which measures electrical activity in your brain.
They discovered that humans ‘talk’ much faster than dogs, with our speech rate averaging out at four syllables per second. Dogs meanwhile bark, woof, growl or whine at about two vocalisations per second.
Our listening responses are also different from dogs. According to the EEG data, dogs listen out for rhythms in our speech that are longer and slower – like the whole structure of a sentence, intonations and pauses. These are known as delta rhythms.
We, on the other hand, prioritise processing what are known as theta rhythms: rather than the broad sound of a whole sentence, these are the faster aspects of speech like individual words – even down to each syllable.
Both delta and theta rhythms are important to the human brain’s comprehension of speech – but it’s not quite the same for dogs. Even though their auditory tuning is super sensitive, if we were to talk to our hounds like we do to each other, they might miss out on the core meaning of our sentence.
"I think much of this comes naturally and points to the long domestication and evolutionary history we have with them," said Dreschel.
"That said, while speaking to our dogs, whether we are training or just chatting with them, it wouldn't hurt to slow down, simplify our language and remember that they are still dogs, just doing their best to understand us."
About our expert
Dr Nancy Dreschel is an associate teaching professor in the Department of Animal Science at Penn State (The Pennsylvania State University) in the US. Her research has been published in People and Animals: The International Journal of Research and Practice, the Journal of Traumatic Stress, and Frontiers in Veterinary Science.
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