- Instead of addressing your pup in a high-pitched tone, speak extra slowly
Most dog owners will reserve a special voice for their pampered pooch.
But instead of addressing your pup in a high-pitched tone, it’s worth speaking extra slowly if you really want to bond with them, according to a study.
That’s because dogs’ comprehension of human speech relies on a much slower tempo, experts say, and slowing down our speech may help us better connect with them.
To better understand how people and dogs communicate, researchers from the University of Geneva analysed the vocal sounds of 30 dogs.
They then studied the sounds of 27 humans across five languages speaking to other people, and 22 humans across those languages speaking to dogs.
Most dog owners will reserve a special voice for their pampered pooch. But instead of addressing your pup in a high-pitched tone, it’s worth speaking extra slowly if you really want to bond with them, according to a study (stock image)
The scientists also used electroencephalography (EEG) to examine the brain responses to speech in both humans and dogs.
Humans are much faster ‘talkers’ than dogs, the study showed, with a speech rate of about four syllables per second.
Meanwhile dogs bark, growl, woof, and whine at a rate of about two vocalizations per second.
When talking to dogs, the humans slowed their speech to around three syllables per second, showing that there was some innate awareness of needing to speak more slowly.
EEG signals of humans and canines showed that dogs’ neural responses to speech are focused on slower ‘delta’ rhythms, while human responses to speech are focused on faster ‘theta’ rhythms.
The authors suggest that humans and dogs have different vocal processing systems, and that slowing down our speech when speaking to pets may have ultimately helped us better connect with them.
Dogs’ comprehension of human speech relies on a much slower tempo, experts say, and slowing down our speech may help us better connect with them (stock image)
Writing in the journal Plos Biology they said: ‘While dogs cannot produce articulated sounds, they respond to speech.
‘Using acoustic analyses of dog vocalisations, we show that their main production rhythm is slower [than that of humans], and that human-dog-directed speech falls halfway in-between.
‘Exploration of neural and behavioural responses to speech reveals that comprehension in dogs relies on a slower speech rhythm than humans.’
Previous research has shown that dogs show greater brain sensitivity to the speech directed at them than to speech directed at adults, especially if spoken by women.
Hungarian researchers measured dog brain activity using MRI scans and found similarities between the ways infants and dogs processed speech with exaggerated intonations, commonly known as ‘baby talk’.
