Do our dogs really know what we are saying when we talk to them? It is an undeniable fact that when we approach a dog or a baby, our voices change instantly. We speak to both in a slow, high-pitched voice and excitement colors our word choice.
This change of tone is often involuntary and scientists are conducting tests to discover if this type of voice has any impact on a dog’s actions or ability to learn commands.
Nicolas Mathevon, a bioacoustician at the University of Lyon in Saint Étienne, France, and his colleagues conducted studies to see how older and younger dogs would respond to phrases spoken in different tones.
The team had 30 women read a script while looking at either a photo of a puppy, an older dog or a person. The women were told to read phrases often spoken to dogs such as “who’s a good boy?” and “come here sweetie pie!”.
The women adopted a in distinctive, sing-song tone when reading to dog photos, while maintaining a regular tone with photos. It was also noted that when reading the script to a photo of a young dog, the women’s voices were slightly higher pitched than when reading to a photo of an older dog and their tone was lowest when reading the script to a photo of a person.