Talking to your dog, should you or shouldn’t you?

So I have recently been thinking about the topic of talking to your furry friend. I’ll be honest I do it all the time, and I mean ALL THE TIME. I thought everyone did this, but it turns out they don’t. *facepalm*

It all started when I went to my friends house for dinner. They have a gorgeous black Labrador named Riley. To my surprise the only time they ‘talked’ to Riley was when giving him commands such as; sit, stay, down. I brought up this topic with my friend who looked at me like I had lost the plot. It was like one of those real ‘you’re crazy’ looks. I asked her, do you not talk to your dog? She obviously said no. But this left me wondering… Was I actually loosing the plot or was there a particular reason behind this? So I went home to do some research.

The topic 3 articles that appeared in my google search were; what do dogs hear when we talk to them? why do humans talk to animals? and why you should talk to your dog. I will discuss these topics further.

Firstly, what do animals actually hear when we talk to them? I have absolutely no idea how they can determine this but stay with me cause… SCIENCE. According to the article in sciencemag written by Virginia Morell it is thought that when we talk to young puppies it helps them pick up words just like human babies. HUH! who would have known. They also found that puppies interpreted high pitched voices to playing and didn’t respond to human to human conversation. Whilst reading this I was like, yes 100% that is my puppy.

Therefore, why do humans talk to animals if they cant understand? This second website says that it is ‘natural’ to talk to your pets. This is because humans naturally verbalise various thoughts and meanings in their lives to other living things that are animate. Humans tend to talk in simpler terms and in high pitch tones when talking to pets, very similar to baby-talk. It was also noted that talking to a pet of any kind is a sign of intelligence (I must be pretty intelligent then!)

Lastly, why should we talk to our pets? Pets are often treated as ones baby, therefore they have created a bond between them and the animal. Did you know that dog-directed speech is actually a thing? This dog directed speech is much more intriguing along with the tone of voice for the pet and they will therefore react accordingly. Although they do not react to our indiivual words it still seems like they do to us anyway.

I hope that you have gained some insight into talking with your pet. So next time don’t judge your friend who talks to their pet, it’s actually a sign of intelligence. You’d better start doing it too. I would love to hear in the comments below if you talk to you pet and what you pet is.

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