Dogs can also understand our language
Until a few years ago, the ability to recognize sounds when spoken by different people was thought to be uniquely human. However, there are clearly pet lovers among the scientific community who worked to prove that this is not the case at all. Dogs, in fact, understand what is said to them, even if the person talking is not a member of their family, and even if the words used have not been taught to them before.
Researchers from the University of Sussex filmed the reaction of 42 dogs of different breeds as they heard recordings of male and female voices saying short, unrelated words with similar pronunciation. They were able to listen to different people saying the same word, recognize it, and ignore differences in accent and pronunciation.
Context Translators
In practice, dogs can distinguish between different human accents, unless their ears are blocked! So, try asking your puppy to “go get the ball” with an elegant French accent or an annoyed Milanese tone—rest assured that your dog’s language radar will be up to the challenge.
Moreover, while many humans may struggle to understand sarcasm, dogs on the contrary seem to have a PhD in context. In fact, they don’t just hear words, but analyze the entire situation. They are like the Sherlock Holmes of the linguistic world, picking up on the meaning behind words and gestures.
Okay, but do dogs speak?
We have established that dogs understand our language more than we think, but can we say that dogs also communicate with us vocally?
We have to go back a long way: their wolf ancestors don’t bark, because barking is a method of communication that dogs developed through domestication. Dogs likely developed this ability to communicate better with humans.
This highlights how exceptional dogs are, because while humans use verbal communication as their primary form of communication, dogs have evolved to communicate in ways more similar to our methods. Dogs have several vocalizations, including barking, howling, whimpering, snorting, and pained howling, each with its own purpose. The tone and intensity of barking can also vary depending on what the dog is trying to communicate.