There aren’t enough positive words in the universe to describe dogs. If you find one who’s a great match, they’ll be your loyal and loving companion for life. Dogs don’t know what’s happening in the world today, or about that phone fight you just had with your significant other. All they know is that you need comfort — STAT. So it makes sense that we, as people, might baby our dogs a little bit. It’s likely that we plan summer vacations with pet-friendliness in mind — is that Airbnb pet-friendly? Does that kennel also include a spa? Trust me, our parents didn’t do that with their pets. And they probably didn’t baby-talk them either.
When you look at a fluffy dog face, it can be hard to avoid the urge to baby-talk. But oddly enough, it turns out that baby talk is actually really good for our pups.
They often respond positively to our cooing about good boys, possibly because accentuating our tone and using higher pitches helps them understand us better.
Think about it. When we use baby talk with actual babies, they often pick up on certain words a little quicker. Even if they’re still identifying what our words mean, they can differentiate between positive and negative statements based on tone.
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National Geographic reported on a study done in England (which was originally reported in the May 2018 edition of Animal Cofnition) about using baby talk with dogs to further prove the communication theory. In total, 37 dogs were examined. After being subjected to normal conversational tone and “dog-directed speech,” like baby talk, the majority gravitated towards the happier tone, as opposed to the norm.
So, perhaps we do it because dogs genuinely like it and respond to it. Or maybe because we’ll always see our favorite pup as being our baby.
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If you have a good relationship with your dog, but feel on the fence about using baby talk, maybe this’ll inspire you to give it a shot. Your dog will love you no matter what, but they’ll connect with you more with higher tones.