Image Source: Wikimedia.org
It's what you say and how you say it with dogs…
According to James Gorman of NY Times.com,
Both what we say and how we say it matters to dogs,” said Attila Andics, a research fellow at Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.
Dr. Andics, who studies language and behavior in dogs and humans, along with Adam Miklosi and several other colleagues, reported in a paper to be published in this week’s issue of the journal Science that different parts of dogs’ brains respond to the meaning of a word, and to how the word is said, much as human brains do.
The experiment itself was something of an achievement. Dr. Andics and his colleagues trained dogs to enter a magnetic resonance imaging machine and lie in a harness while the machine recorded their brain activity.
Dr. Andics said different phrases to the dogs and recorded their brain activity. This is so amazing to me that we can perform these studies and know just what our four legged loved ones are saying. They did discover that it is all about how you say things and the tone in which you say them. I find that interesting that maybe it isn't the “good boy” phrase or “I love you” that they understand. It is the tone and delivery that they respond too. Please read the article and learn more about this study. I really enjoyed reading about this study and now can't wait to test my dog and see what happens.
Content Source: NY Times.com