Humans can communicate various instructions to dogs without using actual words—simply by modulating the tone of their voice, a new study from ELTE University's Department of Ethology shows. By repeating the nonsense syllable 'bü' in different intonations, humans successfully signaled "Yes," "No," "Here," and "There" and, remarkably, dogs responded correctly, despite receiving no prior training. The findings reveal ancient acoustic codes, interpretable across species, that predate language itself. The study was published in Cognition.

Humans can communicate various instructions to dogs without using actual words—simply by modulating the tone of their voice, a new study from ELTE University’s Department of Ethology shows. By repeating the nonsense syllable ‘bü’ in different intonations, humans successfully signaled “Yes,” “No,” “Here,” and “There” and, remarkably, dogs responded correctly, despite receiving no prior training. The findings reveal ancient acoustic codes, interpretable across species, that predate language itself. The study was published in Cognition.

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  • Forester@pawb.socialEnglish
    22·
    18 days ago

    Most dogs can understand vernacular language. If an average 3-year-old would understand a majority of the words your dog probably does too.

    • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
      1·
      18 days ago

      My dog is scared of his own farts, he is definitely not as intelligent as a 3-year-old human. One time he refused to come in out of the rain because the door was already open and because he hadn’t seen me open it, it must be closed in his mind.