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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  • edwardbear@lemmy.world
    2·
    26 days ago

    I trained my dog with fingersnaps. One snap was come to me. 2 snaps was follow me. One snap and a finger pointing to the ground was “sit down here” and he would sit wherever I’d point. Lost that dog almost 20 years ago, miss him like hell to this day. I can’t get another dog. There was something in his eyes that I simply can’t see in other dogs’ eyes.