If you’re a devoted pet parent, chances are you often speak to your dog all the time. As it turns out, there’s a good chance you’re on to something. New research says that in addition to listening to our speech, dogs actually understand a great deal of it. Based on things such as intonation, gender, and significance, they are capable of getting much more from human speech than we previously thought.
How Dogs Process Words
According to a recent study, dogs process audible speech in a way that is very similar to the way that humans do. When humans listen to one another speak, they pay equal attention to the words and the tone of the speech itself in order to determine meaning. Research suggests dogs actually do the same thing. When a dog listens to their human speak, they pay attention to the words as well as the speaker’s tone of voice. This allows them to determine things like meaning and intention.
How Speech Looks in a Dog’s Brain
When a dog listens to a human speak, they use a variety of different parts of the brain to process that speech. Although this does not mean that dogs always understand human words outside of commands like “sit” and “stay,” it does mean that the way dogs process speech is very similar to the way that humans process speech. When humans speak to one another, each person uses the left hemisphere of his or her brain to decode and derive meaning from the speech. Similarly, dogs use a hemispheric bias to process speech and other species’ vocalizations. Speech that is processed on the left hemisphere of the brain will be processed differently than speech on the right hemisphere, which can alter everything from meaning to understanding. Familiar speech is processed in the left hemisphere of the brain whereas unfamiliar speech goes through the right hemisphere.
Researchers still have a great deal to learn about how dogs process speech, but it is clear that dogs actually understand much more than we previously thought. In addition to paying attention to gender, tone, and familiarity of speech, dogs actually discern meaning from certain words and pay specific attention to the intention of the person speaking. Much like humans, dogs process different types of speech in different hemispheres of their brain, which contributes to overall understanding and interpretation. When a dog hears familiar speech, the way it is processed differs from how unfamiliar speech is processed. Although ongoing research promises to bring more surprising findings to light, it seems fair, at this point, to say that your pooch really does understand you.
Content reviewed by a veterinarian.