No Dog Whisperer Needed To Say 'Who Is A Good Boy?'

Many dog owners wonder whether their pet dog is actually able to understand what they are saying. It is believed that only dog whisperers have the ability to communicate with dogs. A new research study has proven that dogs and puppies can actually understand and differentiate words and tone of speech.

When a human speaks to a dog especially to a cute little puppy, the pitch and tone of the words are significantly changed. The puppy talk or otherwise referred to as "dog directed speech" is slow and high pitch, just the way many speak to infants.

In a recent study, 30 women were asked to look at three dog images, either a puppy or an adult dog and read some cheerful and dog-friendly sentences such as "Hi! Hello cutie! Who's a good boy? Come here! Good boy! Yes! Come here sweetie pie! What a good boy!"

The participants also read the same sentences while looking at another person, which was used as "human-directed" control in the study.

It was found that almost all the women included in the study used dog-directed speech when they see pictures of dogs and puppies, but they changed their voice to a higher pitch when they see puppies, Fox News reported.

The recorded sentences both dog-directed and human-directed were then played in front of 20 dogs (10 puppies and 10 adult dogs) in a Manhattan animal shelter through a loud speaker.

To eliminate the influence of the human-disliking variable from the results obtained from the animal shelter dogs, the scientists repeated the same experiment in France. This time, with French dog friendly sentences and tested them on pet chiens.

According to The Christian Science Monitor, the results obtained in both studies indicated that puppies were highly responsive to high-pitched puppy talk. "Nine out of the 10 tested puppies responded more to puppy-directed speech than to human-directed speech, by reacting more quickly, looking more often at the loudspeaker and approaching it closer and for longer periods," scientists say.

The study proved that every dog owner can communicate with their pet even without a dog whisperer by just being friendly and loving.