Dr. Nicolas Mathevon from Hunter College (CUNY) conducted an international study showing that people talk to their dogs, both puppies and adult dogs, the same way they talk to human babies. They use higher tones and speak slower. Interestingly people tend to talk this way to elderly people and people who do not speak their native language.
What the team noted is that puppies do respond to this type of speech whereas adult dogs do not. It seems as though people talk this way when they think the animal or person they are talking to does not understand or has difficulty understanding what is being said.
It would be interesting to research this further to see if people talk this way to other animals such as birds and cats. It could be fun for my readers to watch people and see if you notice that they do this or even if you do it yourself.
Read the full article at: www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/01/170111151828.htm
Well, yes, I am guilty of talking “baby talk” and repeating phrases to my dogs when we have “bonding time”, just hanging out. But when there are things to be done, or expectations, I speak to them like adults. Come to think of it, same thing with my cat.
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Obviously according to the study a lot of people use baby talk with their dogs. I do not baby talk to my animals and I do not use it on human babies either. But that is just me. I never thought about why, but being severely hearing impaired as an adult and moderately as a child I guess I want to be sure that people hear what I mean to say.
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