Dogs’ speech recognition: New study shows they listen beyond tone

A new study conducted by animal behavior and mammalian cognition experts at the Universities of Lincoln and Sussex, and Jean Monnet University, reveals that dogs may be far better at understanding human speech than previously understood.

This research took place in England, so we probably didn’t pay for it.  So, that’s something.

A mixed group of dogs from a variety of breeds were recruited for the exercise and were each exposed to a stream of speech which contained both relevant commands and irrelevant information, all spoken in a flat tone. Surprisingly, the dogs consistently responded to the commands, demonstrating their ability to extract meaningful verbal content from what was spoken.

Sparky is not impressed.

Of course dogs respond to words, and not just to tone of voice.  I thought that was well established.  One wonders how a person gets into the study of canine cognition without ever having a dog or seen a documentary about dogs.

Dr. Holly Root-Gutteridge, postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Lincoln, commented, “Dogs understand that we say their name to get their attention, and this is almost always paired with a happy ‘baby talk’ speech register because dogs prefer it. We wanted to see if dogs were only responding to this happy voice or if they could recognize their name, even when it was buried in a sentence and delivered in a flat voice.

Maybe British dogs got really stupid because British people only talk to them in baby talk.

After hearing “car ride” twice, Sparky learned those words because he loves car rides.  I can whisper them, pronounce them in a monotone, heck, if I spell the words, Sparky would be standing by my truck.  When he hears “rabbit”, he goes to DEFCON 3 regardless of my tone of voice.

Plus, who talks baby talk to their dogs all the time?  Certainly British people, but the rest of us say all kinds of words, all kinds of ways to our dogs. 

Sparky didn’t read the article, but he did look at the photo.

Sparky confirmed that this dog is differently-tarded.  Sparky says this dog’s only trick is to start moping when they put an eye patch on him so he is ready for his bit part in a phony ASPCA commercial.  Sparky wants to stuff him in a sack and toss him in a lake.

Those are harsh words.  I was curious why Sparky was so salty.  Turns out he’s bitter that they used that goofy looking dog, when Sparky would have been their dog model for free, just to get the exposure. 

Again, I don’t know what Sparky is talking about, but he is going to tell me anyway.

Sparky says he wants to be an actor.  He showed me how he would play a character who had to testify in a courtroom drama.

Sparky was very convincing, but why a courtroom drama?  He says that he wants to play the seeing eye dog for Matt Murdoch, the lawyer on Daredevil.  I tried to set him straight.  Murdoch is a blind lawyer, but he doesn’t have a seeing eye dog.  Sparky should know that, we’ve been watching that TV show.

Sparky disagreed.  What about this guy?

Sparky doesn’t believe that Foggy is a person.  His reasoning is that Foggy sounds more like a dog’s name, and he looks like he smells like a dog. 

The logic is sound, but no, Sparky, you can’t be Foggy in Daredevil.

“Can I be this girl on Daredevil?  She isn’t very cute, and I’m a better actor.”

Nice try Sparky.  You just picked a bad photo.  She was really good as a sexy vampire in True Blood.

“I can play a vampire.  See?”

Your vampire teeth are upside down.  Plus, you really like taking naps in the sunshine.

“Vampires aren’t allowed to do that?”

Nope.

“What can I be then?”

You did really good as the seven dwarfs.  You’d make a good piglet if I shaved you.

“No thanks.  Last time someone shaved my belly, they cut my nuts off. Maybe I’ll just be a dog for a little while.”

And that’s how Sparky and I spent the day.