Is It Possible for You To Have a Conversation With a Dog?

King Frederick of Prussia wasn’t wrong when he said that a dog is a man’s best friend. For centuries, dogs have offered companionship to mankind and proved their loyalty through thick and thin.

These furry beings continue to make our lives better by playing fetch with us and showering us with sloppy kisses. But one thing still disappoints many dog owners: their four-legged friend’s inability to speak. Although dogs cannot talk or hold conversations like humans, it doesn’t mean they cannot communicate.

Ask any dog owner, and they’ll tell you how their pup is smart enough to understand everything they say. While it may sound crazy to people with no dogs, it isn’t entirely untrue. Recently, scientists have discovered that dogs understand human speech and process language in a similar way as humans.

How you communicate with your pooch, however, influences the type of conversations you can have with them. This article highlights some of the most popular communication methods with pups and pooches.

DOG DIRECTED SPEECH

Your canine friends love when you talk to them, but they may or may not understand what you’re saying unless you speak a certain way. By modifying your speech, you can maximize the chances of your pooch understanding what you’re saying. It means how you talk to a dog differs from how you speak to another human being, and this modified speech is known as dog-directed speech.

Dog-directed speech is used for training canine pups. You change your sentence structure in this type of speech by simplifying and shortening it. You should also increase the pitch of your voice but reduce its tempo. These slight changes let the dogs understand you better and start responding accordingly.

FOLLOWING THE POINT

Another common practice for communicating with your furry friends is through physical gestures. You can teach your pups to follow a point, and they will learn in no time. Make sure you establish eye contact while pointing toward something and repeat the action multiple times to make them understand that you want them to follow your finger.

SPEECH BUTTONS

One of the most advanced ways to communicate with your pooch is through speech buttons. A San Diego-based speech-language pathologist, Christina Hunger, developed pre-programmed dog talking buttons that allow her dog, Stella, to actually speak to her.

These buttons are pre-programmed with simple words, like play, outside, food, or mommy or daddy. They allow dogs to select between different words to communicate their thoughts, needs, and wants. You can start slow by introducing your dog to one or two buttons and using them every time you perform that action. You can add more buttons to expand their vocabulary as your dog learns.

For instance, you can place the button that says outside beside your front door. So, whenever you take your pup for a walk, just press the button and say the word out loud. After a few attempts, your dog will learn what it means and communicate to you via the button when they want to go outside.

FINAL THOUGHTS

Nowadays, more and more people are keeping dogs as their pets. Having a way to communicate clearly with these furry creatures can be pretty exciting. So, whether you use dog-directed speech or dog-talking buttons, you and your pooch are destined to have fun while learning from each other.