Dogs actually do respond better when their owners use cute ‘baby talk’, study finds

Dogs’ brains are sensitive to the familiar high-pitched “cute” voice tone that adult humans, especially women, use to talk to babies, according to a new study.

The research, published recently in the journal Communications Biology, found “exciting similarities” between infant and dog brains during the processing of speech with such a high-pitched tone feature.

Humans tend to speak with a specific speech style characterised by exaggerated prosody, or patterns of stress and intonation in a language, when communicating with individuals having limited language competence.

Such speech has previously been found to be very important for the healthy cognitive, social and language development of children, who are also tuned to such a high-pitched voice.

But researchers, including those from the Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary, hoped to assess whether dog brains are also sensitive to this way of communication.

In the study, conscious family dogs were made to listen to dog, infant and adult-directed speech recorded from 12 women and men in real-life interactions.

As the dogs listened, their brain activities were measured using a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scan.

The study found the sound-processing regions of the dogs’ brains responded more to dog- and infant-directed than adult-directed speech.

This marked the first neurological evidence that dog brains are tuned to speech directed specifically at them.

“Studying how dog brains process dog-directed speech is exciting, because it can help us understand how exaggerated prosody contributes to efficient speech processing in a nonhuman species skilled at relying on different speech cues,” explained Anna Gergely, co-first author of the study.

Scientists also found dog- and infant-directed speech sensitivity of dog brains was more pronounced when the speakers were women, and was affected by voice pitch and its variation.

These findings suggest the way we speak to dogs matters, and that their brain is specifically sensitive to the higher-pitched voice tone typical to the female voice.

“Remarkably, the voice tone patterns characterizing women’s dog-directed speech are not typically used in dog-dog communication – our results may thus serve evidence for a neural preference that dogs developed during their domestication,” said Anna Gábor, co-first author of the study.

“Dog brains’ increased sensitivity to dog-directed speech spoken by women specifically may be due to the fact that women more often speak to dogs with exaggerated prosody than men,” Dr Gabor said.

Waggy races! Dozens of disabled stray dogs use wheelchairs to take their daily walk at sanctuary in Thailand

The 27 dogs from a shelter in Chonburi, Thailand, appeared to be beaming from ear to ear as enjoyed a stroll with their wheel aides

With tails wagging to a chorus of barks and yelps, dozens of disabled dogs attached to wheels that support their disabled hind legs looked ecstatic as they took their daily walk at a sanctuary in Thailand.  

Mostly victims of accidents, the 27 dogs are being nursed back to health at a shelter in Thailand’s province of Chonburi southeast of the capital, Bangkok. 

They beamed from ear to ear as they took to the rocky track with their wheels for their dose of exercise for the day. 

‘It’s almost like they have no idea that they have a disability and once you put them in the wheelchair for the first time, it’s like there’s no learning curve,’ said shelter official Christopher Chidichimo. 

Thanks to mobility devices, the disabled dogs were able to get some much needed outside exercise in Chonburi, Thailand

During their exercise outing at the shelter, the disabled dogs were even joined by some strays who decided to join in with all the fun

The 27 dogs, who are mostly victims of accidents, are being nursed back to health at the shelter and particularly enjoy their daily outings

Shelter official Christopher Chidichimo said ‘It’s almost like they have no idea that they have a disability’ once the dogs are placed in the wheelchairs for the first time

The shelter, run by a foundation called The Man That Rescues Dogs, was set up by a Swede who moved to Chonburi in 2002 and was so dismayed by the poor condition of strays that he started caring for them after work. 

But its future is now in doubt, after the coronavirus pandemic led to a 40 per cent drop in donations and slashed the number of foreign visitors. 

‘The donations are very important and the volunteers and visitors are equally important, because they come and spread our message,’ said Chidichimo, who is a sponsorship coordinator at the shelter. 

The shelter spends more than $1,300 (£946.42) each day to care for more than 600 dogs and feed 350 more that live on the streets. 

The shelter, run by a foundation called The Man That Rescues Dogs, was set up by a Swede who moved to Chonburi in 2002

During their visit, the shelter founder was so dismayed by the poor condition of strays that he started caring for them after work

Sadly the future of the shelter is in doubt after the coronavirus pandemic led to a 40 per cent drop in donations and slashed the number of foreign visitors

The shelter spends more than $1,300 (£946.42) each day to care for more than 600 dogs and feed 350 more that live on the streets

The shelter takes care of a range of dogs from different backgrounds and even offers physiotherapy sessions

Its volunteers also look after paralysed and disabled dogs, including physiotherapy sessions, but scarce funds have forced it to suspend a monthly campaign to spay and neuter strays. 

Thailand, estimated to have more than 800,000 stray cats and dogs in 2017, could see their number reach 2 million by 2027 and 5 million in 20 years unless it takes some steps to control numbers, livestock authorities says. 

For now, the disabled dogs in Chonburi enjoy their daily rambles. ‘They are eager for us to strap them up,’ said dog handler Phanuphong Borphuak, referring to the canine mobility aids.

‘They run very fast, we humans can’t keep up with them.’ 

After suffering financially as a result of the pandemic the shelter has been forced to suspend a monthly campaign to spay and neuter strays

After suffering financially as a result of the pandemic the shelter has been forced to suspend a monthly campaign to spay and neuter strays

After their energetic walk the dogs enjoyed a boy of food after working up quite the appetite with their running around

After their energetic walk the dogs enjoyed a boy of food after working up quite the appetite with their running around

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