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Do you talk to animals?

For pet owners: Do you talk to your pet?

  • Total voters
    90
Do Dogs Really Prefer Baby Talk? You Might Be Surprised.

A study with "....37 pet dogs from York, England. They leashed the pets and brought them into a room with the two people, where the animals heard two types of recorded speech—a normal, conversational tone and "dog-directed speech," a sort of equivalent of dog baby talk with exaggerated intonation and words relevant to the dog, like "treat."

"The dogs spent more time looking toward the person using dog-directed speech..... And they chose on average to spend more time with the person who had recently been producing this sort of speech register."
 
I don't have any pets, but I make sounds to "communicate" with crows, seagulls, rabbits, squirrels and deer etc I encounter outdoors. It seems to relax them and allows me to get closer to them before they take off.
 
Yes! My cat and I have entire conversations often. I say, "Hello Alexis. How's the boss of the house?" and she replies with a big "mrrrrowww", especially if we've been away, she's extra chatty and does a big "mrrrahhh!". Same with my dog, Toby. :catface::dogface:
 
I talk to my pets. When I work at the animal shelter, I talk to the animals there, and the other people who work there do as well.

I believe I have better conversations with animals than with humans.
 
My dog ‘ aahroooOOooos’ when all members of family are in one area.
Throws his head back and aahroooOOooo.
Not quite a howl but a good effort.

My eldest female cat calls; as if she’s calling kittens, should she have caught something outside and she’s trying to encourage us all to go and eat it.
She’s persistent. Only stopping if one of us (human or dog) goes outside to see what she’s caught.

I talk to my dog to give instruction.
Sit, stay, down, stand, wait, come.
We’re beginning to use non (English) verbal cues for some instruction for example, a whistle or a quick squeak of an air kong tennis ball will do the same job as the instruction ‘come’.
He’ll repeat the same action to all three with various levels of enthusiasm.

Do I have conversations with my animals? No, they don’t answer me.

My cats might get my attention with a ‘meh’ or meow, turn and saunter toward the desired object.
I’m expected to follow and then do the necessary be it opening the back door for them so that they can decide not to go out or put yet more food in their cat dishes :)
 
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Dude...who doesn't talk to their pets?
 
I talk to animals all the time. I talk to them out loud, in plain language as if they were another human. I swear that sometimes they listen and understand, even though that doesn't really make sense. One time I asked my dog to put his head on my lap. He didn't. Then I asked again and said please, and he lifted his head, looked me in the eye as if saying "Okay, really?" Put his head on my lap for about 10 seconds, then moved back to his original position. I have no other explanation for that sequence of events besides that he might've understood what I was saying. Idk though, I have no way of proving it.
 
Foggy said:
I talk to animals all the time. I talk to them out loud, in plain language as if they were another human....I have no other explanation for that sequence of events besides that he might've understood what I was saying. Idk though, I have no way of proving it.
Click to expand...

"Although you wouldn’t want one to balance your checkbook, dogs can count.

They can also understand more than 150 words and intentionally deceive other dogs and people to get treats, according to psychologist and leading canine researcher Stanley Coren, PhD, of the University of British Columbia."
https://www.apa.org/news/press/releases/2009/08/dogs-think
 
tree said:
...They can also understand more than 150 words ...
Click to expand...
One researcher I read about (a couple of months back, or I would post the link) decided to run an unofficial experiment with his own border collie. He began running trials of various objects and by the time the dog died (at a natural, good old age), it had learned something like 300 individual words.

This inspired me to be more clear with my own dog. We've practiced with words like stick, ball, bee (as in, don't eat the bee--she likes bees, not cool), bone, drop the (toy) mouse, and no garden. She will fetch the ball among a yard full of sticks, and she will pick up a sock if it's next to a bone. She's a good girl. I just assume that if she doesn't actually know the word that she's reading my body language and deciding that way what to pick up or drop or fetch.

But as someone who believes that talking to plants helps them grow, and to the car and to the assortment of icky things that need to be cleaned out of the fridge, I have a better question than the OP:

What don't you talk to??
 
Animal psychology, especially dog, has been an interest of mine. So I am good at getting dogs to learn how to talk to me.

And then there are certain dogs like huskies or some cats, that will be actually chatty. I've never had one of those.

As someone who has training as a special interest, I notice that some people try to have too much of a human discussion as discipline. They pick up your energy, yes. But they don't know what you mean by your words unless you've created an association with it.
 
See how I have a total of 7 cats two full time outside four always inside and one (my daughter Sophie lol) who is in and out. I talk to them like people. And yes they understand what I’m saying. Granted I didn’t ask for all the cats. The house came with cats and my husband was a saver of kitties. I lost him but I still have the cats. And now have been dog sitting a German Shepard since thanksgiving. I talk to all animals that way in conversational ways. I even saved a starling from a hospital parking garage. That was an experience. But I researched and actually found it an adopted home. Husband said I couldn’t do it. I said yea I can and did. They send me photos around Christmas to show his progress. I didn’t know you could teach them to talk. I just called him Bird but they named him Star Bird and he is a gorgeous golden color but the usual blackish they are. I suppose he is a special bird. I’ll have to find a pic of him and share. But I prefer animals to people mostly. I even talk to the fish I catch and release lol
 
Always. Most of the time I don't use the animal voice. Animals are much smarter than people think so I talk to them normally. Also it's much easier to talk to animals than people verbally.
 
I believe that animals learn to understand human speech if they are around humans enough but just can't voice it. I have personally seen evidence that seemed to point to them understanding from horses, dogs, and cats. For example, I tried to get my horse to lift a certain hoof and she would not I then verbally told her "Give me a hoof ." Notice I did not specify which hoof. She lifted the hoof that was on the opposite side from the one I had tried to lift and held it up. She has always been a bit of a prankster trying to shove me into the water trough, dribbling water on my head, etc. So this fit her personality very well.
 
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