Four legs, a tail, two attentive eyes, soft ears that attract caresses, a huge heart: and our four-legged friend, silent spectator of our daily life. Yet, when we find ourselves talking to the dog we feel a bit strange, even if it really comes very spontaneously.
Basically, when we talk to each other, dogs show us that they understand and even respond to us . The naturalness of the conversation in words with the dog is, in my opinion one of the clearest manifestations of how extraordinary the relationship between dogs and humans is. And today we will see why it is a habit that is good for the dog, for the human-canine relationship and for us humans.
Index
- Dog-human communication
- The therapeutic effect of talking to the dog
- Psychological benefits
- Dogs understand our words
Dog-human communication
Dogs do not talk to each other. Yet words are part of their normalcy with us. Dogs, in fact, also rely on words and we can assume without fear of making too many mistakes that they would be well surprised if they stopped hearing our voices.
Among other things, the fact that dogs do not use words in communicating with each other and the reason why several argue that we should not talk to them. Much better to keep the communication on a visual level , they say; we only use the gestures that quadrupeds understand more and better. But also no, as the essay says.
Dogs have a strong intelligence, they are complex animals that have prodigious memories and senses: the phrases and words we use with them are essential to cement our relationship and make it even more complete. The therapeutic effect of talking to the dog
Let’s take an intense example: several studies have found that children with difficult lives , suffering from diseases or with complex family situations behind them, find comfort in the dog to whom they prefer to tell how they feel, rather than to to adults, friends or any human brothers and / or sisters.
Likewise, it has been found that children prefer to talk to the dog rather than write a diary. The importance of the relationship with the dog for children in difficulty is such that scholars believe it has a therapeutic effect . This happens for several reasons, including the dogs’ great empathy and their listening without judging .
Dogs are also a great help for children who have difficulty reading and learning to read. Several studies have observed that programs that we could call assisted reading with the dog, in which children who have difficulty reading aloud to the quadrupedal creature, overcome their learning difficulties better and more quickly.
Thedog listens without judging and the child does not feel embarrassed, unlike what happens with other children or even in front of adult humans. Not only that, dealing with seemingly insurmountable words has proved easier when the reason indicated for repeating them several times is that the dog has not understood them or has not heard them well. Psychological Benefits
The example of children is just the tip of the iceberg: Other studies have observed how adult humans, particularly women, talk a lot with their dogs and benefit greatly from them.
In addition to daily chatter, women have been found to tell their dogs their thoughts and secretsand they have an attentive and interested listener in the quadruped, a rare enough experience among humans. Even for adults, therefore, one of the reasons why we talk to the dog is that the quadrupedal creature listens without judging, does not comment and moreover, does not offer unsolicited advice. Dogs understand our words
Dogs recognize words and distinguish the tone of humans (cheerful, angry, stressed, anxious, etc.) and from both they obtain important and useful information to understand how the situation is and decide how to behave.
Words and tones encourage, comfort, support, explain, indicate, transmit emotions, feelings and moods and are used by dogs to orient themselves in life situations. One of the main reasons why talking to the dog serves the quadruped and the strengthening of the human-canine relationship and that it is a form of communication that transmits emotions and feelings and that helps to understand each other and therefore also to love each other.
