A new study published in Animal Cognition indicates that dogs recognize people by their voices. Although many of us already knew this to be the truth, now it has been scientifically proven. A study shows that dogs do not require other senses to recognize us.
What do dogs do when they hear your voice?
Like humans, dogs use audio indicators to recognize people from a crowd. Voice pitch, cadence, and volume are some of the things we use to achieve this. It seems our dogs are no different!
CNN has reported that Eötvös Loránd University researchers in Budapest, Hungary, set out to prove it. According to Andics Attila, lead researcher, this is the first time dogs have shown to be able to distinguish a particular voice from many others.
They conducted a hide-and-seek game with 28 dogs and their parents for their study. Two hiding spots got set up, one behind the parent, and the other behind a stranger. To determine where their parents are hiding, the dogs were given a voice command.
It was done by playing a recording of voices reading a recipe out loud to them. There were 14 rounds per pup, every one accompanied by a new voice that closely resembled that of the pup’s human parent.
A press release from the study stated that the dogs accurately recognized their parent’s voices up to 82% of the time.
Their noses aren’t necessary
Instead of by smell, an attempt was done to trick the dogs into thinking they could find their parents by sound
Researchers played the voices from their hiding spots during the final two rounds. Dogs were still inclined to their parents’ voices.
Studies have shown that dogs can reliably identify people by their voices.
It was mainly a result of their excellent choice success rate, the ability to recognize their parent’s voice from other ones, and the fact their choices weren’t affected by olfactory memory or speaker order.