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You walk through the door, your dog spins in circles, and out it comes: "Who's a good boy? Who's a GOOD boy?" in a voice you would never use at work. Higher, slower, bouncier. Then you catch yourself and wonder whether any of it is getting through, or whether your dog is quietly embarrassed for you.
Scientists call it dog-directed speech, and it is strikingly similar to the way adults talk to babies1. They have measured it, tested it on puppies and grown dogs, and even played it to dogs lying awake in a brain scanner. The short answer is yes, with some interesting small print. Here is what the studies found, and how to use your voice so your dog listens.
What your dog voice sounds like to a scientist
In a 2017 study, 30 women read the same lines, including "Who's a good boy?" and "Come here sweetie pie", to photos of puppies, adult dogs and older dogs, and to a researcher. Aimed at the dogs, the lines came out higher, with more rise and fall in pitch, and the puppies got the most of it1. Because the women used the voice even with older dogs, the researchers suggest it may mainly be our way of reaching a listener who cannot talk back, not only a response to a young face1.
How much higher the women's voices went
We slow down for dogs, too. A 2024 study compared recordings in five languages. Ordinary speech ran at about four syllables a second, while dogs' own barks, growls and whines came at about two sounds a second. Speech aimed at dogs landed halfway, at about three4. The researchers suspect we adjust our pace to meet dogs partway4.
Puppies love it. Grown dogs are harder to impress
The 2017 team then played the recordings through a loudspeaker to dogs at a New York animal shelter. Nine of the 10 puppies, aged two to five months, reacted more to the puppy-directed version than to the ordinary one. They responded faster, looked at the speaker more often and went closer to it. Pitch mattered most1.
The adult dogs shrugged. Of 20 tested, including family pets in France, 11 reacted more to the dog-directed voice and nine to the ordinary one, which is no real difference1. The researchers suggested that grown dogs may quickly tune out a stranger's voice and need more to go on than a voice alone1.
Later that year, a French study reached the opposite result for grown dogs. Nine women said "Shall we go for a stroll?" (in French) to a real dog, a baby and a researcher. Then pet dogs heard the recordings through a loudspeaker, with a woman standing in front of it: 44 adults and 19 puppies made it into the analysis7. The adult dogs looked at the speaker for longer when they heard the dog version, at least for the first two clips (by the third, the dogs looked about as long at every voice), and the higher the woman's voice, the more attention they paid7.
Oddly, the version recorded for the baby did not do measurably better than ordinary speech. The puppies seemed to pay close attention to every voice, so no difference showed for them7. The French team put the clash down to method: the first study used lines read to photos and a combined score, while theirs recorded speech to a real dog and timed how long the dogs looked7.
The York study: tone and words together
A more true-to-life test came from the University of York. The researchers worked with 37 dogs at a boarding kennels in the city. Two women sat on chairs with loudspeakers on their laps, each playing a recording of her own voice. One played natural dog-directed speech, recorded while chatting to a friendly Irish setter, and the other ordinary adult conversation. The women kept still, covered their mouths with a hand and kept their faces neutral2.
The dogs spent more time looking towards the woman playing dog talk, and when they were let off the lead for a minute afterwards, they spent more time near her too2. The differences in seconds were small, the authors note, but both measures pointed the same way2.
Then came the clever part. In a second round two years later, with 32 dogs, two new experimenters swapped things round: dog-related words in an ordinary adult voice, and adult chit-chat in the sing-song voice. This time the dogs showed no preference either way2. Because the ordinary-voice version still contained all the doggy words, the first result could not be explained by a favourite word such as "walk"2.
The York team concluded that natural dog-directed speech, the voice and the doggy words together, improves dogs' attention and may strengthen the bond between people and their pets2. They are careful about why: the swap suggests the two may need to come together, and they call for larger studies to tease tone and words apart2. For now, sing-song seems to work best when it is saying something your dog cares about.
Inside a dog's brain
Behaviour shows what a dog does; a team in Budapest looked at what happens inside. Nineteen family dogs, trained with rewards to lie still, awake and unrestrained, in an MRI scanner, heard speech from 12 women and 12 men they had never met. Each speaker had been recorded talking to their own dog, their own baby and an adult researcher3.
Two areas involved in hearing, on the left side of the dogs' brains, responded more to the dog- and baby-directed speech than to the adult chat. The higher and more varied the pitch, the bigger the response3. The dogs' brains reacted to speech for babies and speech for dogs in much the same way3.
Why would a dog's brain be tuned like this? The researchers think two things probably work together: an old pull towards high, varied sounds, and a lifetime of owners rewarding their dogs while using that voice3. The boost was clearest for women's voices, and smaller for men's. Men raise their pitch for dogs too3, so your dog voice is still worth using whoever you are.
| Study | Who listened | What happened |
|---|---|---|
| 2017, US and France | 10 puppies and 20 adult dogs, voice from a loudspeaker | Puppies perked up; adult dogs treated both voices alike1 |
| 2017, France | 44 adult dogs and 19 puppies, a woman by the speaker | Adult dogs looked longer at dog talk; puppies attended to every voice7 |
| 2018, York | 37 boarding-kennel dogs, two women holding speakers | Dogs watched and stayed near the dog-talker, until tone and words were swapped2 |
| 2023, Budapest | 19 dogs lying awake in a brain scanner | Hearing areas responded more to dog and baby talk, especially from women3 |
Each of these four studies is small, and none of them played dogs their own owner's voice. Adult dogs tend to react more to their owner than to someone unfamiliar, though it depends on the situation1. So your own voice may well count for more than any stranger's did in these tests.
What baby talk won't do
The voice cannot carry a message on its own. In York, the sing-song voice made no difference when it carried adult chat2. In a small 2024 study, pet dogs in France (12 took part, eight made it into the analysis) heard their owners' recorded cues, such as "sit" and "come", with either the words or the tune stripped out: each word reversed so only the tune was left, or the tune flattened and the words kept. The researchers concluded that dogs need the tune and the words together to respond well4.
Speed mattered too: when the normal cues were sped up to two or four times their pace, the dogs responded less reliably4. That does not make the voice useless. The French team whose grown dogs did listen think owners use it to signal that the words are meant for the dog, and suggest trainers use it to help learning7. It gets your dog's attention; the teaching comes from rewarding the behaviour you want, with plenty of repetition5.
How to talk so your dog listens
Put the findings together and a style emerges: your warm, natural dog voice, unhurried, and paired with things your dog cares about.
Talking to your dog
Do
With a puppy, a bright, high voice is a ready-made way to get attention1. With an older dog, make sure the voice comes with words that mean something good to them2.
When your voice isn't enough
If your dog tunes you out however you say it, a reward-based trainer can help: recall and everyday manners are their bread and butter8. If your dog has stopped responding the way it used to, or you are worried about anxiety or other behaviour, start with your vet, who can rule out a medical cause and recommend a qualified behaviourist8. Battersea advises choosing someone who uses only positive, reward-based methods8.
So carry on telling your dog who's a good boy. Say it slowly, say it like you mean it, and then go and find the lead.
Sources and further reading8 sources
The small numbers in the article link to the source behind each fact. Sources open on their own websites.
- Dog-directed speech: why do we use it and do dogs pay attention to it?
- 'Who's a good boy?!' Dogs prefer naturalistic dog-directed speech
- Dog brains are sensitive to infant- and dog-directed prosody
- Dog–human vocal interactions match dogs' sensory-motor tuning
- Reward-based training
- Vowel Hyperarticulation in Parrot-, Dog- and Infant-Directed Speech
- Pet-directed speech draws adult dogs' attention more efficiently than Adult-directed speech
- How to find a qualified dog trainer or behaviourist