I am pretty sure that dogs understand some human speech. However, not many humans speak bark. There are ways around that, as this article shows, by using the same technology used to help people with developmental issues or speech pathologies.
There are plenty of reasons why we talk to our pets. Some research suggests our chattiness can be motivated by loneliness, a need to feel control over the dynamic of our relationship with them, or even just our perception of animal consciousness. It’s likely that most pet owners would simply feel weird not greeting their wagging pup at the door with a shower of “oh, hellooo”s or cooing baby-talk to their purring cat.
What’s altogether unexpected is the idea that pets might talk to us – but new research is exploring whether and how they can.
Helmed by Dr Federico Rossano, director of the Comparative Cognition Lab at the University of California San Diego, and Leo Trottier, a PhD candidate, project They Can Talk is one of the latest in a decades-long series of psycholinguistic studies seeking to document non-humans expressing themselves in language-like ways. But unlike many studies of the past, which focused on the learning capacity of a single star animal – like Koko the gorilla, Kanzi the chimpanzee, or Rico the dog – They Can Talk is an unusually large, open-source citizen science study.
More than 1,000 dogs, 50 cats and a few horses are involved in the project – with more applicants every day.
I'll be quite interested to see how this works out, especially in the case of cats. I am quite certain that both my cats understand at least a few words. As to understanding them, that might be another matter. I suspect the issue with cats speaking to us might be more inclination than capability.
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