Well, here's a comparison that I would have never imagined...dogs and human babies (except for maybe the cuteness factor). In The Boston Globe, Deborah Kotz reports that dogs can understand simple communication cues like pitch and eye contact, which is very similar to the understanding that human infants try to have with their parents and others trying to talk to them. If you make direct eye contact with your dog and use a high pitched voice, they are more able to try and understand you. Without making eye contact or using a high pitched voice, it is harder for the dog to be able to understand the communication signals. One of the researchers, Jozsef Topal, said, "Our findings reveal that dogs are receptive to human communication in a manner that was previously attributed only to humans," (Kotz 1). Whoever said "Dog is man's best friend" knew what they were talking about!
The beginning of the article "Dogs, like babies, detect subtle communication cues" lacked the official credibility of ethos for author Deborah Kotz. The vague diction makes the audience wonder if the study was actually conducted by scientists or if she is an author spouting out her opinion. The diction with words like "the researchers" and "the experiment" aren't the type of words an audience wants when reading about a scientific study. Eventually, Kotz does cite where the study was conducted, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, and one of the researchers on the study, Jozsef Topal. These citations gain Kotz some ethos back, especially when she quotes Topal on the study. Also, Kotz does describe the experiment that the researchers performed. This technique allows the audience to understand how the Hungarian researchers make their statement of dogs understanding communication cues. The clear audience of this article is anyone who is, has been, or will be a dog owner as Kotz describes how dog owners can apply this new information with their dogs. Dogs are like babies in their recognition of communication cues through eye contact and a high pitched voice.
Source: Kotz, Deborah. "Dogs, like babies, detect subtle communication cues." The Boston Globe 5 Jan. 2012, sec. Health/Wellness: n. pag. The Boston Globe. Web. 8 Jan. 2012.
Just come to my house for a day and you can see how this works, I recently saw that dogs, on average, know about 160 human words. My dogs know theirs names, nicknames, and the words, "truck", "car", "park", "treat", "supper" and thats only the beginning.
ReplyDeleteHey, my cats listen to me!
ReplyDeleteI was going to say the same thing Kaylee said. My dog knows exactly what we're saying half the time it's amazing. Nice post!
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