Although the loudness and aggressive tone may only be partially relevant in human-human communication (next to the actual content), it is nevertheless a potential source of distress for the recipient as well as anyone listening. It has been shown that verbal aggression by parents can have similar detrimental effects on children as physical abuse 1, and this even when the parents are otherwise loving and supportive. While the words themselves may not mean much to a dog, the tone can trigger a flood of negative emotions. Before we get the chance to consciously think about an appropriate response, the words have already been uttered. It happens when our brain spontaneously responds to emotions such as anger or fear. It is remarkably easy to raise one’s voice or change one’s tone without planning it and without calculating the effect it may have on others. Aggressive voices create negative emotions If you want your dog to truly listen to you, it is worthwhile to pay attention not just to what you say and when, but also how you say it.
But apart from missing valuable information or becoming “white noise” for your dog, your voice can become an even more serious problem when it inadvertently slips into a “commanding” or even angry voice.
Our dogs are often at the receiving end of our verbal outpour, but how do you evaluate the effect it has on your dog? Not only can a dog not talk back, they also process the information quite differently to humans.Ĭommon problems when talking to your dog are related to using cues that your dog hasn’t learned yet, repeating cues too many times, getting the timing wrong, giving the wrong or no feedback or generally talking too much. But, given how important verbal communication is for our species, it pays to understand how we use our voice and how it is received by others. We rarely think about the sound of our own voice and many of us are unpleasantly surprised the first time we hear it.
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