All dog parents know the secret words that will get some sort of reaction from their dogs. To get my doggo’s attention, my go-tos are, “You want: Food? A treat? To go home?” But more often than not the most fail safe way to get Benji to come to me is to say another dog’s name in a happy, high-pitched voice.
A study conducted by Barnard College found the top 35 words that dog parents tend to use when they are playing with/interacting with their pup. They also found that women tend to be more hands-on and vocal in these play interactions.
Alexandra Horowitz and Julie Hecht of Barnard’s Dog Cognition Lab researched 187 crowdsourced submissions of dog parents playing with their pups to come up with the list below.
According to the DailyMail:
The videos were submitted from all over the world, representing 19 countries with a mix of urban, suburban, and rural habitats.
Of course it comes as no surprise that the most used phrase/words were, “good and the dog’s name.”
Perhaps it’s time to expand our dogtionary and say things like, “You’re an exceptional canine.”
