Naming your pet is a major responsibility. And the correct name is the one that stuck. For example, my cat's name is Stanley (his official name since he's a tuxedo cat), but over time he became Stanley Boy, then Stanley Bo, then just Bo, then Bobo. He now only answers to the names Bobo, Boba, Baba, and even Babe.
But is that really the case with Stanley, or any other pet? know That name? It turns out that while names certainly have meaning to our furry children, they don't mean the same thing they mean to us.
As with other cues, animals learn their names using good old-fashioned positive reinforcement, says Vanessa Woods, an evolutionary anthropology research scientist at Duke University and director of Duke Puppy Preschool. I'll tell you. reciprocal.
Woods teaches the puppy his name by rewarding him every time the puppy looks at him. “In general, research shows that dogs react in the same way as children,” she says. When your pet hears his name, “just like a child, he knows that he should respond and either come or look at you.”
They also differentiate in tone of voice. Like children, dogs respond to what Woods calls “motherhood,” or “when you raise your voice artificially.” [and] Get more excited and that way [we] Talk to your children and pets. ” Studies have shown that babies respond to their mother's mother's mother's words more than any other tone of voice. But Woods emphasizes that puppies can distinguish their names even in their mother's language, and can tell when humans are saying their name or other words.
As with other cues, animals learn their names using good old-fashioned positive reinforcement, says Vanessa Woods, an evolutionary anthropology research scientist at Duke University and director of Duke Puppy Preschool. I'll tell you. reciprocal.
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This affinity for motherlies also extends to cats, as demonstrated in a 2022 study published in the journal animal cognition. Cats can also distinguish their own names from similar-sounding words, according to a 2019 study published in the same journal. scientific report. Across four experiments, up to 34 cats from local homes and cat cafes were able to tell their names from common nouns, even when spoken by strangers. However, the kittens in the cafe could not distinguish their names. When I called one cat's name, several cats responded. The authors explain that different humans in the cafe may say different names, which “may prevent cats from distinguishing their name from other cats' names.” .
If you're using Woods' reward technique to teach your pet a name, try rephrasing the mother's words or a similar-sounding name in another word. Don't praise someone for responding to another word said in their native language, she says. “That way they know it's the actual name they should be responding to, not the tone of your voice.”
This also applies when learning new names. The same goes for whether you're bequeathing a new name to your adopted child or you can't stop coming up with nicknames for Dumpling. Woods says your pet can certainly keep up with it, too. She says dogs can incorporate more than 1,000 words into their vocabulary, including some nonsense names. “If you want to start calling your dog randomly, you can teach him to respond to that,” she says. And the process shouldn't take long, especially if you use treats, Woods says.
Regardless of what your pet is told to do, it's much harder to say what your pet associates their name with. “I think that's a really difficult question as to what the name means to them,” Woods says. “It's so difficult that I don't think you'll ever understand it.”
So while Stanley and Dumpling may never internalize these terms as part of their identity, or self, they will at least show up when called upon.
