Copyright Newsweek
A group of researchers based in Hungary dedicated almost a year to learning about dogs and how they communicate—and whether the animals could ever learn to speak. Ethologist Tamás Faragó and collegues at the aply named BARKS Lab of Hungary's Eötvös Loránd University reviewed the scientific literature for studies on whether it would be possible for dogs to ever learn to speak—as well as whether it would be morally right to teach them to dp so, were that possible. Faragó told Newsweek: "Although the idea of the topic was in my mind for some time, the opportunity to write it in this special issue came last October. We started to work on it with my colleagues at that time, and the final version was ready this summer in July, so we can say it took roughly 10 months." A dog lover himself, having adopted a pup during the COVID-19 pandemic, Faragó has "always been interested in animal behavior," and knew he wanted to work in ethology, the scientific study of animal behavior. Faragó explains that the idea of studying dogs in ethology had been somewhat "dismissed" as dogs are typically seen as an "artificial species"—one created and domesticated by humans—and, as such, have "no natural habitat to study their natural behavior." Howver, his team argues that a dog's does have a natural habitat: the human environment. Faragó added: "So we should look at their behavior, how they interact with humans and how they live together with us." Studying how dogs communicate with humans, Faragó said, "is a really fascinating and unusual study system," because in nature, "cross-species communication is quite rare." "Dogs and humans have lived together for at least 20,000 years and dog vocalisations have changed a lot compared to what we see in wolves," he explained. In their research, Faragó and colleagues examined "from different angles, the possibilities of what dogs are capable of, and what might be the potential outcomes and consequences." Their review article, published in the journal Biologia Futura, found that while the human race has long been fascinated with the idea of a talking dog, it's likely that such will remain in the realm of fantasy. However, the research also explored what might happen if dogs were indeed to learn human speech—and such would come with serious ethical and legal issues, warn the team. Faragó explained: "Frankly, we don't want to make any talking dogs. There would be huge ethical consequences." He used an example of using animals in medical testing, and how, if a dog was able to talk to explain side effects of a drug, they would be much more likely to be used in experiments. "That would not be a good direction," he warned. Things would also become more complicated if dogs learned human language, because it prompts the question: Would it make them more human? "There would be legal consequences, too," Faragó said. "For example—is it OK to have ownership over such a dog?" In Faragó's opinion, "instead of making dogs speak, we should be able to understand them more as what they are as a species, and try to understand which kind of vocalisations they use in different [circumstances]." The team is now working towards mapping "the vocal repertoire of dogs" to help owners understand their animal as best as possible. Faragó stressed that this would not be a "dog translator, because it's impossible—they don't have language as we do." But, he said, it would help people understand how their dog is feeling—and the BARKS lab is requesting the public's help. Faragó explained: "If owners have recordings of weird, interesting sounds from their dogs, we would be delighted if they can send them to us, as we are also very interested in dog vocalizations collected in the 'wild.'" Do you have a tip on a science story that Newsweek should be covering? Do you have a question about dogs? Let us know via science@newsweek.com. Reference
