You walk in a park. Children are playing, people are walking their dogs, and then you hear someone: “Who’s my little sweetie?” You turn around expecting to see a pram. But someone is sitting beside a dog, speaking in the same voice they would use with a baby.
It’s not in your head. The way we speak to babies is very similar to the way we speak to our pets – and research confirms this.
So why do we do this? And do pets even care?
The useful features of baby-talk
For pets and babies, we naturally raise our voice and make it more sing-songy. It’s the vocal equivalent of waving your arms to get someone’s attention.
Humans naturally switch to a warmer and more expressive way of speaking when talking to someone who may not fully understand us. It grabs attention and signals friendliness.
With babies, evolution seems to have added another layer: baby-talk also supports language learning by making speech sounds easier to hear and understand.
With pets, that teaching element diminishes. Pet-talk is mostly about connection, our way of saying: “I’m paying attention to you, you’re safe with me, and we’re interacting.”
Baby-talk and pet-talk aren’t exactly the same
When researchers remove the words and leave the speech melody intact, baby-talk and pet-talk melodies are rated as friendlier and more loving than the way we speak to adults.
However, there are some differences between pet- and baby-talk. A 2024 study compared the warmth of women’s voices when speaking to their baby versus their dog. Some of the women only had a baby, some only a dog, and some had both.
For those who had either one or the other, their speech sounded equally loving, whether directed at a baby or a dog. But the pattern changed among women who had both – the voices directed to their babies were warmer compared with their pet-talk. When they spoke to their dogs, their tone became a bit less warm than that of women who only had a dog and no baby.
This suggests pet-talk is more flexible than baby-talk. While baby-talk always remains the same, the warmth people express in their voices toward pets seems to vary with other demands on their attention.
The importance of teaching
Baby-talk and pet-talk differ in another key aspect. When talking to babies, we are teaching too. Parents often naturally exaggerate vowel sounds when they speak to babies: for example, saying “sheep” with a clearer “eee” sound that stands out.
This technique, called hyper-articulation, makes speech sounds easier for babies to distinguish. Interestingly, babies whose caregivers do this more often tend to develop larger vocabularies. So, the way we talk to babies helps build the foundation for their language skills.
When researchers looked for hyper-articulation in speech directed at pets, they found almost none. Dogs and cats receive the high-pitched, bouncy melody and emotional warmth but not the clearer pronunciation.
But researchers found an interesting pattern when looking at how people speak to parrots, known for being able to mimic human speech. In this study, people spoke to dogs in a warm voice, made their speech slightly clearer for parrots, and saved the clearest pronunciation for babies. It’s almost as if dogs get affection, parrots get a little language coaching, and babies get the full educational package.
Does pet-talk benefit pets?
A 2017 study revealed that puppies preferred recordings of pet-directed speech over regular adult speech. These happy puppies moved closer to the speaker more quickly and paid attention for longer. Adult dogs showed a similar, but slightly smaller, preference.
Using pet-talk may also help us communicate better with dogs. In one study, dogs looked longer for hidden food when a pointing gesture was paired with a high-pitched voice instead of a flat tone.
Other humans seem to appreciate pet-talk, too. A 2026 survey found more than three-quarters of pet owners remembered their vet speaking to their pets in a friendly way during a recent visit. Most owners appreciated it, feeling it showed the vet truly cared about their animal.
And it’s not just dogs that respond well to pet-talk. A 2021 study showed that horses, when spoken to in this warm manner, paid closer attention to their handler and were better at following human pointing gestures to find hidden food.
Next time you hear someone telling their dog they’re “the best dog in the whole world,” know they’re tapping into an old communication system built for warmth, attention and social bonding. Babies simply receive an upgraded version, one that not only says, “I care about you,” but also helps build language.
Antonia Goetz, Research Fellow Infant Studies, Western Sydney University, and Zhen (Jenny) Zeng, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience, Western Sydney University
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.
Follow us on X, Facebook, or Pinterest
