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Intonation- one of the most valuable tools in the socialization and education of our dogs. We can ask ourselves: Why is communication with our dog so important and in what way will it be most useful to carry it out?
Dogs are extremely sociable animals, especially with members of their own group, where we, humans, come in. Communication between a guardian and his dog is the basis of a healthy and friendly bond.
Apart from this, dogs need a healthy reference and many of them also need the approval of their guardian. One of the tools to achieve this is verbal communication and the most important thing for the dog in this communication is the intonation that we are going to talk about now.
The perception of intonation is innate and as such it is a good tool to be able to transmit to dogs the information we want correctly and in the easiest way to understand without prior learning. Without prior learning, precisely because this perception is innate.
What does this mean? Well, in simpler words, when you talk to a baby with a positive voice and a frequency considered rather high, he laughs, although you can talk to him in an unknown language. Because the baby perceives that this intonation and this frequency is something beautiful. If we speak to her with a higher, firmer voice and a rather low frequency, the baby will possibly start crying because she is scared, her perception is not good at all. Well, the same thing happens with dogs. Especially with puppies.
In other words, positive intonation, happy with a high frequency, makes the dog perceive the stimulus to which this intonation is directed as something positive. This tool is very important in the socialization period of puppies, which begins at one month of age when they are still with their mother and ends at 3 or 4 months of age when fear appears.
This tool helps the dog associate the stimulus with something positive so that later it is not afraid of it and takes advantage of the basic associative learning from which dogs learn.
In other words, if my dog sees another dog, for example, and especially if he doesn't know how to react yet to this stimulus (or any other), we have to present the stimulus to him in a happy and positive voice, such as, for example, saying : "Look what a prettier and nicer little dog, look how good." Actually, through intonation, our dog will understand what we want to tell him. Maybe if you say, "what beautiful apples," but with the same happy intonation, he will perceive the other dog as something positive.
On the contrary, if we get nervous, speaking with a negative, nervous or insecure voice (associated with pulling on the leash), surely in a very short time we will have a puppy that is afraid and who is reactivated or taught other aggressive behaviors, every time. who sees another puppy. This problem is called poor socialization and is 100% caused by the tutor.
In this article we have talked only about intonation at the time of presentation of stimuli at the time of socialization. It should be noted that there are many more types of intonation that we use, but it always has to be appropriately and at the right time.
