For the study, 40 volunteers listened to different growls recorded from 18 dogs that were guarding their food, facing a threatening stranger, or playing a tug-of-war. The human listeners identified 81% of the “play” growls but were less good at recognising food guarding and threatening growls. Researchers found that the play growls and food guarding growls of dogs had different pitch characteristics. Play growls and food guarding growls also had distinctively different pitch characteristics, The Telegraph reported. “According to our results, adult humans seem to understand and respond accordingly to this acoustic information during cross-species interactions with dogs,” the researchers concluded.

Source: Hindustan Times May 17, 2017 11:59 UTC