The remaining time as dog sitter to my labrador chum Coco is diminishing; her mum Samantha this evening venturing east across the Pennine Hills to retrieve the flaxen coated retriever.
The four legged enchantress, who stole my heart (along with a fair proportion of my meals), returning to Lancashire to once again mix with canine buddies Oscar, Wilson, Boss, Hatchi et al. Her playmates, whose company she’s been deprived of while residing with me in the white rose county.
Her furry Lancastrian pals no doubt longing to know if, as legend implies, dogs in Yorkshire are all whippets. Their intrigue possibly even extending to whether Yorkie mutts bark funny. Not to mention, if reports of flat capped owners over here communicating with less flatter vowels than their red rose affiliated enablers are correct.
Whether dogs, or indeed any pet, mirror their owners and communicate in accented barks or growls dependent on their location isn’t something I oft dwell upon. However, the subject of pooch partisanship current swishes around my neurological corridors; in particular, whether it could actually be a thing.
Could it be possible canines from the white rose county communicate in a barky version of their guvnors greeting to a fellow hound owner of “Alreet George?…. ‘Ows tha’ piles this mo’ning, t’old lad?…… Tha’s wa’king a bit delicate like.”
Is it feasible that dogs hailing from the north east of England exchange grunts and growls in a doggy dialect mirroring their owners? Would a Newcastle based pooch greet a fellow four legged buddy with “How do Geordie!….. Bloody hell it’s baltic the day….. If I’d not had wor nads removed they’d ‘av frazen off be noo, it’s that ca’d.”
Does Coco exchange her barky banter in the endearingly quirky east Lancs dialect of her mum, Sam. An accent laden with flat vowels, similar to actress Jane Horrocks. Word formations which morph the sentence “The present is from Clare from over there.” into “The present is from Clure from over thure.”
Possessing no answers to the conundrums raised above, in a rare pique of intrigue I googled ‘Do dogs have accents?’ The search engine returning the following from barkpost.com:-
“There are officially 195 countries in the world, which means there are at least 195 different accents. And within each country, there are different regions, all contributing something a little bit different to each accent. Taking into account each region’s various cities, towns, villages, and hamlets, there must be thousands of different accents we can come into contact with at any given time.
A recently released study conducted by the Canine Behaviour Center in Cumbria, England, says that this is true! ….. Dogs do indeed have regional accents like their owners.
The study was performed by having dog owners record messages of their own voices, as well as their furry friends barking and growling. The recordings were then examined by a panel of experts to see what they could find.
The experts concluded that while pooches don’t necessarily develop their own regional dialect, they DO mimic the accent of their owner. Dogs living in a home with an owner who has a strong accent are most likely to imitate that tone, and some pampered pups can even develop a “posh” sound to their barks.”
So if the conclusion that dogs living in a home with a strong accented owner are correct, Coco’s will possess a broad east Lancastrian tone, which’ll have possibly confused her canine Yorkshire counterparts within the last week or so, and vice versa.
Consequently, when she gets back west of the Pennines she’ll no doubt be telling Oscar, Wilson, Boss, Hatchi et al “They don’t ‘alf ta’k funny ova thure!”
“I’ve no idea what the ‘eck you’re ta’king about, Gary!”
