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A rescue dog who moved hundreds of miles from Texas to New Jersey appears to have held on to one very specific connection to her past: a preference for a Southern accent.
Brittani Wright and her family rescued their mixed-breed dog, Gemma Faye, last year from Trust Rescue. Wright told Newsweek via email that Gemma Faye was saved from a high-kill animal shelter in Texas before being transported to New Jersey, where the family adopted her.
Wright said she discovered Gemma’s unusual preference completely by accident. One day, she started speaking to her dog in a Southern accent as a joke, but Gemma immediately became more attentive. At first, Wright thought it was just a coincidence. But every time she used the accent, Gemma had the same reaction.
Now, the Southern drawl has become of the dog’s daily routine. When Gemma ignores her owner’s usual call to come inside, Wright switches to the accent, which she showcased to her TikTok account @shortlegs4u on July 10. In the video, the dog stared at Wright as if she were speaking a different language, but as soon as she heard the Southern twang she came running.
“If I call her in my normal voice, she’ll often ignore me or take her time,” Wright said. “But the second I switch to the Southern voice and call for her, she comes running.”
The trick does not appear to be limited to getting the dog indoors. Wright said she has noticed that Gemma also seems to respond better to other commands when they are delivered in the accent.
Since Gemma spent the beginning of her life in Texas, Wright and her family have joked that perhaps the voice reminds her of where she came from, but they know there is no way to confirm that is the reason.
Either way, it has become a fun part of their day and highlights an unexpected quirk.
“It’s become such a funny part of our daily routine that my family expects me to do it now,” she said.
Dogs Don’t Just Hear Words—They Hear How We Say Them
While Gemma’s reaction may seem unusual, dogs are known to pay close attention to the way humans communicate. They do not simply respond to the words we say. They also pick up on vocal cues like tone, pitch, rhythm and emotional expression.
A study published in Animal Cognition found that dogs are sensitive to the relationship between different features of human speech, including pitch and timbre, which is the quality that makes one voice sound different from another.
Researchers played recordings of commands for dogs and altered different aspects of the voices. They found that dogs responded differently when the natural relationship between these vocal features was changed, suggesting that dogs use more than just words to interpret human speech.
The findings suggest that dogs may recognize and rely on subtle patterns in the way humans speak. While there is no evidence that Gemma specifically recognizes a Southern accent as a reminder of Texas, it is possible that the particular rhythm, tone or sound of Wright’s Southern voice has become a cue the dog associates with attention or a familiar routine.
Contact Newsweek editors on this story: Rebecca Flood and Emma Lee-Sang
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