Baby Has Hilarious Family Room Conversation With Husky

Apr 09, 2020 by apost team

In a mashup of what might be the two cutest things on the internet — happy babies and playful dogs — this family’s home video from 2012 shows Garrett, a toddler, having a meeting in the living room with the family dog, a beautiful grey and white husky named Phoenix.

When you come across a cute, laughing baby video, it’s hard not to watch it a hundred times. There’s just something about happy babies that is heartwarming no matter the circumstances. But combine the wholesome goodness of a baby video with a dog video, and you may have a cuteness overload on your hands — at least, that’s what this 2012 video is. In the short 30-second but altogether hilarious video, Garrett the baby, who is wearing an adorable Batman shirt without pants, starts to jump up and down and squeak to communicate with the family dog. Jumping with joy and fascinated with the dog in front of him, Garrett is funny enough all by himself. But then the dog starts to speak back.

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After a few more giggles and jumps, the family huskey, Phoenix, arches his back and barks back as if to communicate with the toddler. As his ears shift backwards and forwards, it even seems like Phoenix cracks a little smile. While we might not speak dog, it seems like at least Garrett and Phoenix seem to understand each other. As one YouTube commenter imagines, the baby is saying, “Look at me, I’m wearing no pants,” while the dog responds, “Look at me, I’m wearing nothing.”

While it’s definitely fun to imagine what they’re saying — or even if they are communicating — it turns out that dogs actually are saying something when they bark. According to an excerpt from Vanessa Woods and Brian Hare’s The Genius of Dogs: How Dogs Are Smarter Than You Think published in Scientific American, experiments have shown that different sounds and barks do mean different things. So it turns out that Phoenix probably does have something to say despite our failure to understand the language of dogs.

The authors point to a number of initial studies in which researchers recorded and played different recorded dog sounds — some from dogs who growled because they wanted to be left alone while eating, and others from dogs who growled at strangers — and it seemed like these different sounds elicited corresponding responses in their test subjects.

“These initial studies show that growls and barks do carry meaning that other dogs and, in some cases, people can recognize. This complexity comes as a surprise,” the authors write in their book excerpt, published in Scientific American. But until more research is done and we figure out exactly what dogs like Phoenix are saying when the bark, maybe we’ll just have to rely on cute babies to communicate with them. 

What do you think Garrett is trying to say to the dog? And what's Phoenix the dog say back? Let us know what you think and pass this wholesome video on to family members and friends.