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Founder and lead researcher of the project, Tamás Faragó tells the BBJ how their findings could apply to the human sciences.
Faragó has spent the better part of his life passionate about animal behavior. Inspired by British naturalists David Attenborough and Gerald Durrell, he began his work on dog communication at the ELTE Department of Ethology, where he studied the basics of canine interaction.
“I began working on the communicative aspects of dog barks under the supervision of Dr. Péter Pongrácz. My topic was dog growls: what information they carry about context, emotions, and the caller’s physical properties, and how other dogs and humans perceive it. My research still revolves around dogs’ vocal behavior and how they can be useful models of human evolution,” Faragó says.
“Although I am a biologist with a PhD in ethology, I like to identify myself as a bioacoustician. I study vocal communication, and I am especially interested in how information is encoded and decoded in sounds, how these might have evolved, and how vocal communication can work across different species, like in dog-human communication,” he explains.
Why are dogs ideal subjects for this niche field of research? “Dogs are a fascinating species. They were the first domesticated animals, and they have the closest relationship with humans of any animal. They live with us, work for and with us, they fit very well in the human social niche. To do so, during domestication and later through functional selection, they gained similar socio-cognitive skills as we did, going through similar selective pressures. This makes them a perfect model for studying early human evolution, including how language might have emerged,” he says.
“In our project, we focus on one feature: the abilities involved in vocal learning and flexibility, a key element of using spoken language. We hypothesize that, in early humans, selection for social tolerance opened up these abilities, and later, selection for cooperation further strengthened them, pushing them to an extreme unique among mammals. Dogs went through very similar selection steps during domestication, making them an interesting potential model for studying these abilities.”
Faragó’s team is currently working under the name Behavioral and Acoustics Research for K9 Sounds Lab, also known as the Barks Lab, at the Department of Ethology at ELTE. The project is supported by a European Research Council Consolidator grant, which awards up to EUR 2 million for mid-career researchers pursuing frontier academic investigation.
“After a handful of successful smaller grants and a lot of failed grant applications, it was my last chance to submit an ERC Consolidator grant proposal. This grant is for building and establishing your research group, and before I got it, I practically had no team. In our department, there were two successful ERC Starting grants, and I was also involved with them as a postdoctoral researcher. I learned a lot from my colleagues about how to apply for such a huge endeavor and how leading a team like that works,” Faragó notes.
The research spans canine behavior science, behavioral and genomic testing, brain imaging, and neuroethology. The team also conducts “citizen science” projects, where non-academic participants and their dogs can join active studies to help advance scientific discovery.
Faragó notes that although the research project is only halfway through, certain conclusions can already be drawn.
“One surprising result in dog vocal communication was how differently they react to the emotional and motivational information encoded in conspecific and heterospecific vocalizations. When they hear another dog’s calls, their reaction is mainly affected by the caller’s social motivation in whether it wants the receiver to approach or withdraw, and not the emotional content. In contrast, when they hear human sounds, or calls from an unknown species, they tend to approach, regardless of the call’s informational content. Female dogs also seem to be more sensitive to the motivational information encoded in heterospecific calls than males.”
He also touched on a discovery regarding the domestication and genetic makeup of dogs.
“Another finding I really like, and am proud of, is that breeds’ genetic distance from the common ancestor with wolves predicts how likely they are to respond with howls to wolf howl playbacks. This is probably a side effect of domestication, and we are really intrigued by what genetic aspects might be behind it.”
Although the ERC Consolidator grant significantly advances research capacity, the Hungarian-led team also faces downsides of working under a European grant.
“The grant budget is in euros, while we must calculate costs in forints, which makes planning the budget ahead a definite challenge because of unpredictable exchange-rate changes,” the researcher notes.
Other issues he commented on were “limited university support due to underfunding, high levels of bureaucracy, and the resulting fluctuations in financial and HR personnel. We struggle with simple tasks like buying computers or organizing travel to conferences, which take time away from research,” he adds.
While the Hungarian Academy of Sciences is not currently involved in this project, Faragó credits his professional development to two National Research, Development and Innovation Office (NKFIH) scholarships the institution awarded him during his postdoctoral years.
Stating that the scholarships “helped get me to where I am today,” he also highlighted that “the grant and scholarship options for young researchers and postdoctoral researchers are practically nonexistent at the moment, and this should definitely change in the future. We have high hopes with the new government regarding this issue.”
Faragó’s research team includes academics at different levels, from pre- and postdoctoral researchers and PhD students to bachelor’s students starting their careers in bioacoustics and canine research.
“The most rewarding part of this research project is working with so many smart, motivated, and enthusiastic students and young researchers. But of course, the thrill of the detective work of trying to answer our research questions is a big plus too. If, in the end, we can say we got closer to understanding how human language evolved, I will be very happy, but understanding our best friend’s communication better will be equally rewarding,” Faragó admits.
This article was first published in the Budapest Business Journal print issue of October 2, 2026.
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