Did Alexander Graham Bell teach his dog to talk?
Sort of, and the sort of is the good part. As a boy in Edinburgh, Bell held his Skye terrier's muzzle while the dog growled and shaped the sound until it passed, with a little imagination, for "How are you, Grandmama?" Years later Bell wrote down the truth: it was the dog's growl and his own hands. In this episode of Our Next Collar, Trouvé tells the story, and Moose tries the trick himself.
Plays from this site.
Season 1 · Episode 5 · Trouvé, re: Alexander Graham Bell · Prince MoRee with Moose · About 7 minutes
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Trouvé was the Bell family's Skye terrier, a stray who was found and named. In this episode he tells how young Aleck Bell, with treats and a steady pair of hands, shaped his growl into something that sounded like "How are you, Grandmama?", why the sound needed those hands, and where a boy who loved speech ended up: the first words ever spoken over a telephone. Our Next Collar is an educational history podcast from Talking With Pets, made for curious kids and the grown-ups listening with them: a brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee talks with the pets of history's greatest figures, who tell the true story of the person they knew.
Transcript
Opening
Prince MoRee: Tonight, we gather again, talking with pets from the past. Moose, are we ready?
Moose: Ready! I've been practicing my talking all day long.
Prince MoRee: Tonight we call to a fellow pet across the years and through the veil. A pet, just like us, who seemed to say hello to Grandmama.
Moose: A talking dog! Tonight, we call for Trouvé.
The summons
Prince MoRee: Trouvé of Edinburgh, Scotland. Skye terrier. Friend of the Bell family. Join us!
Trouvé: Good evening. Is there food? I do my best work for food.
Moose: Me too!
Trouvé: Then we'll get along.
Moose: Your name is so fancy. Trouvé.
Trouvé: It's French. It means found. I was a stray, and the Bells found me.[2]
Prince MoRee: Or you found them.
Trouvé: We never did settle that.
The Bell family
Moose: Who were the Bells?
Trouvé: A talking family. Aleck's grandfather taught people to speak clearly. So did his father.
Moose: Aleck?
Trouvé: Alexander Graham Bell. But at home, he was Aleck. A boy who wanted to know how everything worked.
Moose: Like me!
Trouvé: His father invented a special alphabet. Little pictures of what your lips and tongue do, so you could write down any sound at all. Even a sneeze.
Moose: A sneeze? How do you spell a sneeze?
Trouvé: With great difficulty.
Prince MoRee: Also a cough. And the click you make to a horse.
Moose: That family wrote down everything!
The talking head
Trouvé: Before my time, Aleck and his big brother Melly built a talking head.
Moose: A head?
Trouvé: A pretend mouth, with rubber lips. Melly made a throat out of tin, and he blew through it while Aleck worked the lips.
Moose: And it talked?
Trouvé: It said one word. Mama.[1]
Moose: It talked!
Trouvé: So the boys took it out onto the stairs and made it cry, Mama! Mama! Mama!
Moose: Oh no.
Trouvé: A lady upstairs opened her door and called, "My goodness, what's the matter with that baby?"[1]
Moose: There was no baby!
Trouvé: There was no baby. The boys tiptoed back inside, and left her looking.
Prince MoRee: Science.
The trick
Moose: And then you came along!
Trouvé: And then Aleck had an idea. If he could make a pretend mouth talk, why not a real one?
Moose: Yours?
Trouvé: Mine. He gave me treats. First I learned to sit up on my back legs. Then I learned to growl, and keep on growling, while his hands were on my mouth.
Moose: You already knew how to growl.
Trouvé: Growling was my business.[1] Aleck just gave it a shape.
Moose: How?
Trouvé: He held my muzzle and opened and shut my jaws while I growled. My growl made ah. He shaped it into ow, and oo. Opening and closing made ma, ma. Another little trick made ga.
Moose: And all together?
Trouvé: Ow. Ah. Oo. Ga. Ma. Ma.[1]
Moose: What was that?
Trouvé: How are you, Grandmama?
Moose: It was not!
Trouvé: With a little imagination, it was.
Prince MoRee: Aleck's own words, years later. With a little imagination.
Moose: Ow ah oo ga ma ma!
Trouvé: Not bad. Needs more growl.
Famous at home
Moose: Did people come to hear you?
Trouvé: From far and near. A dog who says how are you to a grandmama. People loved it.
Moose: You were famous!
Trouvé: Aleck said I took a bread and butter interest in the whole business.[1]
Moose: Bread and butter?
Trouvé: I was in it for the snacks.
Moose: That's the best reason.
Trouvé: Sometimes I'd sit up all by myself and try to say it on my own.
Moose: Did it work?
Trouvé: No. Without his hands, I could only growl. Years later, when people said he'd taught a dog to talk, Aleck wrote down the truth. It was just my growl, and his hands.
Prince MoRee: An honest man.
Trouvé: An honest growl.
Moose: I would not like somebody holding my snout.
Trouvé: Most dogs wouldn't. Even a friendly dog might nip. So never put your hands on a dog's mouth. A treat is a much better idea.
Eliza
Prince MoRee: Some say Aleck's interest in sound began at home.
Trouvé: With his mother, Eliza.[3] She couldn't hear well. People say most folks shouted into her ear trumpet.
Moose: Ear trumpet?
Trouvé: A little horn she held up to her ear.
Moose: And Aleck?
Trouvé: Aleck did something different. The story goes he spoke to her low and close, right against her forehead. And she understood him.
Moose: Against her forehead.
Trouvé: She still played the piano, too. She taught him to love music.
Moose: Maybe that's why voices mattered so much to him.
Prince MoRee: He grew up to teach deaf students.[4] And in 1876, in America, he built a machine that carried a voice down a wire.
Moose: The telephone!
Prince MoRee: The first clear words went to his helper, in the next room. "Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you."
Moose: And did Mr. Watson come?
Prince MoRee: He came.
Moose: Like a good dog!
Trouvé: Exactly like a good dog.
Quietly
Moose: Trouvé. All that growling. Did Aleck ever say thank you?
Trouvé: Not in words. In treats, mostly. And he listened. They say he spoke to his mother low and close, and she understood him. He listened to me like that.
Moose: Even to a growl?
Trouvé: Especially to a growl. I'd look up at him, and he always knew what I meant.
Close
Prince MoRee: Thank you, Trouvé.
Moose: Ow ah oo ga ma ma.
Trouvé: Close enough.
Prince MoRee: With a little imagination.
Prince MoRee: (a note) Here is a bit more of the true story behind tonight's guest.
When Alexander Graham Bell was growing up in Edinburgh, Scotland, his family had a Skye terrier, a stray who, his biographers tell us, was named Trouvé, which means found.[2] Bell later wrote that, with food rewards, he taught the dog to growl while he held its muzzle and moved its jaws, until the growl came out as ow ah oo ga ma ma, which, with a little imagination, passed for How are you, Grandmama?[1] People came from far and near to hear it, but Bell was honest: without his hands, the dog could only growl. Bell's father and grandfather taught people how to speak, and his mother was hard of hearing.[3] Bell grew up to teach deaf students, and on March 10, 1876, he spoke the first clear sentence over his new invention, the telephone: Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.[4]
Trouvé, the treats, the growl shaped into How are you, Grandmama, the talking head that cried Mama, and Mr. Watson, come here, on March 10, 1876, are all real. His voice is ours.
Sources and further reading
- Bell's own account of the dog, the treats, the growl that passed for “How are you, Grandmama?”, the talking head and the stairs, and his father's alphabet of speech sounds. Alexander Graham Bell, “Prehistoric Telephone Days,” The National Geographic Magazine, March 1922. archive.org
- The dog's name and where he came from: a stray Skye terrier named Trouvé. Robert V. Bruce, Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude (1990); James A. Mackay, Alexander Graham Bell: A Life (1997). archive.org
- Bell's mother, Eliza, who was hard of hearing and still played the piano, and the way Bell spoke to her. Charlotte Gray, Reluctant Genius (2006); Dictionary of Canadian Biography, “Bell, Alexander Graham.” biographi.ca
- The first clear words over the telephone, March 10, 1876: “Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you.” Alexander Graham Bell Papers, Library of Congress. loc.gov
The facts in this episode come from a written, sourced fact-check, and the script was reviewed again before recording (October 2026). The transcript on this page is the script the episode was recorded from.
Questions people ask
Did Bell really teach his dog to talk?
Sort of. In a 1922 National Geographic article, Bell remembered teaching the family's Skye terrier, with food rewards, to sit up and growl while he moved the dog's jaws. The growl came out as "ow ah oo ga ma ma," which, he wrote, "by the exercise of a little imagination" passed for "How are you, Grandmama?" Without Bell's hands, the dog could only growl. Source: Alexander Graham Bell, "Prehistoric Telephone Days," National Geographic Magazine, March 1922.
What were the first words spoken on a telephone?
"Mr. Watson, come here, I want to see you." Bell spoke them to his assistant Thomas Watson on March 10, 1876, and Watson came. Source: Bell's laboratory notebook, Library of Congress.
Was Bell's mother deaf?
Eliza Bell was hard of hearing, and still played the piano, her biographers say. They also tell that Aleck spoke to her in a low voice, close to her forehead, and she understood him. Source: Charlotte Gray, Reluctant Genius (2006), and other Bell biographies.
What was the talking head?
As teenagers, Aleck and his brother Melly built a model head with a tin throat and rubber lips that could say "Mama." They made it cry "Mama!" on the stairs, and a neighbor came out to see what was the matter with the baby. Source: Bell, "Prehistoric Telephone Days," 1922.
Should I try this with my dog?
No. Even a friendly dog might nip if a person holds its muzzle, so never put your hands on a dog's mouth. A treat is a much better idea. The episode says so too.
What is Our Next Collar, and is it good for kids?
Our Next Collar is an educational history podcast made for curious kids and the grown-ups listening with them. A brown tabby cat named Prince MoRee talks with the pets of history's greatest figures, who tell the true story of the person they knew. Each episode page lists its sources and says which parts are from the record and which are ours, which makes it a quiet lesson in how to weigh sources. It is a podcast from Talking With Pets.