Owners are now connecting with their pets on a whole new level. Photo / 123rf
Owners are now connecting with their pets on a whole new level. Photo / 123rf
A recent study shows that this newfound talent can give a new lease of life to communication with your pet.
“It only took my Rottweiler, Zelda, a few days to grasp the ‘eat’ button,” says data engineer Kathryn Humphries, 28, from Manchester, UK. “After a week I introduced ‘outside’ and she began to press that when she wanted to go out. She understood most of the communication buttons within about six weeks, but she definitely had her favourites, like ‘water’ and ‘love you’.”
Dogs talking directly to humans has, until recently, been the preserve of animated films. But a development in cross-species communication means owners are now connecting with their pets on a whole new level.
Communication buttons were invented by speech expert Christina Hunger in 2019 (with her dog Stella), in a bid to help dogs express their essential needs more effectively. Today, however, ‘soundboard mats’ are on sale with as many as 45 buttons, each corresponding to a canine request or feeling.
“I saw Stella the talking dog on Instagram, and thought how sweet it would be if Zelda could tell me her needs through buttons too,” says Humphries. Another social media star is Bunny, the ‘talking’ sheepdog, who can even combine buttons to produce short phrases.
“I began training Zelda with just one button - ‘eat’,” Humphries explains. “I’d press the button then place her paw on it. At first, she was overexcited and jumped with both front paws to get treats.”
As most owners know, ‘eat’ is not a hard lesson for dogs to learn, but Humphries and Zelda soon moved on to other aspects of daily life together. “If I threw the ball for her, I would first say ‘play’ and ‘outside’, to get her used to the words. ‘Love you’ was harder, so I pressed the button then gave her lots of cuddles and attention.”
Zelda first used the mat on her own, says Humphries, “when I was working upstairs – she wanted me to come and give her a cuddle.”
Some may wonder if Zelda really did decide to demand love via the mat, or if she simply knew that pressing buttons would result in praise. But Humphries is convinced the mat has improved communication between her and her pet: “Dogs know exactly what they want most of the time, we just don’t speak their language, so this is like Google Translate for them.”
The training method is based on "operant conditioning", which uses rewards to modify behaviour. Photo / 123rf
Remarkable findings
Perhaps it’s no wonder that initial scepticism is slowly giving way to startled admiration, as new research indicates that dogs really can press the correct button to express their needs.
Professor Federico Rossano has recently completed a study on dogs’ use of communication buttons at the University of San Diego and his findings make for remarkable reading. “My initial research focus was on non-verbal communication in humans, then small children and primates,” he says. A colleague alerted him to Stella, the ‘talking’ Instagram dog, and sparked an interest in researching canine communication. “We now have 10,000 dogs from 47 countries in our study − way more than we anticipated,” says Rossano.
Many owners have reported that the buttons empower their dogs to communicate their needs clearly. “We found that soundboards lead to a decrease in barking because the dog is less frustrated,” adds Rossano. “We even have dogs using the ‘ouch’ button in combination with body parts, like ‘ear ouch’ or ‘paw ouch’.
“In our study, we have a huge range of button use, with the median number of buttons currently nine – but a couple of dozen use over 100 buttons and there’s a handful working with more than 150.”
Like Bunny, these dogs often combine more than two words, at times producing up to four-word combinations. The training method is based on ‘operant conditioning’, which uses rewards (and in other instances, punishments) to modify behaviour - the owner presses ‘outside’, then opens the door and the dog goes out. If the dog then presses the button, the same thing happens. “Our studies also show that they pay attention to the word being spoken, not just where the button is situated,” says Rossano.
He now hopes to demonstrate that the dogs are not simply learning these patterns via training, but are in fact able to use the information they are taught to express their own needs independently, by pushing buttons in combination, such as ‘want treat’. “If so, that’s similar to how young children learn to produce two-word combinations,” Rossano says.
Some dogs, of course, are more adept than others. “Border Collies are usually considered the smartest, but as herding dogs, they like repetitive tasks and going to fetch,” says Rossano. “Out of the top 10 in our study, seven are mixed breed. Poodles, terriers and working dogs are good, but what matters is their motivation to communicate with humans and their willingness to spend time doing the training. Individual temperament is probably a better predictor of success than breed.”
How would our dogs' ability to communicate affect their rights? Photo / 123rf
Ethical questions
Interestingly, the dogs’ newfound ability to express themselves might raise ethical issues, he admits. “If we can show that dogs communicate more transparently than we thought possible, how would this affect their rights? And what if we train other species to use these buttons?”
It’s certainly true that some dogs possess enormous intelligence and take to the buttons immediately. London-based schnauzer, Ovi, seven, is another star of Instagram with more than 13,000 followers. His use of the mat is remarkably adept in the videos his owner, Mika, posts.
“Ovi has always been incredibly expressive and smart,” she says. “I quickly realised that keeping him constructively busy was essential.” Discovering the mat was a game-changer. “I knew Ovi’s intelligence and curiosity would make him a perfect candidate.”
Mika began with four basic buttons: “play”, “scratches”, “treat”, and “finished”, adding them gradually over a few days. “Initially, I would press the button and model the action. If he seemed hesitant to press the buttons, I’d press them to show him the connection. At first, he was suspicious but as soon as I introduced the ”treat" button, everything clicked.”
Just over a week after starting training, “he began pressing the buttons independently”.
Mika admits she’s amazed by his progress. “It’s incredible to see him understand that buttons are tools he can use to express himself. He knows each one represents something different, and how to use them to communicate his needs and seemingly his thoughts. His most-used button right now is ‘chew’.”
Their relationship has, she says, been enriched as a result. “It’s been a beautiful change. I used to wish Ovi could understand me better, especially when he was anxious. Now, we have a shared language.”
Not every dog is as willing as Zelda and Ovi to use the buttons, however. Leah Milner, 43, a writer from Brighton, bought four buttons for her collie, Lola, seven. Like Humphries, she says, “I’d watched Bunny the talking sheepdog and been amazed by her apparent ability to communicate.”
Lola hadn’t been taught tricks, but, says Milner, “she seems to have quite a big vocabulary she’s able to understand.” Sadly though, try as she might, “I could never really get her to engage with the buttons.”
“Although she’s been good at learning commands at agility classes, she’s quite sensitive about her feet and she doesn’t like anyone touching them,” says Milner. “She’s also alert to different textures and I think the shiny, plastick-y feel of the buttons was off-putting for her.”
Joe Nutkins, a dog trainer from Essex, had better luck with her Norwich terriers - Ripley and Merlin. “I started with ‘play’ as it needed to be something I could initiate any time,” she says. The dogs already understood pawing a ball or bell, so “introducing the new button was easy”, Nutkins adds. “When we started any kind of play I’d ask the terriers to paw the button. It only took a few sessions before Merlin chose to press the button of his own accord.”
Once they both understood the object, they moved on to “outside”. This was hit and miss, and while it worked, Nutkins adds: “Unfortunately I live in a small house so the mat was often in the way. I moved the ‘outside’ button to the kitchen door, and introduced a button for brushing next to the grooming table which were both successful.”
Some, of course, would argue that dogs typically go straight for what they want without the need for a button.
“Dogs usually know what they want and they will let you know,” says Rossano. Indeed, many dog owners will argue that their dogs can communicate ‘food,’ ‘walk’ and ‘outside’ via body language alone.
Rossano agrees, but adds: “My hope is that the study will at least help us appreciate that dogs are excellent learners, highly motivated to communicate with humans and that they have wants and needs that are often different from ours and that we should address.”
Cue a million dogs, happily pressing “eat” and then “now”.
