Dogs using buttons to communicate

Estafantom

Estafantom

Citizen of Zooville
www.petmd.com

How Do Talking Dog Buttons Work?

Ever seen a dog pushing buttons to talk? How do they learn how to do that? Find out the science behind dog talk buttons and how to train your pup to “speak.”
www.petmd.com

I find the concept super interesting as it allows a clear communication when it comes to simple concepts such as communicating when hungry, need to go potty, need a sweater when cold, is anxious about a noise... Another proof dogs can give consent and even in a verbal way if combined with body language !
Some says that they don't like it because dogs can not understand every humans concept but all buttons users I know said it was game changing for the relationship with their dog.

By chance is there any zoo using or thinking about using buttons?
 
Never knew that, it's sounds interesting though. My German Shepherd pup is 19 weeks old, and he knows when he has to go out for his food,come in before dusk, know when I am giving him water, very clever for his age, and even barks when someone's at my front gate 😁, haven't potty trained him but he is starting getting the idea to potty outside on most days.
 
Last edited:
Theunis323 said:
Never knew that, it's sounds interesting though. My German Shepherd pup is 19 weeks old, and he knows when he has to go out for his food,come in before dusk, know when I am giving him water, very clever for his age, and even barks when someone's at my front gate 😁, haven't potty trained him but he is starting getting the idea to potty outside on most days.
Click to expand...
To help with potty training try to let him out after play, after a nap and after a meal! The more he does it outside the more he will be reinforced to do it there

Good luck!
 

Communication Buttons?

Recently I have been seeing a lot of videos online where people have taught their cats or dogs to use push buttons (the kind that can record your voice) in order to be able ask for different things like particular toys or help opening a door or other such stuff. My question is if any of y'all...
www.zoovilleforum.net www.zoovilleforum.net
 
pes said:

Communication Buttons?

Recently I have been seeing a lot of videos online where people have taught their cats or dogs to use push buttons (the kind that can record your voice) in order to be able ask for different things like particular toys or help opening a door or other such stuff. My question is if any of y'all...
www.zoovilleforum.net www.zoovilleforum.net
Click to expand...
I'm not talking about sex but in general!
 
i know this is just an ingeneral question and have seen it work given the right training for dogs and cats to some funny results also have seen it work with pigs but given the forum does put into mind a button for a want or consent to things and if there were what would be done if say guests are around would that button or set of buttons be taken away to avoid the chance of being found out or it being pressed
 
Estafantom said:
www.petmd.com

How Do Talking Dog Buttons Work?

Ever seen a dog pushing buttons to talk? How do they learn how to do that? Find out the science behind dog talk buttons and how to train your pup to “speak.”
www.petmd.com

I find the concept super interesting as it allows a clear communication when it comes to simple concepts such as communicating when hungry, need to go potty, need a sweater when cold, is anxious about a noise... Another proof dogs can give consent and even in a verbal way if combined with body language !
Some says that they don't like it because dogs can not understand every humans concept but all buttons users I know said it was game changing for the relationship with their dog.

By chance is there any zoo using or thinking about using buttons?
Click to expand...
Oh, Wow! I never knew this was even a thing! Utterly amazing... I have often wondered if dogs had the brain power to talk to us but simply didn't have the physical linguistic ability to form words with their mouths like humans do. As I pondered these things, I thought that dogs might be hemmed in by their body... meaning: they are much smarter in their heads than their body provides for them to express themselves.

I have struggled for decades about how it might be for my fury companions, always having more of a one-sided way of communication. This would be a true paradigm shift for me. If I could truly communicate with my dog companion in this way it would elevate our relationship to a whole new level. @Estafantom you have got my head spinning for how this could validate the friendship side of things with my companion, my dog. I will be looking into this a lot more... so, yeah, I am "...thinking about using buttons."

Thank you so much! 🐕
 
lillysgale said:
i know this is just an ingeneral question and have seen it work given the right training for dogs and cats to some funny results also have seen it work with pigs but given the forum does put into mind a button for a want or consent to things and if there were what would be done if say guests are around would that button or set of buttons be taken away to avoid the chance of being found out or it being pressed
Click to expand...
You are the one choosing which words you want to teach and put on a button so you can use wathever word you want only you know what it means, but in the case you teach your dog to ask for sex you may for example put the button in your room and out of access when people are over. Or just remove it from the board when people are there.
 
SaltyDog said:
Oh, Wow! I never knew this was even a thing! Utterly amazing... I have often wondered if dogs had the brain power to talk to us but simply didn't have the physical linguistic ability to form words with their mouths like humans do. As I pondered these things, I thought that dogs might be hemmed in by their body... meaning: they are much smarter in their heads than their body provides for them to express themselves.

I have struggled for decades about how it might be for my fury companions, always having more of a one-sided way of communication. This would be a true paradigm shift for me. If I could truly communicate with my dog companion in this way it would elevate our relationship to a whole new level. @Estafantom you have got my head spinning for how this could validate the friendship side of things with my companion, my dog. I will be looking into this a lot more... so, yeah, I am "...thinking about using buttons."

Thank you so much! 🐕
Click to expand...
I'm really glad I can help!
 
Estafantom said:
You are the one choosing which words you want to teach and put on a button so you can use wathever word you want only you know what it means, but in the case you teach your dog to ask for sex you may for example put the button in your room and out of access when people are over. Or just remove it from the board when people are there.
Click to expand...
very true just the thought came to my mind and i do know that for people that do this they may have buttons all over related to the rooms they are in so that is an option ya
 
I'm not really impressed at all by "Bunny the talking dog". Basically, put a bunch of buttons of positive things a dog would want. Dog hits one, gets something positive. Does the dog actually understand which button is which? Dogs have poor vision, they are not going to understand the text on the button or the color of the button very well at all. Would a dog actually be able to determine the right button out a grid of 100 nearly identical buttons? I think what is really happening is the dog is just treating most of the buttons like a slot machine. If they are bored, they simply swat buttons until the owner will do something to give them attention. It's the owner that is assigning meanings to the randomness and ignoring the arrangements the don't make any sense. The buttons aren't yielding any new insights on dog cognition or allowing any kind of inter-species conversation. We aren't getting anything remotely close to Sirius or Watchers. Dog presses ball button. Human gets a ball and throws ball. Brilliant! We've determined that dogs love playing with balls. Never mind that most dogs will bring a ball to human when they want the ball thrown.

Basically all the buttons are doing are things that most attentive dog owners wouldn't need a button at all to know. It's a clumsy roundabout way of doing what humans and dogs could already do for millennia.

Some canine cognition studies that I do find fascinating...

Chaser the border collie, who could understand the names of hundreds of object.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8eublMMrn0

Donnie the Doberman who liked arranging toys in geometric shapes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_(dog)

The dog fMRI experiments...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36421576-how-dogs-love-us
 
I love Stella, as she has led the way with her human Christina Hunger, to show how dogs can convey basic concepts and idea via only a few words. Like when a button broke Stella used other buttons to convey the fact the button she wanted to push wasn't working, which apparently happened a bit in the early days, as with a lot of prototype stuff, before the hardware was refined.
I think from memory Stella used "Help" "Water" "Outside" to mean the "Beach" button wasn't working.

Buttons are great because when used consistently not just as a party trick to entertain visitors it gives the dog the ability to speak with their human more effectively, than just relying on gestures and body language which some humans struggle to understand. At times it makes me wonder which species is really the better communicator when it comes to talking to the other.

Here some videos of Stella for anyone who hasn't seen her in action:
www.youtube.com

A speech pathologist taught her dog Stella to 'speak'

Speech pathologist Christina Hunger says she is teaching her dog Stella to communicate with the same method she uses to teach children to speak and learn wor...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

Stella the dog learned to 'talk' and she will change the way you think about pets l GMA

Christina Hunger is a speech pathologist who realized her new puppy was showing signs of wanting to communicate with her. What she discovered is starting a n...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com

www.youtube.com

Why is Stella mad?

To learn more about how I taught Stella to talk and how you can get started with your dog at home, you can pre-order my book at: https://www.hungerforwords.c...
www.youtube.com www.youtube.com
 
I am not sure about these videos. With selective editing they could be removing all the parts that don't make sense to leave those that do.

Some of the dogs I've known would probably just smash buttons at all waking hours simply for the fact that it makes a human come over and pay attention.

When they're dying of boredom they'll do anything, you might think they asked for a specific thing, but they are just following your lead. For instance one dog would always press up to someone. The owner thought he wanted scratches, but to me he looked impatient at the scratches despite staying and coming back.

When the human stopped scratching the dog would excitedly head in whatever direction the human went next.

I believe the dog thought humans were the ones interested in scratching and once he 'paid' in permitted scratches the human might do something interesting (like playing or going outside). No I'm not saying he didn't like scratches, but it had become ritualized to him. Smush human -> get scratches -> potentially do something interesting.

It (the button system) deserves to be studied, in a controlled setting; it probably is already. If there are good results in general it would be a great inclusion to any serious zoosexual study.
 
ADreamOfLiberty said:
It (the button system) deserves to be studied, in a controlled setting; it probably is already. If there are good results in general it would be a great inclusion to any serious zoosexual study.
Click to expand...
There is an increasing amount of research into the topic. Most notably UC San Diego has been doing research on whether or not non-humans have any capacity for using AAC to communicate. theycantalk.org has a page explaining their goals and approach. It also addresses some of the concerns you mentioned in your post, particularly about human bias and interpretation of button-pressing.

It is worth mentioning that the research is closely tied to FluentPet, which sells buttons and is associated with creators like Bunny, but I don't think that necessarily means the studies aren't rigorous and/or objective.
 
Last edited:
charlie842 said:
I'm not really impressed at all by "Bunny the talking dog". Basically, put a bunch of buttons of positive things a dog would want. Dog hits one, gets something positive. Does the dog actually understand which button is which? Dogs have poor vision, they are not going to understand the text on the button or the color of the button very well at all. Would a dog actually be able to determine the right button out a grid of 100 nearly identical buttons? I think what is really happening is the dog is just treating most of the buttons like a slot machine. If they are bored, they simply swat buttons until the owner will do something to give them attention. It's the owner that is assigning meanings to the randomness and ignoring the arrangements the don't make any sense. The buttons aren't yielding any new insights on dog cognition or allowing any kind of inter-species conversation. We aren't getting anything remotely close to Sirius or Watchers. Dog presses ball button. Human gets a ball and throws ball. Brilliant! We've determined that dogs love playing with balls. Never mind that most dogs will bring a ball to human when they want the ball thrown.

Basically all the buttons are doing are things that most attentive dog owners wouldn't need a button at all to know. It's a clumsy roundabout way of doing what humans and dogs could already do for millennia.

Some canine cognition studies that I do find fascinating...

Chaser the border collie, who could understand the names of hundreds of object.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m8eublMMrn0

Donnie the Doberman who liked arranging toys in geometric shapes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Donnie_(dog)

The dog fMRI experiments...
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36421576-how-dogs-love-us
Click to expand...
Well, when it comes to individual people posting about their dogs, sure, there's almost certainly some people cherry-picking instances to share. But to describe it as "Dog hits one, gets something positive" is an incredible over-simplification. It's quite apparent from the mound of examples out there that dogs aren't mashing at random to see what happens; rather, that they are able to connect a specific button to a specific idea. Now, I don't know whether dogs are really able to combine multiple buttons to express more complex ideas. That's a topic for scientific research. But it's pretty clear that dogs are capable, at the very least, of using them as a method to communicate needs and wants (food, walk, pet, play).

To address your point in the second paragraph, there is a specific potential in these buttons that absolutely should be looked into: expressing emotions. The internet already has plenty of videos out there of dogs appearing to tell their human that they are experiencing negative emotions (fear, sadness, frustration). While there is nothing definitive at the moment (in terms of research) to determine if this is a legitimate ability of these animals, it is absolutely an example of possibly being able to use AAC to express feelings that can't be as clearly understood by owners simply by understanding canine behavior and body language. And even if one didn't need the buttons to know what their dog needs/wants/feels, why is it a bad thing to provide an outlet for them to communicate things much more clearly, effectively, and efficiently? Wouldn't that be better for both parties?
 
www.instagram.com

I Am Bunny on Instagram: "This is one of my favorite things about using buttons with Buns is that she can label things that before may have caused a reaction. Perhaps she still barks but the intensity and duration have lessoned and she can receive di

1,888 Likes, 18 Comments - I Am Bunny (@whataboutbunny) on Instagram: "This is one of my favorite things about using buttons with Buns is that she can label things that..."
www.instagram.com www.instagram.com
You can see on this example by reading the caption that Bunny (a nervous dog not comfortable about other dogs) can express what she is hearing and it helped with her barking
 
I think different dogs and dog breeds have different kinds of intelligence like humans, like some are naturally better at hunting or hearding, I think some dogs really understand what they are pressing and some use it for simple commands like walk.
 
Theunis323 said:
Never knew that, it's sounds interesting though. My German Shepherd pup is 19 weeks old, and he knows when he has to go out for his food,come in before dusk, know when I am giving him water, very clever for his age, and even barks when someone's at my front gate 😁, haven't potty trained him but he is starting getting the idea to potty outside on most days.
Click to expand...
Potty training mine consisted of telling him once to do that outside
 
I've said this before in other threads.

I had a German shepherd/husky/wolf mix that I started mimicking his body language as a pup, and figured a lot of it out.

From there, I went to talking to him and using the appropriate body language simultaneously, later to just talking to him, but I talked to him all the time as if I believed he was understanding me.

Little did I know that somewhere in there, he started putting 2 and 2 together.

On quite a few occasions I could be talking to someone else within earshot of the dog, and was talking about the dog, and would say something along the lines of "I wouldn't be surprised if he did xyz next.".. it wouldn't be long, and there he'd be doing exactly that.

This wasn't isolated and happened more than I can remember.

I do believe there's a lot more going on in their heads that they can't tell us.

There were other things he did as well that aren't related to speech too. He watched me moving brush around the yard, piling it up to be burned. It wasn't but minutes and he was picking up sticks and putting them in the pile.

Once laying in bed, he was by my ass and I felt a fart coming on and for no particular reason, farted on him. He didn't miss a beat and farted right back on me.

I know that maybe not all of them are functioning on that level, but he was for sure.

He's over the rainbow now, but I've got his nephew and I've started doing all the things I learned with him now. We shall see, but so far, it's promising, but he's certainly different and his own dog too..

I'm hopeful that one day I'll be able to post some stuff about it.
 
K_9River_rat said:
I've said this before in other threads.

I had a German shepherd/husky/wolf mix that I started mimicking his body language as a pup, and figured a lot of it out.

From there, I went to talking to him and using the appropriate body language simultaneously, later to just talking to him, but I talked to him all the time as if I believed he was understanding me.

Little did I know that somewhere in there, he started putting 2 and 2 together.

On quite a few occasions I could be talking to someone else within earshot of the dog, and was talking about the dog, and would say something along the lines of "I wouldn't be surprised if he did xyz next.".. it wouldn't be long, and there he'd be doing exactly that.

This wasn't isolated and happened more than I can remember.

I do believe there's a lot more going on in their heads that they can't tell us.

There were other things he did as well that aren't related to speech too. He watched me moving brush around the yard, piling it up to be burned. It wasn't but minutes and he was picking up sticks and putting them in the pile.

Once laying in bed, he was by my ass and I felt a fart coming on and for no particular reason, farted on him. He didn't miss a beat and farted right back on me.

I know that maybe not all of them are functioning on that level, but he was for sure.

He's over the rainbow now, but I've got his nephew and I've started doing all the things I learned with him now. We shall see, but so far, it's promising, but he's certainly different and his own dog too..

I'm hopeful that one day I'll be able to post some stuff about it.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this. I especially love this part:

"I do believe there's a lot more going on in their heads that they can't tell us."

I believe this as well, because of all the dogs I've owned over the decades.

Good stuff... 🐕
 
SaltyDog said:
Thank you for this. I especially love this part:

"I do believe there's a lot more going on in their heads that they can't tell us."

I believe this as well, because of all the dogs I've owned over the decades.

Good stuff... 🐕
Click to expand...
There has to be. When you think about (perhaps easier if you've really gotten into the body language thing), it can sometimes take us a whole paragraph to communicate verbally what they just said with a one second look. Which I guess makes sense for them, since for their purposes, back in the day in the wild, being able to communicate quickly likely had an advantage.
 
I want too use them but I don't know where we are going to place them just yet.
Our animals are a bit more stubborn with new things but we have two exceptional companions who absolutely figures out what is needed in a minute or two. I'm sure they'll figure out the buttons easily with a little guidance. Then it'll make the process easier for the rest of them.

I do love how animals are using the buttons for more then just asking any needs or desires.
They are using them and other signals for consent to daily activities.
To clarify who is in the room or who they want to spend time with. Or to ask questions about themselves, an item, or a being.
To use singular terms interchangeably for various meanings. And to communicate trauma issues.
And my goodness has it been such a wide insight on not only animal consciousness but also behaviors.
And such an easy skill to raise your bonding and consent with your partner.

I am dying to find new ways to communicate with them through entertainment and training.
I would love to use buttons and am so glad to see the public picking up on using them as well.
There is a book I would like to advocate for when considering introduction of said item into your common activities.
And that is "How Stella Learned to Talk" by Christina Hunger
It is a great read on the topic at hand! Gotta recommend.
 
lemonylemurs said:
I want too use them but I don't know where we are going to place them just yet.
Our animals are a bit more stubborn with new things but we have two exceptional companions who absolutely figures out what is needed in a minute or two. I'm sure they'll figure out the buttons easily with a little guidance. Then it'll make the process easier for the rest of them.

I do love how animals are using the buttons for more then just asking any needs or desires.
They are using them and other signals for consent to daily activities.
To clarify who is in the room or who they want to spend time with. Or to ask questions about themselves, an item, or a being.
To use singular terms interchangeably for various meanings. And to communicate trauma issues.
And my goodness has it been such a wide insight on not only animal consciousness but also behaviors.
And such an easy skill to raise your bonding and consent with your partner.

I am dying to find new ways to communicate with them through entertainment and training.
I would love to use buttons and am so glad to see the public picking up on using them as well.
There is a book I would like to advocate for when considering introduction of said item into your common activities.
And that is "How Stella Learned to Talk" by Christina Hunger
It is a great read on the topic at hand! Gotta recommend.
Click to expand...
I do know Stella I saw her talking on instagram, she is part of the study with Bunny
 
Estafantom said:
I do know Stella I saw her talking on instagram, she is part of the study with Bunny
Click to expand...
Yes!!! Glad another knows her. I love that!! Bunny and Stella is amazing participants of button training. Plus some of the main influencers.
They will always have a place in my heart for even showing the potential of allowing animals more accessibility to words. It was eye opening.
 
The buttons aren't a requirement; dogs, horses, etc can communicate without them, you just have to learn a shared language.
There have been plenty of horses who have been taught to indicate if they want a blanket put on or taken off for example.

I think the buttons are interesting, but I find it weird that so many people act like the dog can't otherwise communicate equally complex things. I've had a number of dogs who were adept at indicating that they wanted to go out and play with a particular toy, for example.
 
egoldstein said:
I think the buttons are interesting, but I find it weird that so many people act like the dog can't otherwise communicate equally complex things. I've had a number of dogs who were adept at indicating that they wanted to go out and play with a particular toy, for example.
Click to expand...
The buttons relate it to complex language though (in theory), that means the communication isn't limited to the people who have lived with the animal for years.
 
ADreamOfLiberty said:
The buttons relate it to complex language though (in theory), that means the communication isn't limited to the people who have lived with the animal for years.
Click to expand...

That's the idea of it, still waiting to see anything really compelling come out of it though. There's always a limit to the language and a trade off on who's doing the hard work. I tend to think that it should be the humans doing the hard work since we're adapted to use language far more easily so should be able to communicate easier using more of the dog's native skills than having the dog need to be trained to use non-native mechanisms. Plus, if you rely on buttons and they aren't available (broken, out of the home, etc) your primary means of communication is now gone.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top