Learning to speak: A dog communicates with buttons

Alexis Devine is teaching her sheepadoodle dog named Bunny to communicate with by pressing buttons. (Ramon Dompor / The Seattle Times)

[meetmehalfway]

The fact that the animal seems to be asking questions is what most interest me.

[Triairius]

All these new videos of dogs and cats learning to use buttons has really changed how I think of their sentience. I already knew they were thinking, caring creatures, but I guess I always thought they lived in the moment through feelings. I never quite considered just how thoughtful they could be.

[TheDoosh]

"Bunny, open the patio door please, I'm locked out"

"I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

[Windkisssed]

I love your honesty, your skepticism, the fact it could be our ego. Also I love what you said that they’re not learning a new language but that they’ve been saying it all along.

[marischwab]

I think this will revolutionize how we communicate with dogs and cats, one day someone’s going to use it on a cow, horse, sheep etc

[sirfishalot]

It’s midnight and you hear this from the living room.

“Bunny”

“Stranger”

“Mad”

“Mad”

“Mad”

[johnhogan]

I’ve been thinking of doing this for awhile but with simple phrases for the pup to say like gotta potty and such. I never expected they would be so good at figuring so much out. This is really fascinating

[anandr]

Imagine putting in some curses
Bunny: mom. park.
Mom: no bunny we’ve been to the park today
Bunny: fuck. Fuck. Fuck.

[writejudie]

I wonder if Bunny feel frustrated when she doesn't have access to the buttons and wants to communicate.

[Secret-swih]

I can tell you, owning dogs that YES they've been saying it all along. My dog tells me when he's due everything in his routine, sometimes when I forget. He tells me what he wants, what he doesn't. He's very determined. He's smart, sweet & adorable. He's a Yorkie 🥰

[uberstrawb]

her house, area, dog and style is modelled off sim 4 pets 🤣

[MAGNETO-ii]

"Stuck"
"Inside"
"Dog"
"Help"

[jenmdawg]

What a perfectly sane and reasonable overview of the experience and relationship. I am going to be bringing home two heelers in the next year and plan to incorporate this into our world. I really appreciate Alexis' perspective.

[sussybaka]

I'm very intrigued now. I may invest in some buttons just to see how well my dog and I can communicate. She already understands me, and with a routine, I understand her but this raises the bar and certainly seems to deepen the bond. Neat stuff!

[mrkitloin]

Imagine outside at 3AM you hear
“Outside” “look” “outside” “scared”

[paulspratt]

My dog sits herself in front of me, stares at me and starts whining, then I have to go through a word list such as out, food, cuddle, bed etc, and when I hit the correct word she reacts runs off turning her head for me to follow.
I think I will need to buy some of these dog buttons for her.

[nvue]

"2020, Bunny writes best novel and finds cure for covid-19"

[Voltaic_Fire]

I don't think anyone appreciated how smart a dog really can be or just how deeply they love and care for us until we gave them the opportunity to speak to us in a way we can most easily understand. Dogs look to us for comfort just as we look to them, they love us more than anything else in this world, and being able to talk with them is in many respects the greatest gift we have ever given ourselves. Please, treasure your dogs as they treasure you, it is a joy like no other. Damn, I miss my dogs so much, I've lost plenty of human family but somehow losing a dog weighs most heavily with very few exceptions. Why must the universe be so cruel and take away dogs so soon? 😢

[brianeno]

I think alot of people love this idea of communication with their pets, but probably don't realise how time consuming this is. Imagine raising a child, that's essentially what your doing but with a friend. You would have to train the dog to be diligent and obedient, you would have to care religiously about your animal. I hope no one saw this and thought wow this is going to be a fun little toy I can use with my dog.

[BekTatlun]

I love when she said it as it is about how she’s a hopeful skeptic and that if it’s what it is. It just shows that she actually knows what she’s doing and what’s going on.