Learning to speak: A dog communicates with buttons

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)

46 Comments

  1. clip brown on May 20, 2022 at 5:17 pm

    fake

  2. Galen Marek on May 20, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    Guys, calm down, a dog is not capable of understanding languagr per se. She recognizes sounds and what happened after the sound was heard, so for example: she presses a random button that says "Plushy rabbit" and everytime she does she gets the plushy rabbit toy, she learns to connect the two after a while and will henceforth be able to "ask" for the same toy by press of a button. Same with ALL other buttons, no exceptions, even the "I love you stuff". Heard her owners say it, saw the reaction, learned which button produces the same sound. Its no deeper than that. Its conditioning, not higher level speech ability.

  3. Rabbitzan Drakague on May 20, 2022 at 5:18 pm

    If only they had the technology to translate dog language to ours. Would it make sense would it be a fully formed language? Or simple words and expressions maybe one day. But this this is amazing. Very smart puppers

  4. Lauryn Miller on May 20, 2022 at 5:19 pm

    I love this.

  5. twitte0king on May 20, 2022 at 5:21 pm

    Wait, Is this a Julie nolke sketch?

  6. NBCUniversalfan on May 20, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    When was bunny the dog was brought home on?

  7. BATKAMARRI 13 on May 20, 2022 at 5:25 pm

    My dog: * in a howling wail *
    "I WaNt Mommy"
    * Our Mom *

  8. P T on May 20, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    What do you mean, at the end “we haven’t been listening”? Of course we have. Mankind has always wanted to communicate with animals.

  9. Norteno B on May 20, 2022 at 5:26 pm

    Now if only millennials could communicate with humans this well.

  10. Jaque Cousteau on May 20, 2022 at 5:27 pm

    This lady is a wackadoodle.

  11. Lara on May 20, 2022 at 5:28 pm

    but how do you start this? how do you learn them to do this?

  12. IzzyBatty on May 20, 2022 at 5:29 pm

    I need this lol

  13. RT HJ on May 20, 2022 at 5:30 pm

    Suss

  14. Salma Alsheik on May 20, 2022 at 5:31 pm

    Hiiiiiiiiiiii

  15. Taylor Wagner on May 20, 2022 at 5:33 pm

    You think your dog can not only understand English, but comprehend it and read labels

  16. Debbie Kydland on May 20, 2022 at 5:34 pm

    Made for cats too

  17. White Alliance on May 20, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    If this is what dogs and cats do with these buttons i would like to see a pig and crow use them. Lets get some of those studies going

  18. Advice From Jay on May 20, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    This is the future of talking animals !

  19. Solano Ghost Girl on May 20, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    I’m going to start this with my dog. I think she’s smart enough to figure it out lol !

  20. Roo’s Nest Gaming on May 20, 2022 at 5:36 pm

    there’s a really awesome horse who can do math… it’s incredible.

  21. White Alliance on May 20, 2022 at 5:37 pm

    Honestly I think the dog presses some of those buttons because they can smell the endorphine change in their owner… Like pressing "love you mom". How happy would a human be if the dog presses those buttons?
    The chemical change would be large inside the human and I think the dog can sense/smell the change.

  22. Gypsy Genesis on May 20, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    Where can I get the buttons from?

  23. Irene Veronica on May 20, 2022 at 5:38 pm

    "We haven’t been listening." That’s so true – countless dogs are frustrated because their owners just don’t get what they’re communicating. They understand us and probably think we’re real dumb animals!

  24. chip block on May 20, 2022 at 5:46 pm

    Plot twist, the cute dog has started training the lady to speak in the dog’s language. She now hast 23 buttons to convey to the dog her feelings in his language. One button that is missing is the "NO!" button.

  25. BLOOP 9809 on May 20, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    The average dog can know up to 150 words and german shepherds can hear around 250-300

  26. Mary S. on May 20, 2022 at 5:47 pm

    All this aside…Bunny is just flipping adorable.

  27. meg on May 20, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    this isn’t any different than clever Hans the horse or Koko the gorilla – neither of them were actually doing what we humans thought they were doing. this is just human ego projection, and instead of trying to force animals to learn human language we should be studying how to communicate with them on their animal level.

  28. Bob Lobs on May 20, 2022 at 5:49 pm

    Before we no it thay will be talking to us and standing upright evolution just think haw long thay have been captive another million years thay will be able to tell us exactly whot thay wont

  29. Phillip Webster on May 20, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    Bro what if someone made a pair of glasses with built in AI that picks up on dogs body language and translates it. Youd be able to see text aswell as audio from the glasses. The Ai has a algorythm and is able to translate based on years of data collected from other dogs aswell as your own.

  30. sp1nd0ct0r on May 20, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    Total gimmick. Do a real study w/a control and maybe I’d buy it. Couldn’t possibly have anything to do with the fact that the dog gets massive amounts of attention asociated w/the buttons lolol

  31. Thor Gustafson on May 20, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    They sure do talk…

  32. Ashley Salter on May 20, 2022 at 5:53 pm

    I bought some buttons after watching Bunny’s videos. So far my Jakey boy knows ‘outside’, ‘play’ and ‘walkies’.

  33. it's kind of a funny story... on May 20, 2022 at 5:54 pm

    I don’t need buttons to understand my dog though 🙂

  34. Yuva Silvanathan on May 20, 2022 at 5:57 pm

    There’s surely no way the dog distinguishes that many buttons..

  35. Magd. S. on May 20, 2022 at 5:58 pm

    I dont believe he knows what he ia saying… It is only a joke

  36. Blood Angel44 on May 20, 2022 at 6:02 pm

    Wow thats amazing

  37. Ash K on May 20, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    True takeaway

  38. Pikapetey Animations on May 20, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    That house looks amazing to live in

  39. dead ontime on May 20, 2022 at 6:03 pm

    I love this

  40. Randy Smith on May 20, 2022 at 6:05 pm

    well that’s it i think, they have been talking all along. Water buffalo rescues turtle, Beluga whale notices girl looses phone overboard and swims down and retrieves it returning to the person who dropped it. Dog gets in way of car and won’t move until driver gets and and dog leads driver to endangered cat. It’s more of consciousness sharing then talk. Humans seems to only use it in dreams if and only if they pay attention to their dreams. Dreams can communicate messages, you need to learn the picture meaning of the symbols, the more you practice the more relative the symbology of the symbols and confirmation communication exist. with whom you might think, well, those who are no longer in physical body.

  41. jesus000 on May 20, 2022 at 6:08 pm

    I feel that at some point in the far future they will evolve and be able to speak they will become our equals
    Although they’re much better than us

  42. Melanie Carlson on May 20, 2022 at 6:09 pm

    I love your dog

  43. spartan117unsc on May 20, 2022 at 6:09 pm

    Oof the conclusion the women gave was deep af ngl

  44. RedHead Redemption on May 20, 2022 at 6:10 pm

    My dog just presses any random button and dosnt get the difference. And she won’t press them unless I’m sitting there telling her to

  45. Lenka Jindrová on May 20, 2022 at 6:10 pm

    I have a question. Our dog loves to play, so what would happen if he pressed the play button all the time? Its Impossible to play with him all the time…

  46. Lord Kiyo on May 20, 2022 at 6:12 pm

    Dogs had the ability to understand our speech for a long time. Probably longer than we realize. It’s just they don’t have the vocals to be able to replicate our sounds. So I really love the idea of these buttons, and wish I had them when I had my dog. I wonder what stuff you have on all those buttons. There so many of them.

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