Christina Hunger, a 26-year old speech and language therapist, wanted to give her dog voice. Stella was just eight weeks old when she built the Dog Soundboard. The buttons play recordings of words such as “eat”, “outside”, and “beach”.
Stella, now 18 months old, has already learned 29 words as well as a few phrases. When she needs to express herself, Stella presses her paw against the buttons. Instagram user Hunger has captured Stella’s progress via Instagram.
Stella often tells us that she has a two-step process of what she wants. Stella might say that she gets hungry in the mornings and then wants to go outside after eating. Stella said, “Come eat, play” this morning, meaning she wanted to eat first, then play.
Walked to Dog Soundboard
Stella became very anxious one day and began whining and pacing backwards and forwards at the front door. Stella, an 18-month-old puppy, walked to Dog Soundboard, tapping repeatedly “want”, Jake, and “come”, then waited at the front door. Jake is Hunger’s fiancé. Stella ran to Jake’s house and hit “happy” before rolling over for belly rubs.
Hunger Said
It’s a constant state of amazement and shock. Each day she says something that is more amazing than the one before. It’s amazing to me how important dogs can be for their owners. Imagine how deep the bond!
Hunger helps children aged 1-2 years with their speaking skills. Many of these children also use technology to aid their learning. Hunger said that the way she uses words and the words she is combining words is very similar to a two-year-old child. Hunger’s experiment with Stella offers hope that we will be able to communicate better with our dogs in the future.
Stella isn’t the only animal to have learned to communicate with humans. Koko, the gorilla, was born on July 4, 1971. Koko was just one-year old when Francine Patterson, a researcher, began teaching her sign language in 1972. Koko’s incredible ability to learn new things amazed the entire world. Unfortunately, she died on June 19, 2018.
This Morning viewers were divided after two women spoke on the show today to talk about how they have trained their dogs to communicate using sound boards.
Alexis Devine spoke with Holly and Phil via videolink, while Kendra Baker, a fellow US pet communicator, and Billi, her 11-year old cat, spoke to the program from Maryland.
Some viewers thought the furry friends were amazing, but others weren’t convinced. They said that they were simply pressing buttons and reacting to their owners’ commands.
Bunny was immediately introduced to the communication pad when she arrived at Devine’s family home in September 2019.
When she wanted to go outside, she learned how to press down on one button
- Although she was only able to learn the first word ‘outside,’ her vocabulary now includes over 90 words such as ‘play’ and beach’.
- She uses the buttons to speak ‘play’ as well as to request ‘happy scretch’, which is a tickly scratch on her forehead.
- “My goal was to connect as much as Bunny and have the best possible communication.
- It’s every child’s dream to be able talk to their pets. So, I decided to think with zero expectations and put a button next to the door. It was an outside button.
- “It was three weeks later that she started using it alone, and asked to leave the house.
- “At that point it was game over, we moved the button to a bigger board and began adding words as you add more.
Bunny can also be instructed by Alexia using words such as ‘concerned,’ sad’ or ‘excited’. She was able to tell Alexia that she had a thorn on her paw by pressing the buttons ’ouch’,’stranger’ and ‘paw.
Alexis stated, “For the emotional work that we try and do is to find a moment when she is experiencing such emotion or I am experiencing something like her concerned,”
SPEAKS OUT A DOG SOUNDBOARD IN ORDER TO COMMUNICATE
Bunny, a 1-year old Sheepadoodle, can communicate better than most dogs. Bunny is able to request walks and scratches and tell her family that she loves them. Since she was a puppy, Alexis Devine taught Bunny how to use a hextile audioboard with 45 words.
Bunny can tap any sound to send a message whenever she wants it. Bunny can even combine words to create more specific phrases.
According to Devine, the first thing the dog learned was “outside,” which she used when she needed to go to the bathroom. After watching Christina Hunger’s videos, Devine was inspired to create a soundboard for her dog.
In one clip, the Sheepadoodle taps on two tiles to express her love for dad. Devine then takes the dog upstairs to meet her human father Johnny. Bunny taps on two tiles to ask Johnny, “Where’s Dad?”
Bunny uses the FluentPet Hextile soundboard. However, it is not clear if the dog can understand language. As with many training methods, the dog may just be tapping on certain sounds in order to get certain rewards.
Devine explained to The Sun that although I am not a scientist, I realize that we need large amounts of data to make a judgement as to whether Bunny understands what she is saying. “I also know that I can inevitably skew data to say that Bunny is communicating with me.”
Dog Soundboard for Communication
Bunny, a 1-year old Sheepadoodle, can communicate better than most dogs. Bunny is able to request walks and scratches and tell her family that she loves them. Since she was a puppy, Alexis Devine taught Bunny how to use a hextile audioboard with 45 words.
Bunny can tap any sound to send a message whenever she wants it. Bunny can even combine words to create more specific phrases.
According to Devine, the dog’s first language was “outside,” which she used when she needed to go to the bathroom. After watching Christina Hunger’s videos, Devine was inspired to create a soundboard for her dog.
In one clip, the Sheepadoodle taps on two tiles to express her love for dad. Devine then takes the dog upstairs to meet her human father Johnny. Bunny taps on two tiles to ask Johnny, “Where’s Dad?”
Bunny uses the FluentPet® Hextile Dog Soundboard. However, it is not clear if the dog can understand language. As with many training methods, the dog may just be tapping on certain sounds in order to get certain rewards.
Devine explained to The Sun that although I am not a scientist, I realize that we need large amounts of data to make a judgement as to whether Bunny understands what she is saying. “I also know that I can inevitably skew data to say that Bunny is communicating with me.”
This story was liked by In The Know. It’s about the man who caused controversy after giving his cat ice cream in a viral video.
Have you ever wondered what it would feel like to have your dog talk to you? This clever dog can communicate with her owner by using her vocabulary.
This intelligent dog can now speak using a soundboard and ask for walks. She can even tell her owner that she loves him.
Copper, a Labrador red fox Labrador has learned how to use buttons that have prerecorded words in order to communicate with her owner Tia, 50. The one-year old can now press any of the 40 buttons to communicate her desires. She can request to be allowed outside for her business and she even knows and communicates where Savannah, Tia’s 11-year-old daughter, is.
Tia, a speech-language pathologist, made Copper’s first soundboard herself out of wood and recordable buttons. Tia, mother-of-one said that Tia can talk to her dog and she can respond back.
“It takes patience, a lot modeling, but she can communicate her emotions and needs to me and my family. This is an amazing feat. She is able to tell us what she wants, and when she doesn’t want it.
“I love her ability to say what makes her happy or mad, and what triggers those emotions.”
Tia created her first soundboard to test if it was possible to train her dog.
Copper began to learn how to use the board at Seed Beauty four months of age. Tia would push the button to ‘potty’ every time she took her outside to help her get used to it.
Copper was able to press the button on her own after a few weeks with a little guidance.
She learned the meaning of “outside” and how to go for a walk or play outside. Then she was able to understand timings such as “later” and “now”.
She can also ask Tia where things are, such as her pig toys or family members, and she will tell Tia if they’re ‘outside or upstairs.
Copper can even assign emotions such as ‘happy,’ and’mad, but her main requests are toys and back scratches.
