Do Pet Buttons Work? The Science Behind Talking Dog Buttons 

In part 2, I take a close look at the video where Bunny looks in a mirror and appears to say "who this" and discover something shocking → ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-jObcXvhZu_Q.html Learn more about animal training with these videos! [1] How and Why Zoos and Aquariums Train Their Animals → ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-x-r6nFNDops.html [2] Secrets of the Navy's Classified Dolphin Program → ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-sdFCZOIbh4A.html [3] How to Train Your Aggressive Dog → ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PXsBmDKevEk.html

I can hear the pitchforks being sharpened all the way from my hospital bed 😂😂

this whole thing just feels like the old psychic trick of cold reading, where everything is turned to a positive response... lots of people believe those too unfortunately

It bothers me that Bunny isn't using any "dog language" in the "stranger" video, she shows no sign of discomfort. If my dog had something stuck in her paw she would be worrying at it, trying to remove it; which would tell me something was there and I would look.

Every time Bunny presses a button his owner immediately asks 'what [button]?' or 'why [button]?' After which she completely fills out all the blanks. People LOVE to think that animals think like them, but their thinking can be very different from ours. Not because they are stupid, but because they excell at different things. For one, dogs are not dumb enough to project their thoughts onto others, this is a human thing and can help us socially, but dogs have different solutions to the same problem. They are smart in their own right.

I'm getting a German Shephed puppy and he's been professionally trained for the past month to develop verbal communication skills. Last week he texted me using the trainer's phone and told me to tip the trainer a thousand dollars. This dog will be amazing! 😮

I did not watch this video with an open mind. Being a dog-lover (big time), & a Bunny fan, I was rather offended that she would suggest that Bunny was not really doing what she we all saw her do. I clicked on the video with every expectation that I would strongly disagree with her argument. However, she did make some very valid & substantiated points. The major one being editing. I enjoy Bunny's videos so much and is so enthralled by her cuteness that I didn't even notice the videos were so obviously edited. There was a famous dog named Chase, who could remember the names of thousands of toys. His owner was a psychologist, I believe. I think dog's intelligence is more akin to that. Dog pressing a button to communicate that they want to "walk", "potty" or "scritches are proven abilities that dogs have. They can communicate that, but to be able to string words together to express a thought is rather farfetched. That said, I will still watch Bunny videos cos she is just so darn cute.

I'm so glad you mentioned the importance of intonation. Communication between animals and humans is based on patterns of behavior and anticipated outcomes more than the words we say. Always happy to see a KP vid in my list. Thank you!

Bunny and other button using animals seem to learn buttons for words important to them like food and poop. But the abstract thinking bits seem a stretch. Billy the cat is worth watching.

We are sooooooo accustomed to watching videos that people don't even understand editing and the ways it can be used to manipulate a presentation, EVEN THOUGH more people than ever have access to the ability to learn how to do it.

I'll never understand why some people want animals to be like humans, what ever happened to accepting animals as they are? it's almost like they think that animals are not good enough unless they can preform unnatural behaviour.

My dog once crocheted a functioning ladder from strategically torn up blankets, shoes and toilet paper to climb to the top shelf in our kitchen where the dog treats are stored. So, personally I'm on team dog self aware

I feel like there's also a "healthy" dose of confirmation bias in these, much like with ghost hunting shows. If Bunny says "water", and i go on a treasure hunt for the meaning, any sink, tap, rain, bottle of water, empty bowl, can fit that. Same as with ghost hunters hearing the word "went" from a muguffin box. They don't question the word, but instead lead it to *some* conclusion like "Yes, this spirit went to school here" or "This spirit went outside".

It‘s mindblowing that people would rather put their trust and belief in a heavily edited video about a talking dog, than consider scientific facts and reasoning. No wonder conspiracy theories are on the rise 😂

You explain this very well. No need for people to get ugly about your observations. I am still amazed how people can anthropomorphize with their pets. Especially dogs. I have worked with Service dogs, military dogs, hunting dogs, sled dogs and humble dachshunds. They are all capable of learning words. Right, left, stay, Seek (whatever thing) I could go on. But they are simple concepts and not structured speech. I love the idea of outside, danger, eat, potty, hurt. But go outside play with the cat um. ya... right... Its just not how they communicate. I did get buttons. Started with eat and outside. it took a while to teach them to a dachshund. My Pyrenees learned they over the course of a few months. My older 14 year old dachshund, Nufie and pyrenees eventually learned "Pain" for joint medication. I have another button I might use for baby (toy) or drink so I can hear when they run out of water (probably not). But I have to admit I have no need for much more. I know when scared, danger, play, love, tired, stranger all by how they bark and act, even waking me up specific sound of their bark (tone etc) to wake me up to let them outside at 5am. I have to agree with everything you said in your opinion and oversations on the videos Honestly my dogs understand sign language much better than voice commands. I teach them commands with both at the same time from the very start. Anyhow GREAT VIDEO AND INFORMATION (‾◡◝) (❁´◡`❁)

I have a 4.5 month old toy poodle. She pushes the button "go wee wee's", I let her out and she immediately does a wee! This is her first button. Clearly, she knows what it means.

Thank you for being the only person to address this lunacy, I feel myself both losing faith in humanity and going crazy scrolling through those comments

It's interesting timing. One of the language channels I subscribe to just did a video about The Clever Hans Effect. The case of Clever Hans showed that a horse was so good at picking up subtle cues in human body language, it was able to see hints that the humans were giving it _that the humans themselves were unaware that they were making._ Someone in the comments on that video raised three dogs with buttons videos, even telling me, "You're biased. You don't know what you're talking about." My sin? Pointing out that we only have videos of the dogs being successful. We don't have the videos showing how often these dogs just pushed buttons at random. That is *Selection Bias.* And I was assuming no editing in the videos of the animals "successfully" communicating with the buttons. But in a response back to the attack I got, I stated that I'm a physicist by training, and "in the 'hard' sciences, it is drilled into us that you _do not_ collect data to prove your hypothesis, you collect data _to try and _*_DISPROVE_*_ yourself._ You pull out a hammer and try and break your model. And when the hammer breaks instead, you get a different hammer and keep doing this until you run out of hammers. "I would find this thing with pets and buttons credible if there were a series of videos going, 'So I've tried to show that my dog is tapping these buttons for any reason other than trying to communicate with me, and every alternative reason has proven wrong. Am I missing something? Am I imagining it? Or is this for really using these buttons to talk to me?"

I NEED PART 2 NOW

I had a border collie who understood so many words, we had to start spelling things like "walk","ride" and "vet". After a while, he figured out what we were spelling. He knew at least 40 words, and I wasn't really trying to teach him. Now we have a Belgian Malinois who is doing the same thing. I am not at all surprised that Bunny knows the buttons. Have you checked out Billi the cat? She died last week but you can still see her videos on RU-vid. She was pretty amazing too.

We couldn't even spell out walk for our dog. We had to resort to using words like "mosy" and "saunter", e.g. "let us now commence to promenade". He was too smart.

I would absolutely love to see a video on the African Grey named Apollo. (Aka Apollo and Frens). He’s definitely not the same as these button videos because he can ya know, actually speak, and I find it amazing how many words he has learned and his ability to use context to use what he already knows in order to identify things (like seeing a bug he’d never seen before but being able to identify it because it’s small and moves). His owners seem really cool and are clearly trying to actually train him in a scientific way to learn the extent of African Greys intelligence. It’s super cool to me. He definitely doesn’t always get things right, but they leave that in and he gets things right more often than not

Thank you for helping us think twice and critically about what we see on the internet!

We have the buttons for our dogs and I don't think of it as they can talk to us. It's just each button is associated with a different activity. And them pressing the button is them asking to do that. Kind of like when you put a bell on your door knob for them to ring when they want to go outside. Except instead of a bell its a button. And they know what button gets them whichever reward. The button is in it's spot for them to get their desired outcome. And the word is for us to know what outcome they are probably expecting. Our buttons are all actions (play, walk, scritches, outside (go outside), and toy, which gets them a toy from the basket). Idk if any of this makes sense. But it's like them sitting for a treat but instead they're clicking the button in the middle to get a toy, or the one next to that to get an ear massage. and you teach them the context behind each button. They don't have to be trying to "talk" to you. But if they're pressing the button, chances are they want something. I know that's a crap way of explaining it, my mind goes everywhere but yk. To sum it up I think of it more as performing a trick for a treat than "talking". That's just how I believe dogs interpret the buttons.

its very irritating that people like her are giving the wrong impression that dogs can understand human "language" as opposed to their own. They do understand language, body language and basic words. There may be a correlation between "I've pressed this before, and action has occurred" but the likelihood of the dog thinking the voice comes from the button itself is very low.

I have talk buttons for my puppy, Vex. She is a german shepherd and has hip dysplasia and a genetic condition that causes her to get swollen joints. She's only 5 months old. I'm using the buttons to try to teach her to tell us when she is in pain. We just got the buttons less than a week ago and has so far already learned "go potty." Next will be "play." This is to teach her the buttons have a cause/effect. Over time, i hope she will learn to TELL us things. Like if I ask if she wants to go for a run or a hike, she can tell me "no, ouch." Maybe she doesn't really hurt, but if her body isn't feeling up to the extra exercise, I'd rather she could tell me than deal with pain management later. Right now when she is in pain, she gets very bitey. My hope is to give her an alternate way to communicate that isn't so dangerous as she gets huge (she's going to be huge) and we can help her more proactively. The good news is that her vet is optimistic about her condition and we have already resolved her bilateral patellar luxations with physical therapy, joint supplements, and diet adjustments. I feel like teaching them things like "love you" is for your own vanity. If they love you, they'll tell you in their own language. You shouldn't need a trained button to tell you that. I want buttons for the more subtle things that are harder to pick up on. (yes, play can be bringing me a toy, but i need it as an intermediate step).

Those bias are beyond funny… it’s scary. The bunny’s owner simply just twist whatever Bunny presses to make it work for her 😂

This video is far more interesting than your previous ones. The scientifically-backed interpretations and added nuance is so much more effective at explaining what's going on than the performative skepticism. I buy a lot more of what you said here, and it makes intuitive sense with what I've personally seen with dogs and how they communicate. I do wonder if cats are a little better at word-linking, whether we can call it language acquisition or not. Animals are amazing!

People always want to humanize animals . It’s the “Bambi” syndrome. Think about it. If animals could really talk, they would be using four letter words at humans to let them know what they really are thinking!!! Thanks KP! Until my cat say’s “ I want a steak, rare, I,m with you!!!! 😂

It's just depressing we all know people will still defend it and call you unintelligent. Common sense used to mean something. Looking forward to part 2 😍

As far as I'm aware, there are research scientists accessing the unedited footage. Alexis says she edits to make it more interesting for viewers. I'm naturally sceptical, but I've seen enough of Bunny's videos to know that *something* is going on. No, she can't 'talk', but yes, I believe she is trying to express herself/communicate, at a very basic level. Plus she seems to enjoy it. Also, parents use this same method with babies and toddlers when they're learning language, so it's not inherently 'wrong'. At the end of the day, it's entertainment. This is RU-vid, not New Scientist 🤷Edited to add that I would be intrigued to know how much of what Bunny does is in response to her owner's body language. That's definitely not something that is clear from what I've seen.

What do you think about the cat Billie Speaks? She seems to take time to consider what button to press before pressing and her body language correlates, like thrashing her tail when she presses the "mad" button

I wish these buttons would go away. As an AuDHD human, I am very sensitive to the weird wants and whims of NT communication requirements on ND humans, full stop. For CENTURIES, NT humans have linked "intelligence" to "speech" and have tortured (and still torture) ND humans who have autism and other neurodiversities related to being nonverbal. There is still a lot of stigma even now around the idea that "being intelligent" requires speech communication in a way that is recognizable as speech by other humans, and anything else is subject to being classed as disordered and needs to be fixed. This nonsense is a different side of THAT same coin. I have actually worked with and trained a variety of animals. The things about training an animal that ALWAYS needs to be taken into consideration are: 1.) how that animal effectively communicates with members of their own species, and 2.) if that animal has forms of communication it evolved to exclusively communicate with humans. I've worked extensively with guinea pigs, but have also lived and worked with both cats and dogs. All three of those species have very specific forms of auditory communication they ONLY use to communicate with humans (this has been studied and documented). They do it because it works, and because they've learned that we do not have the sensory perception to pick up on subtle clues to convey things in a "normal" way for how they communicate with each other. Guinea pigs have a "WHERE IS MY FAMILY, I AM HERE!" baby call similar to a sea otter meep, and FOR THE EXACT SAME REASON (because they are a prey species not wanting to draw attention to themselves and attract predators) they shut up as they get older. The exception being guinea pigs and sea otters raised in human care. Guinea pigs raised in human care will keep the alarm call to respond to a crinkled plastic bag or the opening of a fridge. Joey seems to have learned to weaponize his meep scream not to alert to his geographic position in the open ocean, but to express some displeasure or desire he wants humans to address. You even illustrate the probable way he learned that in the audio of some of your videos with baby Tazzy where you are talking to her when she squeaks at you. "Humans respond to this noise." Lesson learned. Then consider Quatse, who was mom-trained to shut up by the time she came into human care at almost the age when she would've been on her own. Quatse makes the lower volume otter noises typical of otters, but lost the meep scream long before she came into human care. She was not trained to need it, she was trained away from it by her otter mother (I've seen the same thing in guinea pigs not raised with a lot of human contact as babies). What frustrates me about buttons is, as stated, the fluidity of interpretation based on errorless confirmation bias of the owner. It is actually possible to teach word association learning with buttons or visual words, but that is not what is happening here. If she were interested in actually teaching the words, the correct methodology is to reward for correct, ignore for incorrect...NOT interpret whatever she wants to interpret. But -- hot take -- because dogs are SO visual, she might have better luck actually training bunny to visually recognize words. I don't know if dogs can do this, but they have proven certain birds can. Forcing animals to learn to communicate on human terms in ways humans view as valid language (whether it is or not) instead of taking time to TRULY pay attention to the subtle non-verbal sensory communications that non-human species use with each other and learn from THAT really just smacks of human arrogance.

I think animals could learn to press the buttons for food, treats, toys, or to go outside. I’m certain if I gave my cat a food button she would step on it 24 hrs a day 😂. She sits on command for food and to be brushed. She also cries when she wants something and then I have to go through a laundry list of things to figure out what she wants 😂. I was thinking of making her a few buttons of her favorite things to see if she can tell me which of those things she wants. Like if she pushes brush, she gets brushed for example. But not as much as throwing entire sentences together. I think they should do a formal study! That would be so fun!

am i getting this right? dogs cant talk - they have not evolved speech - it is impossible for them to communicate something using multiple words in a sentence but dogs can learn a words meaning by association, like the dog hears "walk", realises "walk" = going outside for a walk so then they should also be able to learn "food", "tired", "play" but maybe they cant understand "happy" "sad", because if the dog says sad and the human gives them pats or returns a chew toy, the dog wont and cant learn the meaning of sad, but they'll think "sad" = receive love

All support to you and Bunny (and the gang). Having worked closely with dogs (as a trainer, agility competitor) I have zero doubts about their intelligence, empathic natures, and communication abilities. To think anyone could question their sentience is mind-boggling to me, but then the behaviorists at one time wanted to deny ours as well, and speak only in terms of observable behaviors, ignoring our internal experience altogether. Re the videos you're addressing: I watched one nay-sayer who talked about the buttons making us blind to the normal body language communication that dogs already use with us. I don't understand that argument: it's not replacing that form of communication, just offering another avenue. I'm sure the handlers of Koko the Gorilla paid attention to her body language as well as signing with her. When I taught my babies sign language, I didn't stop talking to them or ignore their cries, grunts, facial expressions, etc. And lo and behold, they learned to speak and sign. Forget the armchair "debunkers": let's wait for the research papers and more importantly, enjoy watching Bunny (and other animals) communicate as best she can using our human conceptual categories. If it's uncomfortable to get more insight into the depth of experience of non-human animals, let's face that head-on and reevaluate how we treat (and mistreat) them.

Fascinating. You present your perspective so well, communicating so clearly. I've had border collies for most of my life. (They're pretty smart as you probably know.) One of my dogs, 20 years ago, knew 400 different words, and we have video evidence of her fetching different objects on command. While border collies are masters at UNDERSTANDING our human language, I've always felt it was my job to understand their language and the way they communicate what they want to "say." So I've never wanted to venture into the world of those buttons. My current dog knows around 200 tricks, and will respond to both verbal and physical cues for those behaviours. But, exactly like you say in the video, I had to be careful not to use words that sound too similar. Maiki knows cues in three different languages, so that there's no change of her confusing hug and tug, or mixing up abajo and abrazo.

There you go again KP...using logic and knowledge to show your professional opinion. How rude!! LOL All great questions on the videos and without answers....you get to speculate.. Well some of us can.

I think the owner reacted with more urgency to take the dog outside when she used "potty" so over time the dog equated the quicker response to potty and switched to using that que instead of "outside". It's part of operant conditioning, Michael Ellis calls them operant dogs, a dog that figures out what gets the response it wants then uses it in the future. When I got my dog Mimi, I would make her down while I prepared her food, in a few days I noticed she would down in that spot to que me to feed.

Only just started, but I remember that old video. I think part of the issue i have with your reasoning is that teaching a dog to, for example, ring a bell to tell you they nee to go out...is already a commonly taught behavior. Pushing a certain button to get a certain thing or response is certainly something we can teach them. By the same mechanism, if the buttons say a word, and then you have identical buttons but only one says the word they need to get the response they want...thwn suddenly the pattern is no longer 'push button--> get let outside' it then becomes 'push the button that says "outside"--> get let outside' I saw this style of word recognition in my own late beagle. He was very smart, and a good way to find out what he needed when he came to me for something, was just to ask! Whatever he got more excited about, was what he wanted. I hope to see you recognize this kind of pattern recognition dogs make, and explain more on your doubts in ways that acknowledge that pattern association is not the issue. For instance, I have doubts about the more abstract words Bunny is being taught-"is" being an example. But certainly we can teach them certain nouns and verbs to become better connected with them-i mean heck, that word association is basically all that dog training is! Edit to add: I believe Bunny's owner has a longer vid on her channel to show what it is she's editing out. Iirc, it's usually just air time, usually with Bunny standing looking at her, or at the buttons, before pressing another. This does throw doubt on if Bunny is connecting these words, since dogs require short time intervals to make pattern connections, but there are a lot of identical buttons, so it's possible she's just buffering while remembering which is the one she wants to push next, I have no clue lol I think the word definitions like for "bird = airplane" or "stranger = unfamiliar things" makes sense when we remember the difficulties involved in teaching these concepts to a dog....the dog doesn't know what a plane is, but he does know birds go in the sky, and there's a thing that's vaguely bird shaped in the sky (which, btw, dogs have 20/75 vision on average-which is bad. I have 20/70 and receive government assistance and accommodations as a result....so he definitely can't tell the visual difference between a soaring bird and a plane) For "stranger", I think that definition became fluid when they realized that based on her usage of it, the concept Bunny seemed to have associated with it was not unfamiliar PERSON...just unfamiliarity in general. And I think they hesitate to correct her because that could confuse her and undo some of the training that's been done

I think dogs understand us, but in very narrow and specific circumstances. I think we've picked up more of their cues and communication quirks than they have ours. But they obviously have some ability to understand us, because that is what we bred them for. I do think Bunny is smart but I think the owner just hit a goldmine with their content and is running with it.

I am far from an expert in any of this, but about a year into this trend, I got recommended a video about a gorilla who could "speak" sign language, and it turned out that the gorilla could not. It was just close-enough signs to get specific rewards. Ever since watching that I've seen the same red flags in every one of these "talking animal" videos. I still watch them bc the animals are cute. But I have to scoff when meaning is invented.

My concern with this specific training which I enjoy working with my Lhasa Apso on with very basic words, is setting the animal up for failure by not understanding what they actually may be trying to convey if they are trying to convey something specific. I find that this could lead to anxiety for the and perhaps, if not properly handled, could then discourage the dog or cats from trying to communicate by more natural means. I would just like to see these animals set up for Success and when there is confusion the animal has opportunities to show what it is trying to say through its more natural and common methods like body language and then have that reinforced. The folks who trained the dogs that I have seen online seem to work very well with them the dogs seem to be very healthy and happy well-adjusted I have no concerns for these animals. I'm talking about for those of us who want to work with something like these buttons with our own animals we need to be sure we are paying attention to our animals and what they are conveying to us through all of their language skills. And provide them positive reinforcement no matter how we 'hear' what they are "saying".

As long as they have sufficient motivation, people will believe what they _want_ to believe, even if that belief never addresses facts and evidence against it. As someone who didn't watch any of the mentioned videos (neither yours nor theirs), thank you for bringing up evidence.

My dog can definitely recognize some words, in the same way that they would recognize a command, like treat, mommy, daddy, and walk. But since dogs never had a reason to copy those words and talk back, they didn't evolve that ability. If dogs had a longer lifespan and more time to learn, and were taught in the proper way, they might be able to develop basic communication, though it is hard to believe that they would be able to form sentences and use world like "why". For example, they might be able to press a button that says "walk". But this is not really speaking the English language, rather just communicating, because don't your dogs scratch the door when they want to be taken out for a walk? My dog does, and he also scratches his food bowl when he wants food. This is because he has been trained to expect food or a walk when he does an action. Pushing a button would just be the action rather than him actually understanding the deeper meaning of the word.

More people need to make sensible, informed content like this on a whole range of different topics. I find it quite scary how many folk seem to believe everything they see on social media. And, worse, will defend their interpretations to the last breath even when shown to be misinformed by people much more qualified than they are. It seems that 'being right' has displaced discussion and debate from our society. :( Great video. Thank you.

It shouldn't be rocket science. We already know animals can learn nouns and verbs and can respond to them (sit, food etc, some animals have names for each other). We already know animals have body language and communicate with it (tail wags, posturing, where they look etc). We already know all of this so of course animals have language. They just don't have complex language (duh) and it's so interesting to learn where the language differences begin and end.

Dogs and other mammals cannot hold concepts in their brain like us humans. The woman is just reinforcing the cues or words given to bunny the dog. Bunny is relying on perception and limited memorization. As KPassionate pointed out the video is edited.. humans like to insert our own ideas,hopes, and believes into other animals. Called anthropomorphism in psychology. That is why the dogs could not distinguish between the words walk,talk, and chalk. The concepts are different.

I think cats and dogs, and some other animals, can understand if they push a certain button they will have something happen. Like pushing the Out button will get them taken outside. I haven't seen anything that makes me believe they can string words together to make real sentences. Their brains aren't wired for human language. What they can do though is impressive. I've always used a lot of non verbal queues with my cats. They understand that better.

I think it’s about creating a common pidgin ( a simplified language shared by groups) It’s simplifying humans to think like animals; and getting the two on the same page to facilitate communicate

It's disappointing that people got heated over the last video. I really enjoy the Bunny videos, but as cute fluffy dog content and not cutting-edge scientific innovation. Also, personally, I opted for a pets-over-kids lifestyle partially because they're a lot more quiet💀. My Doberman puppy can get mischievous af with just the door bells, so I'm likely better off not knowing most of her thoughts. Plus, if they truly worked I'd probably want an "I'm developing cancer" button for my rats or something.

We used to laugh so hard as kids when our dog would react to rhyming words SO DAMN CONSISTENTLY. Our poor dog had to be feeling teased by it though, a failure of kid's logic.

Thank you for this video. I hated your first one and felt the need for this second one. You nailed it. Thank you

Its like that recent trend where people were calling there dogs different names in the same tone & they would get excited. Lol

I know this video is old but I have been curious about talking buttons for my dog because she already tries to tell me what she wants XD she likes to come up to me and Huff / Snap / Give shifty eyes until I follow her and then she has a system - she sits, I grab X thing, its wrong so she has no reaction. I grab Y thing and its right so she starts wagging her tail and getting excited. If i grab a thing that is CLOSE to the thing she wants ( like grabbing a Rope toy when she wants to play with the Duck toy) she wiggles her tail slightly but it isnt with enthusiasm. If i grab a Ball and she wants rope, she wont wiggle her tail at all because the toys aren't related in play style. She literally gives me Cold Warm Hot cues for things, including walks, car rides, treats, kibble, toys, head scratches, floor time, etc. I want to experiment with the buttons to see if she would learn to be more specific so I dont play guessing games!

This is similar to how Penny trained Koko the gorilla. Somewhere there exists a transcript of an AOL interview with Penny and Koko, it reads like a comedy sketch! 🤣

You think my little Timmy ain't a real boy?! Them's fightin' words! 😂 Thanks for doing these! You did nothing wrong in your first video. It's simply not possible to cover a topic like this without triggering hate. A percentage of the population is deeply in love with woo woo. Add that to the fact that many of us see our pets as children. We dress them in human clothes, give them our last names, and let them eat from our plates. The little brood parasites highjacked our parental instincts!

Thank you for this and your earlier video about Bunny's use of buttons that I have also watched this evening. Ever since i came across the Bunny videos I have been deeply skeptical about some of the claims made by her owner. I do not have the specialised knowledge needed to write a meaningful examination of what is being claimed so I'm very pleased that you have done so. I believe that if these claims were factual there would already be independent, peer reviewed articles published in reputable science journals. Without this sort of evidence I do not believe the claims about Bunny producing meaningful phrases about abstract concepts. I know very little about Bunny's owner but are skeptical about the possibilities that the videos demonstrate anything other than: •observer bias, •over optimistic interpretations of Bunny's intentions, •selective use and editing of videos •and/or straight out fraudulent claims for financial gain and internet clout. A verifiable, independent study, as described above would be relatively simple to conduct and publish IF Bunny really does communicate in the manner claimed by the owner. If I ever see such a document I will happily question my own beliefs.

I agree with calling out the edits and not showing the thorn removal, but "stranger" could easily be interchangeable with "foreign" or "danger" in a dog's mind or more likely a combination of both. It makes total sense to use the term "stranger" in the context of how the dog knows it to refer to a fox or a thorn as the dog understands that neither belong where they are and cause harm. It's completely logical to suspect confirmation bias and selective hearing to draw conclusions to convince yourself a dog is communicating abstract thought, but it seems insane that you argue That a bird is not a plane and therefore can't be seen as language intelligence... why the hell would a dog know the difference between bird and plane, when it knows what birds are but almost certainly has never been on a plane or heard the word? If a dog was on a plane it'd likely call it "sky car" or something similar. There is no reason why a dog wouldn't think of all flying things as birds, toddlers confuse them as well until corrected. The lady commenting that works with kids with speech disabilities has relevant points, the example of the rescue dogs given contradictory messages only says they value physical gestures more than verbal, it says nothing of their cognitive ability or language skills, just what language form they prefer. Those same dogs without visual cues would do exactly what you tell them every time without conflicting information. If you ask a bilingual person to do contradictory things in 2 languages and they do one of them, is that evidence of them not understanding or speaking either? If a dog could say "walk" it absolutely would, that's not merely "auditory association". I'll guarantee that dogs know the words "eat" "treat" "outside" "walk" "ball" "fetch" and "drive" along with names of individual toys. They understand things that are important to them, if they don't see the importance of a sound they have no reason to know it. Sled dogs know words that I don't understand. The frisbee analogy is complete nonsense and you have no evidence to say they are not speaking based on that, you are merely presenting a biased opinion in metaphor. The example of "walk, talk, chalk" is also complete nonsense because most dogs aren't asked to talk and have absolutely have no reference for what chalk is. Why would they learn nuances of sound representing abstract ideas they have no reference for or that are irrelevant? Why would something stimulate the brain if they have no concept of what it is? Why the hell would you assume abstractions referencing nothing the dog is familiar with would be recorded to memory or have unique brain activity? A dog with these buttons knows the difference between "talk" and "walk" but they'll likely never understand what chalk is. They'd almost certainly have different brain activity for those words, but you didn't conduct that test. We teach "A" is for apple with pictures of Apples so kids understand how abstractions like letters can represent words and things, why the hell would a dog's brain recognize auditory nuances they were never taught the importance of? If a dog was told the word apple, shown the button "apple" and given the fruit to eat, It'd have a reference for their abstractions. If it hits the apple button and you give it a slice of apple it can learn to speak that word. Teaching in this way, if you have 10 buttons and one says cheese and another says peanut butter show them the items and ask which they want, they won't press "outside" it'll almost certainly be cheese or peanut butter. I sought out your videos because I questioned the validity of these buttons as actual communication, but all I'm seeing is a negative confirmation bias on your part without even doing your own testing. While some of your criticisms of the videos is valid, your alleged "scientific" examples says nothing about the language abilities of dogs, only that they prefer hand commands over auditory commands, and that they don't understand things they were never taught and have no reason to know. As a scientist, why would you expect anything different from these examples? Why aren't you devising and sharing practical tests for these youtubers to actually test the communication skills of dogs? You have not worked with dogs in this manner, you have not worked with animals with proven language skills like Apes or Dolphins that understand sign language. To say that you are an "expert" on animal communication is pretty weak, you don't even seem to understand that you're cherry-picking data to reach your conclusion, and it's the wrong data. I want to see Koko's trainers' version of this video. You'd better stick to youtube videos, because you're a pseudo-scientist at best.

Like the commenter in the middle of the video, I also work with students with AAC devices, including those switches featured in the video. I'm fascinated by the person's usage of the phrase "errorless learning protocol," which has a very specific meaning (and yes, PROTOCOL) in ABA. ( I don't know anything about this woman, but if she's the well-known dog mom that's a speech language pathologist, that would make sense that that's how she learned of errorless learning.) If you're teaching kids with errorless learning, the whole point is that the instructor knows the correct result and uses the hierarchy of prompts to have the student reach the correct answer; if the student makes a mistake before the instructor can correct them, the instructor goes, "This is the correct answer, try again. [Repeat question/direction])." Notice how it's NOT student-led, and it's NOT about the adult rationalizing the student's answer.

My Australian Shepherd has a few buttons but I only use command words. Such as; outside, mommy, *son's name*, grandma's name, water, ball, treat, no, yes, come, play, look. He usually uses the combination "play, outside" or "play, ball / look, ball" or "treat, play" and he will follow it up with going and nudging at our hallways door where we let him wait while we hide treats around the house, when it's all set we open the door for him and say "search". He will go and search the treats. So of course they know these words and understand what they mean. But I doubt they can make sentences or use words such as love and worry... Seems too farfetched.

"Millie the talking guinea pig shows off her skills", an actual video on RU-vid. Would you comment on it?

Dog's may understand a word or two, but they don't grasp syntax.

I have to admit that I’ve been using this for my dog. There is a way that I think she understands what she’s doing and then other times it just seems like an intention getter. So I have to say I’m along the lines with you that there’s more to be questions than an answer to be given.

I fucking love dogs, and agree with what you said: They're capable of possessing/exhibiting high levels of intelligence (and, just because they don't "talk" doesn't mean they aren't), but the people who advertise "talking dogs" through these word-buttons, seem like they need something else to do with their lives. I wouldn't say it's impossible for a dog to learn this, but, like you said, they haven't evolved this way because they probably didn't "need" to "talk" the way we do, and I don't believe that evolution like this generally occurs within the lifespan of a dog today. It's a wonderful little game these dogs and owners can play, but c'mon...

It's really sad people will go as far as insulting other people just because their opinion is scientifically debunked. People love their animals more than other people and it really shows. Dogs can't talk like that.

I could see using a few for the basic daily words. Maybe one bell for outside, one for a walk and another for food. Mine use a bell to go outside but it’s clearly because they made the association with hitting the bell causing me to get up and go outside.

Watch billy speaks, little to no edits. Just speeding up. She also makes it clear when she's speculating, and that you can't know for sure. Much better example. I genuinely believe that bunny is super confused because of the over the top way the owner tries to train her. But dogs are hypersocial, they're driven to try to communicate with humans. Just because she's bad at it doesn't make it not language, just not particularly practiced/complex language.

Dogs did ‘invent’ and do speak a language. Body language and expressions are a language, as evidenced by its extensive use in sign language. Dogs communicate a lot with smells, with movements of their tail, with the whites of their eyes and the position of their heads, their posture. So why not with distinct sounds? We know dogs learn to understand the specific sounds we say when we’re talking about feeding them or taking them for a walk, so why is it so hard to believe they can learn and understand the general meaning of other words we say?

Fully agree with you. The dog could be pushing random buttons and then people would be voice overing whatever word they want to make it appear like the dog is communicating. Compounded with the edits and everything else.

I wonder if the button could work if implemented differently. Dogs use their sense of smell and sight in weird ways. Kinda wonder if the buttons were paired to smells/lights and a sound effect if things would be more cohesive. Kinda feel most of the content creators are just doing it for the click/attention.

Dogs literally evolved along side humans who are language users and therefore language recognition is advantageous to the dog and I am a little skeptical of of these videos but I think after watching more of these I do feel like she is communicating I see mom get bunny wrong and bunny go back to correct or elaborate and also she seems to stick with the same noun in her elaboration or argument

Bunny is super cute,but there is so much confirmation bias on the videos

Interesting that, as a trainer--surely cognizant of operant conditioning--you seem to keep missing an obvious trick here. As you pointed out in the original video in question: teaching a dog a cue/signal for going outside is a real/feasible thing. And, as you've pointed out, dogs likely don't have complex language skills--like the kind necessary to distinguish "going outside to pee" from "going outside to poo" from just "going outside." That the dog is more and more urgently using a particular button for going outside for whatever reason seems perfectly feasible: it's conditioning: dog presses X, you take it outside. So, whether it "needs" or just "really wants," or even just "likes" to go outside is hardly relevant--it presses the button and you respond (hmmm, who's conditioning whom?). Similarly, in the prior video, the "Hungry" button is likely linked with food like Pavlov's bell. It doesn't matter if it's before dinner or after--dogs always wanna eat. And it is perfectly reasonable that the dog really does want some food when it presses that button repeatedly. Sure, it probably doesn't actually understand (let alone "mean") "hungry" per se, but it is perfectly reasonable that it links that particular action--even that particular button--with food. And dogs always wanna eat. All to say, I don't get why you need or attempt to argue/discount these statements with the claim that "any button, we can make that story work for, so that's not anything." Seems a lot easier (let alone more reasonable) to simply point out that while some of these stories (particularly those involving single concrete concept signals) are perfectly acceptable as examples of operant conditioning, they're far from evidence of complex communication... (I could teach a dog to press a specific button to be let outside, and a different button to be given food [and I can certainly see the latter going haywire with the dog pressing the button until it was stuffed!]. Nothing too crazy there--just conditioning.. Not complex communication. Not syntax. But, still, completely reasonably doable.) On another note: I do love how, in your first video, you point out that DOGS ALREADY COMMUNICATE WITH US JUST FINE IF WE'RE JUST WILLING TO PAY ATTENTION!!! Funny that these people think that, in order to have a relationship with their dog, their dog has to learn THEIR LANGUAGE... (Reminds me of of how, when Columbus first found the "New World," he kidnapped 10-20 natives to take back to Europe so they could learn HIS LANGUAGE... ...Rather than him and his crew having to bother to learn theirs...)

Don't take the critics too seriously. A lot of those comments say more about the commenters than even their lack of knowledge on the subject matter.

We have to be very careful making conclusions based on anecdotal interactions. For example, facilitated communication which is a technique where a facilitator would help a mentally challenged person communicate using letter boards. It seemed like it was really a miracle discovery, that mentally challenged people were normal and just needed help communicating. A simply scientific definitively test proved that it was the facilitator all along that was communicating without them even knowing that they were doing that. This could be the same thing, its the owner that is inserting their own thoughts and ideas that the dog has nothing to do with. The dog is just pushing buttons. But I can see that both might be true, in that in simple things like "outside", the dog is able to communicate that. But more complex things, maybe not.

I'm very skeptical about Bunny & don't buy it. But... I know for a fact my pets communicate with me in many ways.

My sister got these buttons for me and my pups last year for my Bday, and I've often wondered if Bunny's owner is putting her own objectives, wishful thinking, and interpretations into these "conversations," and thus may be influencing her "findings." From a scientific POV, it's be interesting is we could see another researcher test Bunny's conversation skills. I haven't had time to bring out my buttons for training yet, but I was still curious to see what's said in this video. I still wish my dogs could talk to me.

I have long wondered how "buttons" can teach a dog to "talk." Looking foward to seeing your videos.

We have instituted one button for our cats. It says, "Treat treat." The cats did figure out to touch it. But any pushing of the button is usially accidental. Even by is humans. But if we hear "treat treat", we get put yhe treats. They may figure it out eventually. Bells were easier for them.

This is very good. You remind me to use my debunking skills on talking animal videos. I can understand the original posters wanting to shorten down their videos, cause who's going to sit through 10-30 minutes of an animal thinking it through. But at the same time, you can't have cuts in the video, or you end up looking like it's fake, as you demonstrate. Thanks for reminding me to use my critical thinking.

Can't wait for part 2. What a good video, I hope it helps quell misinformation about buttons magically bridging communication with our furry friends.

I really want to believe that dogs can communicate verbally, sometimes I see the anxiety my pups have when they can't communicate what they want and it makes me really sad. But the truth is that they don't. I trained every command with verbal and gesture cues and the only reliable way for them to obey is with gestures, they even get the confused head tilt when I give them only verbal cues. They don't speak like us, it is a bad thing in some aspects, but we're smart enough to bridge that gap in communication. But imagine if they could actually think like us, imagine a toddler's mind trapped in dog's body, with all the abstract thoughts but without the ability to complete or express them, and imagine existing like that in a human house, it would be the worst torture imaginable!

If I had these buttons, I'm absolutely sure my puppy could figure out which ones he pushes to get to go outside. Now, getting him to go outside to potty and not play is the bigger issue. But he absolutely has figured out seeming like he needs to pee results in going outside- where he wants to run around and play rather than waste time peeing (which he thinks he can easily just do inside. Ugh). It's absolutely amazing how fast he picks up information, but does he understand vague concepts like what a stranger is? I really doubt that.

Throwing this out there....cats dont meow at other cats past being a kitten...its pretty much all body language and other sounds (not specifically meowing). Cats have learned that to meow at their human is a form of communication for wants, needs and demands. The buttons are of little difference than teaching my dog to nose at a hanging bell tied to the door to indicate the need/desire to go "outside". I tought her by hitting the bell, saying "outside " and then going outside. She figured it out fairly quickly that if she noses at the bells, looks at me...she goes outside. Bells, buttons...different ideologies but very similar concepts.

I bought into those videos and experienced cognitive dissonance of that was bewildering when I believed that the dog understood the difference between an animal and a human or abstract concepts like "love". I thought I was going crazy until it occurred to me that the "recordings" could had been added afterwards. I felt so gaslighted but also relieved to figure out that this was just a put on. I also felt naive and gullible. That's not to say that, as you say, a dog cannot learn to ring a bell when it wants out and so forth all by association. The bell not too different from a word or language.

I think dogs can communicate with the buttons, but isn’t thinking in words. It would’ve been thinking in barks. They push the button that’s makes a sound that the human can understand. They can recognize that we know what this means, but in their head it may just be pushing it for our sake not theirs.

I do not believe the bunny vids are real (i love dogs, and have my own which I train to do fun tricks and such), but as a biologist you might find this study interesting, if you look up “voice sensitive regions in the dog and human brain are revealed by mri”, researchers published a 2017 study highlighting what areas of the brain are active between humans and dogs with language. I think that could be a useful article to utilize during the discussion on whether dogs “understand” what we’re saying. I’m in an A&P course right now (I want to go into healthcare) so it was fun reading that article and recognizing areas of the human brain highlight while listening- specifically Wernicke’s area on left and right temporal lobe, and what looks like Broca’s area on the right lateral scan.

Bunny pressing 'potty' when she should press 'outside' only really shows that she's learnt if she presses 'potty' it means she gets to go outside and the owner won't say no. She's manipulating her owner lol and being praised for it as if she understands more than just 'this button gets this result'. Her ability to work that out shows she's a smart dog, but that's all.

Joe Scott (who has a great science channel) just put out a video in which he also refers to Bunny. He pretty much says what you say about editing and how much the dog does or does not understand what the words they press mean, but he also adds that the owner is part of a research about dogs communicating via buttons financed by the manufacturer of the button boards. How about that! Check it out: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-NEFCMVGKU_c.html

At the seven minute mark, as a parent of a nonverbal autistic child who learned limited speech using tablets and tablet like devices - DING DING DING.

Why wasn't Bunny limping with that big thorn in her paw? I worked with and trained dogs for years, I'm sorry but a thorn that size would make her limp. As for the talking via buttons, I agree with everything you've said. Bunny's owner is picking the words she wants to make something up and I believe straight up lying with editing.

I've had dogs all my life, now I'm no expert, but 1 thing that I've have learned is most animals feed off your energy. I wouldn't waste my time with buttons with my dog. Her & I communicate just fine without buttons. We communicate verbally or hand signals.

ive always been leary of these buttons. Yeah i can see a handful working with the pictures on them you train the dog to hit the specific button for potty or food or even follow ques to the human but this full range of buttons is just very questionable.

To be fair, my dog has thrown things, but I always interpret that as a "happy accident" which I think is fair given how rarely it happens. I don't really get the obsession with teaching dogs to "talk". I understand it would be big from a scientific perspective, but dogs already communicate plenty. In my experience most owners refuse to pay attention to what their dogs' are already trying to tell them.

Dogs do talk, it's just with each other not us. A dog can be trained using rewards to know words or motions. Pavlovs dogs experiment showed that. You can understand what they need or want or are feeling at times to an extent but not speaking English with buttons

You're right I noticed those cuts when I first saw this video and wondered about those cuts, I had wondered why she cut the 'dead air' because it would have been so interesting to watch the scene unfold, but you're right, when there's an edit, a controlled story is being told. Thank you for bringing our attention to this.

Some valid points in the video. Like cutting the video and expressing emotions. All up for interpretation. I have just bought a set of 4 and I would like to give my dog the choice of a bike ride or frisbee. Are you saying he can’t distinguish between the two?

Dogs understand a lot of words. They evolving with humans now so they are adapting to us - i read some "'reserches"' but not remember sources now and how profesional or amator they was but the fact is that dog is one from not many species that will look for help to human instead of solve problem himself etc. I dont have buttons - i dont need it to understand my dog - but of course most of dogs with get simple words like kitchen, walk, happy itd so imo buttons working is not so strange. If i made some errors sorry, im not english speeker

"dogs dont have language" literally it's been proven scientifically that dogs can recognize hundreds of human words, AND we use vocal commands on dogs all the time, AND dogs ARE social animals who evolved with vocal and body language to communicate. the buttons teach them to use those same words back. of course it's not perfectly accurate or sophisticated but saying it's all bullshit or being manipulated by the dog owner is just dense on your part. You are in fact the one on a quest to complete a confirmation bias, you refuse to believe it's "real language" so you'll say anything to excuse away any evidence you're presented with.