Can This Self Aware Dog Talk With Buttons?!

[@KPassionate]

Many have suggested I need to watch more videos of Bunny. So I did. Did they change my mind? Bunny's existential crisis → kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIDFlIusnb-olbM Ouch, Stranger, Paw → kzbin.info/www/bejne/gX6zeHeljdaBhq8 Cited Sources: [1] royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200851 [2] www.livescience.com/dogs-word-processing.html [3] www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/02/140220132152.htm [4]www.rspca.org.uk/-/blog_how_dogs_know_what_were_feeling [5] blogs.scientificamerican.com/dog-spies/what-do-dogs-see-in-mirrors/

[@energymaven7537]

yay, I was going to ask for this reaction!

[@zerphase]

I thought dogs were capable of understanding a few words. I saw a video of Neil de Grasse Tyson where a dog memorized the names of 600 toys, and could infer the name of new toys.

[@KPassionate]

@@zerphase they can definitely recognize individual word assocations. But what they can’t do is string together words to make sentences as part of language.

[@jensmiley5554]

When bunny pushed: more happy now... help... it's more similar to how coco the gorilla learned sign language in broken English. I would take the meaning of the buttons being pressed as the dog wanting something that makes them "more happy" such as a walk outside, playing with toys or a good belly scratch but it really depends on the owner's language and how they term stuff like that. If they normally ask the dog about being happy, or more happy before doing something enjoyable I would think then that it has nothing to do with an emotional state and was actually about the desire for something the dog likes. If that was the case, would that change your opinion on it?

[@eh1702]

It’s amusing how upon every discovery about animals and language, the “not language” goalposts always get moved.

[@carolinecarlson4307]

There was one video where bunny expressed she had a pain in her paw. She wasn't limping or licking at the paw but she clearly said there was an ouch in her paw. Her mom checked and Indeed there was a thorn stuck in between her toes. Bunny was able to express that well.

[@intuitlife]

She's just making the video for attention Obviously needs it bad

[@stephaniechagnon2532]

Hello Caroline, would anyone need buttons to understand when our furry friend comes to us when he/ she is not OK? Please bear in mind these are edited videos.

[@colenewaltersmusicandother9330]

What was interesting is that Bonny said there was in stranger her paw. Which is a strange way to look at it.

[@o0julek0o]

@@colenewaltersmusicandother9330 it makes more sense. An intruder. Something that shouldn’t be there but it is. That’s a far deeper concept than just “paw hurt”. Bunny is extremely intelligent.

[@TallMichelleWithTheLongHair]

I remember that

[@apaulinaria]

Hold up. My dog recognizes human language and knows what some words mean. Go outside is different than go for a walk. And different from food. And up. So if I connected this action to a button she can press I don’t see why this wouldn’t work. It makes sense. Doesn’t matter who or what is saying the word. Yes there’s also body language but this is her learning my human communication, and understanding it because she knows this sound means this action. And that’s the basis of any language including body language.

[@bountiful5732]

My dogs respond to specific words also.

[@skyemccuien2998]

You just ignored the whole video huh?

[@bountiful5732]

Are you picking a fight?

[@ameliedhausen783]

You are right, and she validated the button "outside" saying that some people are using a bell to have the same effect. She is also thinking the same as you saying that there are cheaper options, like just talking to your dog. I think that what she is criticizing is the use of so many button, and the thought that dogs can make sentences and understand less concrete concept like "what" or "stranger"... like outside, walk... I'm sure with the habit you gave so many examples of what it was for your dog, but "what"... "friends"... how are they supposed to learn that...? Anyway, just a thought the bottom line is still that dogs are amazing x)

[@lyliavix4366]

I agree I am about to start training my dog with the talking buttons, this is because I have recently noticed that he’s been trying to find ways to communicate his needs beyond the basics of OUTSIDE FOOD TOILET PLAY and the commands. Which by the way I taught him from the day he joined our family at 3 months and he mastered very quickly. I used hand signs at the time as it worked very well. He loves learning and I believe as he has learnt to distinguish between every single toy he has, without much training but by listening to me describing the toys (even down to the difference between blue boing boing and red boing boing -boing boing = ball) and after seeing Bunny the talking dog and Billi the talking cat, it would be a positive thingz! I’m not going to use super complex ‘human’ sentences but I strongly believe the person in this video hasn’t experienced building a close relationship and spending lots of time with a pet and probably not all pets learn in the same way. Just like not all owners are interested in doing this talking method, for me it takes nothing away from the wonderful ways my dog uses body language it’s simply an extra layer to make me understand him.

[@romeor1229]

Bunny may not have the depth of understanding that it appears she has but she definitely knows what some of those buttons mean and can use them correctly. It's the same way they can learn a verbal command and also know the physical movement to communicate it.

[@dejanhaskovic5204]

It literally looks like random smashing of buttons. And they cherry pick things that somewhat have coherent sense and claim the dog is self aware for fame. It's pathetic and so are people who buy this without question.

[@romeor1229]

@@dejanhaskovic5204 i JUST said she may very well have not have that level of compensation. You not believing that this dog doesn't understand any of the buttons or strings of words she makes is pathetic and shows you clearly don't appreciate and understand the intelligence of dogs. I promise you when she's saying things like "Bunny walk outside" or "food hungry" she knows exactly what that means. If it's something they understand verbally then it would be easy to teach them to push the button.

[@dejanhaskovic5204]

@@romeor1229 No she doesn't. These are too advanced concepts for a dog to understand. The dog randomly smashes buttons and at some point it will obviously make something that makes sense unintentionally. It's pretty obvious at this point. It's like tarot readings. You get a bunch of random cards and you try to make up a story that fits your narative using confirmation bias which is what the owners seem to be doing here. And it doesn't even make sense since they changed the layout of the soundboard and the dog just magically knows what everything means. This would take year of practice to teach him all over again. It would imply dogs know how to read which is just ridiculous. This dog is either a hoax or the owners are very delusional.

[@romeor1229]

@@dejanhaskovic5204 I promise you she knows exactly what walked means and food and go outside. These concepts are very easy to teach to a dog along with their name. It's very simple to teach a dog to hit a button and then when they hear "outside" they're going to associate that button with going outside. They know what that word means regardless of whether or not human or a button says it. I'm not claiming that she understands deep concepts or has the comprehension of a human but it's ridiculous to say that she doesn't understand a single button. Again, I promise you she knows exactly which button to hit when it comes to words she knows verbally. She knows what outside is and what it means when someone very clearly says outside. They certainly understand that if they want to go outside they go to the door so there's no reason you couldn't teach them to hit a button. When they're hungry or thirsty they go over to their bowl and paw at it, and typically understand either food or feed or dinner time or something of that nature. I promise you they are perfectly capable of associating those words they know verbally with hitting a button. No she probably doesn't understand the more human concepts but dogs are perfectly capable of understanding some degree of our language. They are more than smart enough to associate a certain button with a certain word that they already know. My dog knows exactly what walk or go outside or feed the dog means. He knows that when I say the word cat I'm talking about the cats he will go right over to them and look at me as soon as I say the word. He'll even go to a certain cat if I say that cat's name. He understands his name is Angel and has no problem responding to it and has great recall. He understands that when I say car he gets to go for a ride. He understands when I say treat that he's going to get a snack. He understands multiple commands like sit, lay down, wait, stay, and many others. Dogs are perfectly capable of understanding some degree of our language and being able to associate it with a certain button. You clearly have not been around enough dogs to understand that.

[@dejanhaskovic5204]

@@romeor1229 Sure, learning to press a button for food, treat or going outside is plausible, but stringing words to make sentences and talking about dreams and other abstract stuff is a hoax. I promise you dog has no idea and has no way of learning what even simple abstract words mean like 'what' or 'who', or associating things like a thorn in the paw with the word 'stranger'. Dogs can learn words by means of cause and effect, but anything beyond that is laughable and anyone who believes it is extremely gullible.

[@Deislyn]

My dogs use the buttons but they are not all together on a board. Potty is near the back door, walk near the front door, in the kitchen is 'cookie' and 'eat' and near the bottom of the steps to go upstairs is 'go to bed', etc (handicapped dog cant do steps on his own). They definitely learned which buttons in which locations result in specific actions from me. They may not know full sentences, but If say 'cookie'. they immediately run to the kitchen and sit by the counter where the treats are kept so they definitely know words. With body actions, you cant know what your dog wants and needs unless your always staring at them. The buttons have been a great tool for my dogs to get my attention on a specific needs/wants. I would recommend these for any dog owner.

[@column3005]

You’re the most reasonable person with buttons I’ve seen. Obviously dogs understand single words or sounds, that’s the basis for how they interact so well with humans. Actual communication is way too far of a leap to make for a dog.

[@tishie42]

That's perfect for dogs. I put bells on strings by the door so they could paw the bells for potty. Like reverse door bells. 😂 But it worked.

[@AbsentWithoutLeaving]

@@tishie42 Yes! The bells act just like a button that makes a specific sound ( "Out!"). Your dog has used operant-conditioning on you: "If I jingle these bells, my person has learned to come open the door for me!" 😆 Some people can even recognize a certain bark or whine from their dog that means the same thing. If the dog utters that particular sound, they know he wants to, uh, use the facilities, lol.

[@angelinacamacho8575]

@@AbsentWithoutLeaving my dog will sit by the door, then scratch it, and then adds a bark.

[@bunchielove6893]

This is how I would use them. The buttons are for training us also.

[@vexcarius7100]

The owner is even skeptic of her technique. She didn’t claim that it is scientific. There is one time she pressed the Pain button and they discovered that the dog is really in pain when they brought her to the vet.

[@mikebarnacle1469]

Yeah, confirmation bias.......

[@nunyanope4988]

One time out of how many? Even a broken clock is right twice a day. You cant pull one instance out of probably hundreds to use as “look it’s working”

[@BunsenMusic]

Confirmation bias. Look it up.

[@Youtubehandles1234]

Well that PROVES EVERYTHING!!!!!! 🤪

[@FIRING_BLIND]

@@mikebarnacle1469 it would be if the owner hadn't directly said she was skeptical 🤦

[@diannemartino3464]

The words ARE important. I owned a guard dog. Most of his voice commands were in English. But the security words were in German. I could have screamed “Attack” until I was blue in the face and he would have stood there looking confused. I had to Sa it in German for him to know what I meant and react.

[@KPassionate]

The vast majority of people do not have a dog as extremely well trained as yours.

[@ElVicable]

Assume much ??

[@catherinehawkins3211]

Yes, well, German is a great language for that kind of thing…😆

[@badcookie5755]

@@KPassionate But it shows that it's possible and not as far fetched as you make it seem it is.

[@intuitlife]

Exactly I trained mine the same They would sit quietly until given command Could even say Watch him. Dog wouldn't let the person move , till I gave proper command So much more they did So, they understood many words by their time to go. Now new one has his own thoughts all bad Like take important things and toss them in the toilet

[@dallindemie9562]

My dog definitely understands different words. If I say “car”, she runs to the car, I say “walk” she runs and grabs her leash and brings it to me, I say “treat” or if I say “bed” she goes to her bed and lays down. I do t see how the button thing is much different. Doesn’t seem unrealistic at all. Maybe the stuff that’s a little complex and descriptive isn’t correct (especially cause you can’t really prove they know what they’re saying) But I definitely could see my dog using buttons to ask for specific things. She already does that just in a different way

[@ziahplayspiano]

and it gives the dogs control too. she's talking about the dog "not forming sentences" well obviously because dogs don't have as much brain processing power as people, but the dog can still understand "cat" "play" and all these other things. seems like this scientist was using her own "denial bias" if you ask me, lmao

[@basasbrenda]

@@ziahplayspiano she doesn't want some company who sells the buttons profit from it, that's why. And I can understand her denial. For someone to be studying her field for a long time, she's too close-minded to try other ideas or approach. Points taken but I just don't understand why she seemed to be mocking and sounded really disrespectful to the owner of the dog that she's watching.

[@fabiencrescent6503]

She's a close-minded technician. She doesn't have the mind and open-minded brain of a researcher.

[@robhanks3501]

There's actually two separate parts of the human brain for 1) understanding language, and 2) producing language. They're called the Wernicke's area and Broca's area. If one were to damage the Wernicke's area, they'd be able to make sentences themselves, but would have a hard time understanding what others are saying to them, and the opposite is true for the Broca's area. The idea here is that understanding and producing language are two different things, cognitively speaking. I'm not a biologist at all, but considering that dogs have evolved such a close relation to humans I wouldn't be surprised if they have a part of the brain capable of understanding human speech to a degree (not full on sentences, but making the association of some words with concepts as you describe), but it's unlikely that they would have the cognitive capacity to produce language as is alleged in these button talking videos. That took us a looooooong time to evolve

[@redpilljesus]

Then what exactly are the buttons for?

[@MaliceMonger]

I have been trying some buttons with my dog for about 5 months. I had already taught my dog to paw on objects to have a certain action happen following the command ‘what do you want?’ . Such as pawing on the door to open it, pawing the food bowl for her kibble etc. One thing is that my dog always tries to find the most efficient method to communicate a certain thing like ‘come’ button didn’t work for me as she just found it easier to rest her head on my leg to grab attention. But she does use the Hungry button when she does feel hunger such as when we missed her routine feeding. She always presses ‘playtime’ when my Father in Law comes in as she loves to play with him. So far I have taught her the other buttons such as Outside and treats. So my dog also knows to track following the command ‘where is ’ so when I ask her where is Mommy, when my wife is at work, she always either paws at the entrance door or presses on the outside button.

[@johnschwalb]

That doesn't mean the dog understands the concepts of the words. she knows the hungry button brings food much like pawing her bowl did in the past, she knows playtime gets attention from your father in law, much like pawing at his leg would do or barking and bouncing around. The dog also knows to look for something and if its outside it will hit the outside button not because it understands the word outside but because it gets you to let it outside. My dog as a kid would ring bells to be let outside, making the bell a button the plays a word to you doesn't mean the dog understands the word.

[@coraschriner4483]

Exactly the way a child learns!!!!

[@Mx.RumpusParable]

@@johnschwalb You do know you just exactly described how language and children learning language works, right?

[@doesnotFempute]

​@@johnschwalb dogs do understand what words mean. They know their own name, and the names of people they live with. Even relatively untrained dogs recognize words like eat, outside, walk, ball, sit. We are simply programming buttons that say those commands, so the dogs can communicate what they want. Now, do I think these pets are having full blown, philosophical conversations through the buttons? Probably not. But it's REALLY not that far fetched to imagine that dogs who can associate words with things / commands, and use that in the inverse for communication. Example, pushing "eat" when they're hungry.

[@KPassionate]

Studies using EEGs and MRIs to measure brain activity in dogs found that dogs do not have the ability to distinguish different words. Bad, sad, dad, mad, and glad all likely mean the same thing to a dog. It's how we say "bad" that matters to a dog as these studies showed that almost 50% of what they respond to when they hear a human speak is emotion and tone of voice. [1] royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.200851 [2] www.livescience.com/dogs-word-processing.html Additionally, many of these talking pet videos are clearly faked. As you can plainly see at the 3 minute mark of the below video. [3] kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIDFlIusnb-olbM

[@cynthiamelman6189]

Bunny is being evaluated by linguists. She has tapped buttons that possibly show complex thinking. "Dog. Animal. Mom Human. Dad poops." (He had just come out of the bathroom.) To me, a non-scientist, Bunny seems to be thinking and understanding some concepts.

[@cynthiamelman6189]

@stone of course

[@socal2909]

The mass majority of animals use sound and body language to communicate. This is the future and skeptice will be just that

[@knoahbody69]

@@socal2909 Yeah. I was watching some birds, and one bird went to the grass and started pecking at it. Then it chirped and more birds came down. I walked closer and the bird gave out another chirp, maybe two in quick succession and they all flew away to the tree they were in previously. I've read scientists have recorded bird chirps and played them and got different results with different chirps they recorded. So they must have some sort of signal, if not full language.

[@christopheraaron1255]

The important part of your comment there is "to me, a non-scientist...". You admit that you have no idea what you're talking about as some kind of proof that you know what you're talking about.

[@Lola_in_the_Black]

@@knoahbody69 It's true. I read research about great tits (I'm interested especially in them because I helped to raise one who grew up to be a little monster and now he taught his daughter the same tricks xD but it's another story) and it turns out that not only they make around 200 different sounds to communicate, they also use some of them in a specific order to communicate something. The researchers played those sounds in random orders and the tits didn't react to them, but they reacted to some very specific orders, one of them was calling because there was food there, one was calling for help and the birds would immediately come aggressive, ready to fight, and one was warning to hide. The funny thing is the two tits that I befriended the most would always make that warning sound when I saw a bird of prey in my garden and I'd run out on the balcony to chase it away - the tits would immediately start making the warning sound to hide and the moment the bird of prey would be gone they'd go out to the feeding spot and make the calling to food sound again.

[@aliecarey]

Stella is the original. Her owner created the talking dog buttons. She is a speech pathologist and you might be interested in checking her out.

[@o0julek0o]

Sounds like a real scientist as opposed to the bimbo in the video.

[@RobespierreThePoof]

Notably. . Speech pathologist. Not a biologist. No professional training or education with nonhuman animals

[@kiwi6421]

@@RobespierreThePoof You can be knowledgeable about topics without having a formal education in them. It's unreasonable to say that a person doesn't have an understanding of a topic just because they didn't pursue a degree. Especially when it comes to topics as universal as animals.

[@DuskLegend]

@@RobespierreThePoofenough with this nonsense. “Education” is information. You can get most information anywhere, and if it’s paywalled, that’s a societal issue not an education one.

[@xevios.9336]

@@RobespierreThePooflanguage is language it’s not only a human thing. Math isn’t a human thing. There are human languages yes but language itself is t a human only phenomenon

[@viancareeves2344]

What about when the dog presses, “ouchie” , then she asks where. The dog presses, “left paw”. She goes to check the left paw and the dog had a hitchhiker stuck in between her toes. I agree that body language is a primary communication mechanism, but seems as though even our ancestors developed a verbal way to communicate.. I mean yeah I’m still skeptic but Intrigued

[@Lola_in_the_Black]

I saw a dog pressing "pain" and "ear" and it turned out there was an infection in the ear when they went to their vet

[@justanotherchannel13]

I think it's easy with basic things like hunger and pain. I was thinking about that same video and it was very impressive, but it could take decades for things to go further and the dog actually learns to formulate sentences. Maybe more than decades because, for example (and this is just me), I don't think they have an actual need to communicate. We did, and we do.

[@talonward2494]

And how many times were those buttons pressed when there was nothing wrong?

[@talonward2494]

@@justanotherchannel13 it's easy with pain? Really? That seems like one of the hardest buttons to me. How do you teach an animal what the "pain" button means? Do you inflict pain and then hit the button? Do you sit around waiting until you think the animal is experiencing pain and then hit the button? If you have a happy, healthy animal in a safe environment, that might take a lot of waiting. Feelings like "hunger" and "pain" are subjective; it takes humans years to develop understanding of these concepts before we can communicate them to others, and we evolved specialized brain regions to facilitate communication with other humans. It seems to me that the easiest buttons would be the one directly connected to objective reality, like a "walk" button, where the animal presses the button, and you take them on a walk, or a "treat" button, where the animal gets a treat for pressing the button, or an "affection" button, where the animal gets pet for pressing the button. Those kinds of buttons actually work.

[@justanotherchannel13]

@@talonward2494 Uhmm... I'm not gonna argue that, because I was talking about answering a practical need. Without a practical need we, as humans, wouldn't even have a language either. If it was a bad example, ok. My bad?

[@JanaJTerra]

I think the buttons are good for playing, potty, etc. I think keeping the buttons simple would be more effective.

[@KPassionate]

Agreed

[@bubbleswashere.]

Yeah, and associating different buttons with actions or simple commands (like treat, outside, pet, etc) would be best. I don’t know why pronouns came into play, it’s really not needed.

[@heatherb9853]

Although my dog just walks to the door to go outside and that works just fine. If I’m not paying attention, they scratch the door. Don’t really need a button for simple needs if you are aware of your dog and it’s needs, and trained it properly

[@KPassionate]

@@heatherb9853 very true

[@klever...1]

7:37 I think something you guys are misunderstanding is the buttons that say person are supposed to be programmed with "mom" or the person's name, the same thing with learner name, you supposed to program it with the dog's name. As someone else already commented, it's not much different than teaching verbal commands. I've heard of some support animals being able to learn and understand hundreds of commands

[@IamSpacedad]

I share your healthy skepticism regarding this but I am also ready to be proven wrong if research proves otherwise. Right now UCSD is conducting a large scientific study on animal cognition using communication buttons, to see if they are actually capable of understanding these words and using them to communicate. This is just the beginning though and much more research will need to be done.

[@roscoesqueaks]

We (Roscoe and I) are a part of that research! :)

[@larissafae2135]

i watched her billi video and she hasn't looked for any research or reached out to the pet owners - she's basing all her opinions (sorry, "observations") on one or two videos, and the research just isn't there yet (shockingly, i googled that to make sure i had my facts correct) she's also explaining that the animals can't possibly be learning basic concepts of language - while using the dogs being taught the basics of language learning to disprove that very thing she also uses the sentence structure to "disprove" this, while ignoring or not realizing that subject-verb-object is absolutely valid sentence structure - asl uses it basically, while she's right to be skeptical, she's decided that there's no way she's wrong and is talking out of her butt

[@GrandisSilva]

@@larissafae2135 she also states that dogs don't have a concept of 'friend' or 'stranger' which is absurd because dogs absolutely know who/what smells familiar and associated with good memories, and smells that are unfamiliar. Dogs just learn to match our vocal sounds/button sounds woth their experiences.

[@larissafae2135]

@@GrandisSilva absolutely. is it language? in the technical sense, no - but it IS communication, which lay people will shorthand to "language" because that's what most of us understand animals have learned how to communicate with us over millenia, and this is another way to do it. cats only regularly vocalize with humans, because they know we don't understand pheromones. dogs have evolved to wiggle their eyebrows to get their way. it doesn't have to be an actual language for communication to happen i've been so salty about this for so long, you don't even know 😂😂😂

[@GrandisSilva]

@@larissafae2135 can you explain to me how it's not language? It seems to me that the animals are learning to associate meanings/actions to particular sounds. Isn't that how children pick up language, or how adults learn a foreign one? And then they can press the corresponding buttons to communicate their wants.

[@margaretbelanger2537]

To be fair, this analysis wasn’t the scientific method either. You can’t prove the dogs intent with that pressing the buttons. Dogs can have really complicated jobs, I think it should be studied more because there is definitely something there…maybe not the ability to understand words that represent vague concepts, at least right away, but I think they could definitely understand verbs, nouns & feelings.

[@KPassionate]

Well my approach is scientific, but the way science works is the need to prove something does work rather than that it doesn’t. There are many issues here, to name a few; the only company doing "research" is the company who sells the buttons which is an obvious conflict of interest. 2) the video makers will only put forward their successes and not their failures. It is very easy to write your own narrative in your own KZbin videos. It’s an interesting idea but unfortunately is just not backed in science. I found an interesting article here neurosciencenews.com/animal-communication-18280/amp/

[@Squotty_Patty]

I'm not so sure about verbs and nouns, maybe from time to time they get what you might mean. But when it comes to feelings, emotions and simple words, my whole life among dogs is enough of a proof to me that they are able to understand these. Dogs can understand the emotions in your voice and behavior, as well as they can memorise meaning of the words. You can find a Border Collie online that is able to differentiate her toys by the name, she was supposed to know about 50 or 70 toy names I think, and once asked she brought exactly the toy you asked her for, what's more she was able to dig in the pile of toys to find exactly the the one you asked for.

[@LS-ys8nr]

Dogs have jobs? Service dogs maybe…

[@XD-nc7be]

It really isn't scientific or analysis though. It's just her scrolling through videos erratically and giving her opinion on what's happening.

[@EpoxyMuffin]

@@LS-ys8nr most dog breeds were bred for work of some variety. guard dog, herding dog, baby-sitter dog, fishing dog, etc etc.

[@AshleeKnowsNot]

I actually think you should watch some of the full videos. Especially the more recent ones. It might give you a better idea of how she uses them. I really don't think you're giving her enough credit. Because she does actually look down at the buttons think about it and plan a careful answer. And I've seen her improve significantly over the past year or so.

[@nicholdipoalo3429]

You've been watching this dog "progress" for over a year? Do you have other exciting activities, like watching your fingernails grow, or paint dry?

[@AshleeKnowsNot]

@@nicholdipoalo3429 As an artist, I do genuinely spend quite a bit of time watching paint dry. 🤷🏼‍♀️ And as a queer woman I can tell you my nails grow way too fast. Something like a centimeter a week probably. 😏 If you want I can send you all the facts and data sheets on the rate of the paint drying based on medium and thickness and the precise growth rate of my nails... Since it seems so important to you. Not many people take such an interest in my incredibly exciting hobbies. 🥲

[@jedadaspirited2453]

@@nicholdipoalo3429 You act like the only thing she ever does with her day is watch Bunny's videos lmao. It's pretty normal to watch videos of a channel you follow. I've been watching Markiplier for years. Doesn't mean that's all I do with my time. What even is this logic? Lmao.

[@aaronreed8791]

@@nicholdipoalo3429 TROLOOLOLOLOLOL

[@amazinggrace5692]

@@AshleeKnowsNot Hilarious answer to a snarky comment. I like how you think! 💕🐝💕

[@Scoobay]

Some dogs are smarter than others, I don’t know if Bunny can understand language but I’m sure she’s able to pick out specific buttons. Perhaps not to form complete sentences but enough to show she’s capable of learning sounds. Miso is a good example of a dog who will look around for which button to press; she’s a very well trained Shih Tzu that consistently responds to prompts with the correct buttons. I’m not sure if anyone is making the argument that dogs can speak in long form sentences, so if that’s the crux of the argument then it’s not really having much of an effect. The buttons work, and dogs are capable of utilising them if trained correctly. I don’t think it’s fair to make claims that they don’t look around for the buttons when it’s really not hard to find instances in which they do. It does seem like you’re cherry picking for your own confirmation bias.

[@KPassionate]

My confirmation bias is based on scientific evidence. And because of those differences in bias, we see two completely different things when we watch these videos.

[@Scoobay]

@@KPassionate you can base your confirmation bias in anything you like, it’s still confirmation bias. There’s scientific evidence to suggest that dogs process language similarly to humans by using both the left and right side of the brain for meaning and intonation respectively. That was discovered within the last few years, so there’s room for more discoveries. After all, all science is is theory, and theories evolve.

[@FIRING_BLIND]

@KPassionate thats.....not how confirmation bias works 🤦 You haven't adequately looked for things that disprove your beliefs. Until you do, you can't claim it's "based on scientific evidence"

[@Anani69]

@@KPassionateI think you’re getting tripped up on the fact that some people really think dogs can actually learn the word “hungry” or “outside” like a person would, and link the words to their own personal emotions. But most sane people understand that the dogs do it because it receives certain things when they push specific buttons. Even if the button didn’t say anything - they would still push it if it gave them a reward every time. This is a form of communication though, as you said yourself: 70-93% of human communication is non-verbal. Even though dogs don’t actually tie emotions to the sounds, they understand your reaction to them pushing a button. They are learning to communicate something they want with the action of pushing a button. As another commenter said, words do matter. It is possible to train your dog to be able to distinguish the difference between certain words, but the majority of people don’t have a dog that is trained that excessively. So it’s a bit unrealistic to assume your dog is doing anything other than distinguishing different tones when you speak. I don’t think this product is necessarily a scam like you claim - although they pander to those who want to believe their dog can effectively express an emotion. Regardless, I think it’s useful for people who want their dog to be able to communicate basic needs by pushing specific buttons.

[@jackpowell8155]

​@@KPassionateYou are getting ratioed in every comment thread. 😂 You are unpopular and you channel is propped up by the algorithm.

[@kitlc1]

Have you seen Billi the cat? It’s far from hard science, but I think it’s interesting. Some of the concepts seem advanced for her to understand, but she chooses her buttons more slowly and carefully and she tends to request basic things like food, play, toys, asking for attention, etc.

[@pelindogan9569]

Yes Billi is the Queen :)

[@Pidgeon182]

@CypyCup This whole thing mirrors a settled debate in science. This exact thing was tested with chimps and apes, and it was conclusively proven that even with years of training and conditioning they were still unable to form sentences. Even with the most successful examples would only really be able to understand single words without ever having the ability to link them together. Animals lack the processing capabilities that allow humans the ability to speak in complex ideas, and no amount of operant conditioning can change that reality. The story of what happened to those chimps and apes after these experiments never panned out is also depressing.

[@kirinmachine]

@@Pidgeon182 it's because of a gene called foxP2 that doesn't exist in most animals. It allows humans to hear two different sounds next to each other and discern a unique meaning. I.e. "knee" and "Ed" combined are "need" (obviously the E and D sounds being combined in Ed are also beholden to this). Birds also have an admittedly lower concentration of this gene and that is why their songs contain multiple sounds in quick succession.

[@kirinmachine]

@@Pidgeon182 Apes and monkeys do not have foxP2

[@dubstepmando]

Ive seen some billi vids where they make no sense

[@amazinggrace5692]

Bunny and her family were part of a university study. This doctor in this video works with many animals, but not land animals, mammals, dogs, esp poodles. Her expertise may not transfer. Poodles are one of the most intelligent dogs. She should watch more of the videos of this particular animal and esp watch as Bunny progressed over time.

[@DeFacto94]

Bunny is not able to speak with buttons , it's random and vids are mostly fake cuz they are selling product that way

[@a.evelyn5498]

I don’t think this is a valid argument whatsoever. Look at dolphins. They are even more intelligent. I’m sure she has enough education under her belt to speak to this.

[@jjwils3483]

You sound just how you look. Smh

[@mr.bubbles8351]

yes we should trust you over this lady

[@carl5381]

Idiots will make any leap to discredit what they can see with their own eyes regardless of the facts in front of them. I am willing to bet anything that you vote Democrat.

[@Mistertunk]

I'm autistic, I'm not good at reading body language. Does that mean I'm missimg 73-90% of communication? I have lots of friends who care about me, a fulfilling relationship with my girlfriend and good relationships with most family. I really listen to what people say. You have to be really direct en precise with your communication with me, but other than that I'm great at communicating. As long as people say what they really mean and feel.

[@keeshy]

You are correct, body language is not the same as verbal behavior (real language). Humans are actually very bad at reading body language which is why all the "body language experts" have been debunked.

[@jordanekl5383]

You are being purposely stubborn at this point.., I am too, but there obviously WAY more it it that that. How can you even begin to make this leap in logic???? Like seriously, if you know anything about your own condition you wouldnt of said this at all. I feel like you just want to toss it out there as leverage in a conversation. Cus thats misinformation you are spreading bud!

[@jordanekl5383]

@@werewoIf way to nitpick to a very unnecessary degree. Also, way to speak like someone that just herd about something that relates to the post. Rather Karen seeming of you.

[@circle11111]

You’re not a dog.

[@HighiamDave]

Yes, it definitely means that. But that doesn’t mean you absolutely can’t communicate with others is just harder for ppl to understand you and vis-à-vis, and that ppl have try and develop a different type of communication standard for you and ppl like yourself

[@thevoid3010]

I think there is potential here with simple concepts like “outside” and “food” being pretty easy to show, but complex topics like “stranger” I doubt we’d see anything for. I do hope more research is done for this kind of stuff to see how far we can take this kind of thing

[@KPassionate]

I am also looking forward to the research!

[@adamgerald849]

They've been studying this stuff for decades. I think that after a certain point, no fully grown animal will come close to being self aware. I don't think their brain can adapt to that possibility once fully grown. However there may be some potential with apes/monkeys to get really close, but unless one is born with some mutation that makes it much more intelligent I don't believe it will come about naturally for hundreds of thousands of years. Have no fear, with the advancement of gene editing I'm sure some scientists somewhere are already working in editing the genes for intelligence in certain animals. I'd say in less than 100 years we will create a dog that is both self aware and can communicate with us with some computer assistance. We shouldn't do it, but we will.

[@DuskLegend]

@@adamgerald849what if we accidentally make animals self aware by trying to prompt them to learn at increasingly complex levels?

[@bearded-cat]

Dogs already know whats stranger without a button, for example when a person or an animal passes by house close, some dogs bark at strangers

[@mobregonjr]

I feel the same way about the word "now". How do you explain to a dog the concept of time. Now being the present , things in the past and future things to come seem a bit advanced to be able to sit down and explain to a dog with treats. 😂

[@AngelProjekt]

How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger explains the buttons from the perspective of a speech language pathologist. There is a lot more going on than this video suggests. E.g., “eat” when they just ate could be asking for more or observing they just ate and liked it or observing someone else is eating, etc. Whether the dog understands or not, acting like they do reiterates context for the word, which increases the dog’s ability to use that word/button correctly.

[@AngelProjekt]

That said, it’s a great point that if animals naturally communicate with body language, it’s a little inconsiderate of us to insist they learn a behavior to use our language rather than us change to understand them.

[@angelawallace5413]

@@AngelProjekt I'm wondering if anyone is really saying that we should be ignoring body language and requiring buttons instead. I personally interpreted it as, there are limitations to any language, body language, or spoken/button language, and maybe one can fill in the deficits of another.

[@hshepard5538]

If you watch ALL the videos, it's hard to say that Bunny is just pressing them randomly or to make her owner happy. And in any case, Bunny's owner and several hundred other pet owners are helping to compile the info on EVERY BUTTON press--video taping + writing down all the things the dogs say, when, why, circumstances (did it seem accidental or purposeful? was it near dinner time? was the dog also whining, etc.). All that info will be compiled to create a report on if and how the button method works.

[@NikkiSoardesMail]

This is my question. Did this person do their evaluation based on only this ONE video? That hardly seems scientific to me. It's like walking outside when it's sunny, and assuming that means it never rains.

[@iamsobeautifulomg]

@@NikkiSoardesMail exactly, she thinks just because she went to school and spent time with seals, she knows more than everyone.

[@niclasromanski7920]

This whole experiment has to be repetitively done by someone in a certain setting. If you use some random stranger on the internet looking for views, you cannot sell those results as authentic especially since social media tends to be full narcissistic people. There are experiments with apes that learned i think a few hundred words, but no scientist yet has done anything close with dogs. And i say that as a person which is very sceptical about some science's

[@OnlyTwoShoes]

Imagine the hundreds, even thousands of hours of button presses that don't make it into videos because it's just random. If I slapped myself in the face all the time and you witnessed that, you would just think it's something I do for no reason. However, if you only saw me do it when a fly was on my face, you would think I was trying to swat the fly.

[@jamison023]

No. Because dogs are simple in their communication this new ager is trying to get paid....

[@mias6931]

I could only make it so far before turning this off just due to how condescending and rude this woman is for no good reason. Before she explains anything she is making faces at the button video- as if it is so ridiculous that we are supposed to get why before she explains anything. I don’t know shit about animals, and what Bunny-woman is doing is cool as hell so WHY would people agree with you making faces at her and speaking so patronizingly? There are respectful ways to disagree with someone, and than there’s this. 2:40 when you laugh before explaining confirmation bias, that is a perfect example of the disrespect I am talking about but there was more before that and I imagine there is more after. That’s around where I stopped watching. Literally, even if the woman teaching her dog about buttons is dead wrong, there is no reason to be this rude. After all, even if she is wrong ,she had undoubtedly devoted an insane amount of time and patience to this animal. All I’m saying is be respectful when attempting to debunk somebodies project they are probably extremely passionate about. Also, I am not some bunny-fanatic. The lady in the vid could have easily convinced me that it wasn’t really communication, because I’m still on the fence about it. I just hate this style of video and this is exactly what you should *not* do.

[@KPassionate]

Thanks for watching!

[@lukehorine4294]

This bird brain is ugly inside and out.

[@cet765]

Thank you! You said a lot of things that make good sense. I agree with you that our dogs talk to us all the time. It us up to us to learn their language. The more we talk to our digs, include them in our daily lives, ours dogs are going to recognize our body language and learn that when we make certain sounds (whistle, talk, clear our throats, etc) - those sounds correlate with something specific. I talk to my dogs (and cats) all the time. They have mastered a huge understanding (i.e. correlating my sounds to specific things and actions) of me vocalizations and actions. I could ask my former dog to get me my slippers. It was fun to see that she correlated the sound of slippers to something I wear on my feet. Sometimes she would bring me my socks, most times it was my slippers. She learned that what correlated with socks vs slippers. She also correlated those sounds usually meant bring me 2 because after 1 was brought I would bring me the other, I need two. I often spoke in complete sentences, but I realize that she was picking really on nouns and verbs because of the ease of correlating with things and action. I could easily bring up examples of any of my dogs "understanding" me.

[@fernbear3950]

I want to give this video full consideration, but the title card notes "debunked" and then offers a bunch of questioning hypotheses, while the author asks people in comments for proof. I'm certainly biased towards this communication being a thing, but primarily because I've developed that opinion over a long time of watching and listening to these videos. There's a few points that I think are wrong just because of a priori assumptions on this video poster's part (the "lack of planning" argument being one -- many clips shown were extremely early on in the dog's training and don't show the more complex chained thoughts happening. The "planning walk" is a pretty common phenomenon and shows to me that OP may have had preformed views and simply wanted to make a video confirming their beliefs for a greater audience.) One thing for me that is convincing is that I have a fair bit of experience looking at language generation models -- my career field is ML ('AI') research, and there are certain motifs that show up in RL/NLP models that are "random distribution matching" behaviors that work in short term context but not long term. The way you suss this out is in long term consistency, which we see with certain animals. Even if the owner is the most cherrypicker of cherrypickers, if you have X amount of extremely low probability events you can eventually satisfy a reasonable proof criteria that there is intelligence happening, and that's become more obvious in the later videos. Obvs having a more unbiased observation environment is going to really benefit things, and the clips you sort of cherrypicked (in my also biased opinion, lol. I am extraordinarily biased on this topic, weirdly so over time.) I think show that ambiguity from low/single-word communication. Okay, that rant over, I think we'll see in the long run how things shake out. There's a lot of goalpost moving that seems to happen in the opinions at large in terms of animal psychology with respect to assumed intelligence, one commenter rightly pointed out that the assumptions were much simpler in like the 90's and I'm sure even earlier. My perspective is that any system that operates on the highly chaotic, highly nonlinear-and-maybe-quantum wetware platform of neurons and neurotransmitters (and more) is going to have some level of sapience, assuming otherwise is a little arbitrary and I think reflects some of our own species' humanistic projections of ourselves onto ourselves. Extremely long winded which happens if I get frustrated so my apologies for that, but on a slightly lighter tone, I am working on some lightweight open source software for a phoneme keyboard to extend vocab beyond the limited scaling of dog buttons. A few, like Bunny, for example, seem to be limited with words on the buttons ("big upstairs bird" for plane, for example) even if they may know the actual words themselves. So hopefully with a good Raspberry Pi setup, a pressure sensitive mat, and some light software, it'll hopefully just take some training for some of the more advanced dogs to have a free form expression avenue. This also opens an opportunity for further tightening out knowledge of whether or not it's just random combinations as phonemes are far more combinatorial than fully completed word buttons. If there is any interest in this or using this, please let me know and I can p loop y'all in on it in case there is interest in studying the matter through this lens! :) Best, -FB&CO

[@burkhardstackelberg1203]

Here, I think: Wouldn't it be easier if we try to develop a kanguage in a communication mide that is easily accessible to both cat/dog and human instead trying to get your cat/dog using human language? Coco the gorilla is an example for that: She seemed to be quite proficient in using sign language. Dogs and cats seem to be quite proficient in listening to human speech, but their most efficient way to communicate to us is body language. Could we make phonemes and words out of body language to buikd some kind of dog or cat sign language?

[@keeshy]

@@burkhardstackelberg1203 Koko wasn't actually proficient in sign language, there were a lot of flaws. But Bunny using the buttons is actually based on evidence based techniques of teaching language (such as to nonverbal kids).

[@BraxEvans]

Completely agree. Cherry picked clips. Goalpost moving of public assumption. All of that. But I am not sure what you need a phoneme keyboard for thoough? The buttons are simply little several second long voice recorders. If they wanted to re-record one to be the word plane they could. No software or raspberry pi needed.

[@BraxEvans]

@@burkhardstackelberg1203 We don't have the necessary scent glands or tails or flexibility (well I don't anyways) to essentially meet them halfway. They don't have the opposable thumbs or vocal chords. So unless you seriously want to do an interpretive dance for the bewilderment and amusement of your pets then these buttons are probably a more realistic option.

[@socal2909]

@@burkhardstackelberg1203 sign language is man made too, doesn't show any expression, just moving your hands. If my heats me scream her name, she comes, but if scream out something else she won't. Dogs understand human language and body language

[@enque01]

Oh my goodness, dismissing others for not being scientific enough and then doing even worse non-scientific things yourself during your "debunking"?! 1. As a biologist, you MUST be aware that completely normal dogs, not exceptional dogs, understand about 20-30 spoken words? Body language, yes definitely. Tone, yes absolutely. But they also understand words delivered completely without gesture or tone accompanying them. Exceptional dogs do about 120 words. My past dog could fetch any requested item and deliver it to any requested person or place, totaling about 30-40 words. She was not an exceptional dog though. You must know such dogs are commonplace yet you pretend this is not a thing? How disingenuous of you. 2. You're a biologist. Cool. The lady whose method you're debunking is a speech pathologist. Well done pulling rank there. 3. So dogs clearly have listening comprehension. And forming your own sentences is a more difficult skill. But surely it is not outlandish to assume if a normal dog can comprehend 30-40 words, that probably it can productively use 5-10 when speaking, if only it had the voicebox to make such sounds? 4. They say "learner" because it's an instructional video about a method that applies equally well to other animals, and people are currently attempting to use it on other species (with varying degrees of success). Using the term "learner" in this context is not a millennial thing, it is an accurate use of words. 5. Zero boards contain the word "person". The buttons in the video say "person 1" and "person 2". The video merely means "put specific person name here". Like "Jake" or "Judy". Typically a dog has no trouble separating the names for 2 specific humans, its own name, and 1 specific other pet, and the word "stranger". So there typically are about 5 buttons for specific persons. 6. Teachers do not introduce buttons for new words until the learner has started using the last button/word in the correct context. It is everybodys experience that you get abysmal results if you introduce too many buttons at once, because apparently then they all just mean "give me attention now", as far as the learner can tell. The difference between these two situations is typically rather obvious. 7. Yes the owner of Bunny the dog often applies overly "confirmation biasy" interpretations of sentences and ignores words she judges does not make sense. This is true and it is a mistake by her, and the owner of Stella the dog does it much better, by not ignoring anything and always acting verbatim on what was said with the buttons. However you cherry-picked two examples that fit your critical narrative and dismissed all the other evidence. Like.... an even worse mistake than confirmation bias, is it not? Thus you're throwing out the baby with the bathwater by dismissing the whole thing based on finding a few cases of overly generous interpretations. 8. You say they don't stop and think before typing? You accidentally saw edited videos where the dog did it quickly. The NORMAL video contains extended pauses between prompt, human response, new prompt, next human response, and so on, during which the dog is OBVIOUSLY thinking about how to continue the exchange. There is CLEARLY thinking involved. Just look at more examples.

[@Yasmin-pi5pr]

yes yes yes! thank you

[@yelyahfan88x94]

Go off sis

[@intuitlife]

Animals even learn pictures And can learn many words This Scientist sucks eggs

[@intuitlife]

My dogs and cats learned so much language No buttons needed Probably buttons would have worked ObiWantzCanolis is learning to identify every toy and action so far This woman is just ridiculous

[@ModernLEGOreviews]

i looked at the examples. You're wrong

[@thebodirlife4182]

I believe if you keep it simple, and keep particular buttons near the meaning (such as food button next to feeding area) I think it works just fine. Outside button near the door and maybe another 2 buttons to separate wether they just need to use the bathroom or play outside

[@KPassionate]

I agree!

[@Reggi_Sample]

Not the hexagonal bs

[@daniellestevens2068]

My dog can use the outside button and the play button 😅

[@boliussa]

maybe the reason the dog is having an existential crisis is too many buttons!

[@lindayoung6845]

I'm a biologist and I've watched many of these videos of this dog and of a cat named Billie, and I think these two animals do have a great deal of comprehension, I e., Billie identified a coyote as a stranger dog.

[@TheAaronRodgersTao]

Well, your opinion as a biologist will be responded to with ad hominem sarcasm to the backdrop of circus music. That’s what science really is.

[@Sweatyjpegaddict]

@@TheAaronRodgersTaogo back to enlightenment seems it’s working mr tao

[@Aliandrin]

I missed when exactly "there might be confirmation bias" became equal logically to, "this thing definitely doesn't happen and is officially disproven and debunked."

[@johnschwalb]

The dog said it was mad because all the buttons were moved from the plywood, while showing all the body language of a happy dog looking for attention.

[@PrplPoppySystem]

​@@johnschwalb Pet owners who use buttons to communicate don't have the full range of emotion wheel on the buttons. There are far more words that are synonymous to mad that doesn't necessarily elicit what we would consider the body language of just mad. Frustration, which is a more complex emotion than mad, wouldn't necessarily elicit mad body language; however the base emotion of frustration is mad. I'm not saying that Bunny's owner is in the clear. I've seen videos where I felt the video/buttons were manipulated. THAT is problematic. That said I've seen other videos where either cats or dogs were using buttons to express themselves, and the owners not only listened to the buttons but we're also looking at body language to better understand what their pet was saying in context. Jenn and Pharaby are a good example of this. It takes Jenn a while to sort out what Pharaby is saying sometimes because, again, there are only so many buttons. Imagine having, let's say, 60 words in another language. Basic words for needs, a few important things and people names, emotions, a few verbs (in present tense), and the word for later. That is your entire vocabulary in a foreign language that you realize will help you be better understood by the people around you. Add the extra complication that those people do not supply you with new words so that you can better express yourself. Your ability to clearly express yourself to them with words will be stunted. That's what these pets face. I have no issue that Bunny's owner referred to a pet being a learner because even while her pet is a dog, there are other types of pets using these buttons and she recognized that fact.

[@amberbuckhalter6433]

My dog has 3 buttons (one button died) and used them correctly. She has “bone” “outside” and “ride”. She uses outside and bone the most unprompted. If I ask her if she wants to go for a ride then she will get very excited (which was her response before we got the buttons) and I’ll tell her “use your button” to let me know if she wants to go for a ride. She will then go to her ride button and hit it. A lot of the time she doesn’t hit the button hard enough to make it say the word and when I tell her to “hit it harder” she will go back and hit it harder so it goes off. I’ll ask her questions and she Will answer with the button. For example, “where are we going?” And she will hit the “outside” button. I’ll hold up a bone and ask her “what’s this?” And she will hit the “bone” button. She communicates a lot verbally and non verbally and is very easy to train, which is why I thought she would catch on fast to the buttons. I wasn’t wrong. I had to teach her the command “touch” so I could teach her to touch the button and I had to teach her to push the button. All that took about 30-45 minutes. When we want her to go play or just go somewhere else (like not on the couch with us at that moment because she’s being too rambunctious) we will tell her to “go play.” She will then go play with her toys if we are inside or if we are outside she will run off to go chase birds or find something to do. She is a rat terrier so she is an intelligent breed, but she is smart even for a rat terrier. She has so many things she does to communicate with us and she understands way more than we realize she does. All the time we catch ourselves going “oh wow, she understand that!” She makes what she wants very clear without the buttons. The buttons just gave her a different way to tell me what she wants.

[@mandiboston8014]

It's not unusual for an animal to associate an action with a result, such as pressing a specific button associated with going outside, or a toy or a treat. The real issue she seems to have with these videos is the stringing together of buttons to make more complex thoughts. The concern isn't even that it's impossible for an animal to do, but that this is being done in a non scientific way that allows for confirmation bias and other problems to affect the results and the interpretation of the results.

[@JR-jl2ku]

@@mandiboston8014 The 'concern' goes from 'can animals really talk to us?' to 'can animals have complex thoughts and make sentences?' to 'this wasn't done in a scientific way.'

[@ModernLEGOreviews]

Make it into smaller paragraphs. Didnt read

[@Crackpot_Astronaut]

@@ModernLEGOreviews Don't be lazy. Jesus Christ. Have we really come to the point in time where people are unwilling to read a paragraph and a half? Pathetic.

[@user-nw1wc1jo4l]

@@mandiboston8014 you could say the same about anything. I ask a restaurant for food because im hungry and want food lol how is it any different we associated words with actions

[@cult2occult897]

I don't understand the difference between a dog pressing a button to get something in particular they want and understanding the word association with the object/person/action. It seems the same as a toddler level of communication. I don't believe that they are capable of super complex language but I don't necessarily disagree with the idea of teaching a dog to use buttons so they can communicate ideas that would otherwise be more complicated to get across to us.

[@KPassionate]

I don’t think they can recognize more than the act of pressing a button. It doesn’t matter what the button says. They know it means attention. Perhaps if there is a button in different locations. But I think one button is the same as several to them. If that makes sense

[@alisaforster28691]

@@KPassionate dont know if i get you right, but that would mean that all buttons have the same meaning. But billie the cat for example uses them very deliberate. Best example is "noise" when hearing noise in the apartment she would go to noise and sometimes "all done" afterwards. Her noise sensitivity seems to be quite high, her body language shows signs of anger (tail flipping, ears drawn back), immediate response to noise sound. the "all done" button also hints at deeper conceptional understanding, since she uses it in different ways like "quite what you are doing" or "it stopped" (like "ouch all done")

[@KPassionate]

@@alisaforster28691 that’s not what I see on the cat videos. Also the people making the videos cherry pick clips that support their own narrative. Unfortunately there is no evidence that supports it.

[@alisaforster28691]

@@KPassionate or you are cherrypicking bad examples because of normalcy bias

[@KPassionate]

@@alisaforster28691 I just watched random videos 🤷‍♀️. Couldn’t actually find a good example that showed what they wanted 😂

[@ZeroCool-DBG]

You can't say dogs can't communicate through recognized words. My dogs know the difference when I tell them to get a ball, a tug rope or there stuffed animal. They also know the difference between the truck and the car with out me leaving the house. I can tell them to wait by the truck or the car and they know which vehicle I am talking about, while I'm still inside the house. My work boots, tennis shoes and flip flops are all kept in the same place and I cam tell them to get my boots and they will come back with my boots. So if they can know what those words are and there differences what is stopping them from using those recognized words when they hear it?

[@KPassionate]

I definitely never said dogs can’t communicate and certainly didn’t say they can’t understand words. In fact if you watch the video I say the exact opposite. I specifically say a few buttons with word associations could be useful. What I do say is that they cannot string together words to form complex sentences.

[@mrd9699]

@@KPassionate If you study dogs the theory is they don't speak how we do in complete sentences you know what nevermind u are clueless and obviously never owned a dog

[@intuitlife]

They don't need complete sentences any way Just understanding what their needs are and what their humans desire is Then the fun begins to make the match

[@ideegeniali]

@@KPassionate I don't know how complex sentences you're dubenking, but bunny can for sure string words together to: - make a compound noun "noisy bird" for plane - put subject/verb/object in sentence - use modifiers "big sound" "belly ouch" - add complements to atomic sentence (where and when action took place) - string subject, verb, object, place, time in a sentence. In no particular order and no strict syntax whatsoever i agree. But i think it's because the main goal of bunny owner is communicate, not experiment. Since owner will understand and perform with loose syntax, dog is not reinforced to use strict syntax. If owner insisted talking in strict syntax and only executing dog requests when posed in strict syntax, i'm sure bunny would use strict syntax as well.

[@o0julek0o]

@@ideegeniali no need to bother talking with the woman from the video. She isn’t a marine biologist or any kind of scientist. She’s a zoologist who trains dolphins at a knockoff sea world. I am absolutely certain she could decipher what you just said anyways. Classic 95IQ brainier.

[@JulesCoppola]

Scientists also used to think that newborns could not feel pain and thus performed surgeries without anesthesia. Science will catch up.

[@KPassionate]

There were never any scientific experiments that supported that wild theory. Hopefully those that don’t understand what science is will catch up.

[@Sweatyjpegaddict]

Can’t even do your make up right but you’re commenting about how a marine biologist doesn’t understand science. Disney adults are wild

[@jellirabauke2565]

@@Sweatyjpegaddict yeah her comment is bs.. but no need to get Personal though

[@ruthie8785]

Okay but there needs to be evidence first hon.

[@ragevsraid7703]

you are gross--->@@KPassionate

[@brassy49er37]

Bunny does indeed know stranger. U need to watch more of her videos.

[@marahdolores8930]

I invested in training classes with a NADOI-certified instructor, which was some of the best money I've ever spent. (Incidentally, "Don't Shoot the Dog" and the books on dog training by the Monks of New Skete were highly recommended by our instructor.) I have toyed with the notion of perhaps getting a button ("outside"), but that is because my dog is incredibly subtle about signaling that she has to go. I do believe without a doubt that my dog understands the basic commands - come, sit, down, stand, stay, wait, with me (aka offlead "heel"), off, hupp, leave it, crash, etc... She also responds to whistled commands. Do I think some buttons could prove useful? Yes, in a similar fashion to teaching babies sign language. My Australian Shepherd is smarter than some people's babies, so why should she not be able to understand and signal simple words that she already recognizes? (Squirrel!)

[@marahdolores8930]

I do believe some dogs are quite intelligent. Our oldest daughter (who took the NADOI classes beginning at age 8) trained a Search and Rescue dog as a teen. That dog had a way of communicating quite well without buttons. For example, she would bring her plastic food crock to you and drop it at your feet when she wanted to eat. If ignored, she would pick up the dish again, and either try to shove it in your hand, or if seated, shove it in your lap, and then lay her head on your leg and stare pointedly at you. If further ignored, she would then start to apply very firm pressure downward to let us know "hey, hungry NOW". Not a button in sight, and she communicated things perfectly fine. This dog was also trained hundreds of logged hours, to a fairly high standard of training. Not sure if that would make a difference or not.

[@samharms6269]

Exactly! My King Charles Spaniel is more clever / intuitive than some of my friends 😂

[@marahdolores8930]

@@samharms6269 probably because dogs are far superior to most humans at reading human body language. Most humans are quite poor at that, and let's admit there are some humans who are pretty deficient at decoding SPOKEN language, much less written communication.

[@brittanyt729]

Hi, just an observation, but could your own confirmation bias be affecting your thoughts about the video. You may want to rewatch your reaction. I would pay attention to how you interpret the owners response to Bunny’s first string of “words.” She doesn’t say that Bunny is communicating that she is happier than previously. The owner is interpreting the string of words as Bunny expressing a need (possibly in reaction to the word help). Also, as you stated body language is important to human communication. You have a decidedly ick face somewhere in the reaction. Not that your possible bias is wrong or right but it is probably there. 😋

[@KPassionate]

Biases definitely influence everyone. But mine is developed from scientific research and a knowledge of how evolution and animal brains work.

[@MatthewStauffer]

@@KPassionate Bull. You didn't conduct any actual research regarding this subject. You watched some videos and drew conclusions that fit your preconceived narrative. "I have a glass face that portrays how much I hate all of this." This attitude showed through many times throughout the video and really suggests you haven't given this subject a fair shot at objective analysis. You're guilty of the same thing you're accusing these people of. "I don't understand why we can't let dogs just be dogs. Dogs are amazing, and we don't need to teach them to be humans." Because consciousness is fascinating. It's a great opportunity to learn more about what a conscious experience is. And bridging the gap between humans and other animals really helps to tear down that anthropocentric ego we tend to carry around about ourselves. "But before you say that I'm the one with confirmation bias. Full disclosure, is that my pre-existing notion was that the dog would be much better at this, and we would actually be talking about the Clever Hans effect." The second sentence literally exposes your confirmation bias. You were prepared and expecting to prove this notion wrong before watching these videos. I'm not suggesting the claims of these dog owners are true. But I'm certainly not rampantly dismissing them without scientific rigor either. This should be investigated, because it could stand to teach us a lot more about animals and ourselves.

[@KPassionate]

@@MatthewStauffer I am not sure why people think I need to be the one who has done the research in order for it to be valid. The research has been done. Of course I didn’t conduct it. Just as I did not conduct experiments on gravity but still recognize it as valid. There have been many dog cognition studies that show an amazing ability to recognize words after years of training. Even upwards of 1000 words! But never consistently stringing together several words to make sentences. Sorry the content isn’t your thing. Thanks for watching.

[@Jusonomous]

@@MatthewStauffer regardless of presentation, she made solid points about how the dogs are using the buttons more as a means of attention rather than in an actual effort to communicate complex sentences. The cat example and the button arrangement example are clear signs of confirmation bias because the falsifying evidence for the hypothesis “dogs can learn to communicate with language” is instead interpreted to back up the hypothesis. The poster of this channel is simply pointing this out.

[@tycorrell5390]

The videos used as examples, I have seen better button videos that actually express a dialogue back and forth, even arguing. I definitely see the point that they have an obvious confirmation bias in these samples. But, not every video and every dog owner has ridiculous expectations. This is a small sample size. Comparatively, the research Google's algorithms serves me, indicates dogs can form complex communication concepts, that they are capable of stringing ideas together. And others, as this video points out, contradict that. Part of the problem is language itself, "Dogs can (or can't) form complex thoughts or string words together." What is complexity? Complexity doesn't have a universal bar. I would argue the truth is somewhere in the middle of what they can communicate and what they cannot, my hypothesis being that "Dogs can string one trained concept to a binary yes or no. And, of their trained concepts, they understand similar familiar concepts, such as 'play' or 'walk' being somewhat similar." And this may be at a toddler's level. So I can see buttons, "yes, play, walk" inferring from yes, a positive, "I want to," "play" (a category) "walk." That's not so much of a stretch, and the dog could just say "walk" without any other buttons. The "play" would be an emotion concept, communicating the dog is excited and the "yes," being kind of like how a toddler expresses things with the hope and authority that they are already imagining what they want coming true, even if you say no. It's manipulative to the human, knowing extra steps likely comes with more reward and thus an incentive. And it makes sense biologically, because as humans for so long have lived with these domesticated animals, they have developed instincts to get what they want from us; living with us has been their environment. I think micro-evolution has a play here, and has accelerated that process, as we breed them as far as physical characteristics but probably as far as instinctual characteristics too. That may not be as apparent with cats, but dogs are sociable, probably why they are so desirable, as we are social animals too. I know that this is a lot of speculation, but if you cut out the fat of everything I'm saying here, remember what my hypothesis is. The bar for what I define as "complex" is a lot lower than most people with buttons and as far as experiments go, not easy to observe or back-up, likewise to being proven true or false against existing research. It's more of a thought experiment. But if you approach the thought experiment, understanding that the way dog trainers train is through incentive, taking advantage of a dog's instinct and rewarding trained behavior, I think it is helpful in finding creative ways to train your dog and have a good relationship with them. The button thing doesn't carry over a lot of modern training; I think people use it as a replacement for formal training, and that is a problem. It could be used as an addition, but it would need to be simplified. My profession is programming and design (which is a different science), but with that perspective it occurs to me that teaching your dog binary, the concept of yes or no to use in addition to trained concepts would be the most effective approach if you want your dog to communicate with some level of complexity. So if I were doing buttons, I might do something simple, "Yes, No" in a separate group. If we combine a trained word to these binary concepts, we already have a problem. "Food" as an example, "yes food," "no food." These could mean the same thing. So consider yes, "I want" and no, "I don't want." Just as when you train a dog, you are saying the same with less words. If you confuse this when you are interpreting the dog's meaning, you have removed consistency from the equation due to confirmation bias. Removing confirmation bias is easier with consistency, easier by treating binary like binary. So, "no food" could mean, "I don't want food," not necessarily "I'm out of food." It would be a stretch to infer otherwise. Now to test this, try "yes treat," and "no treat." If the dog responds with "no treat," the experiment is broken and you should stop the experiment so seriously for the time being and evaluate the variables. Now when I say 'experiment,' I don't want to offend the scientific method. The purpose is to learn, not to prove a hypothesis. I think a lot of people think that experiments solely exist to prove something indefinitely. No, not at all. I think the buttons would be okay though if they were simpler in design, narrowed the variables to be just binary plus one concept of a few choices, and if the dog owner is realistic with expectations and the dog owner is trained well (with the existing standards of dog training), doesn't use buttons as a replacement for modern and standardized dog training and doesn't overwhelm their dog mentally, I can see the experiment being a good thing. It doesn't really matter if your dog can communicate with complexity. Your dog is complex, and your dog is smart. All of them are. They communicate with complexity already, and if you can't see that already, please go to dog training. It's more proven. The buttons are more like a game and an experiment rather than a tool to teach your dog. They are for teaching a dog that is already well-behaved. I think if there is any confirmation bias in the video, it's from the angle of someone that has a job in training animals and looking out for their well-being, sees how if you are using buttons to replace training, it could confuse your dog, and that could be a bad experiment for the health of your pet. This is true though; it's a good confirmation bias, knows the limits of when you should experiment. Someone in charge of animals without a want to protect their well-being would be a bad scientist, if it was part of their job function to be ethical. Without going too much deeper into what I mean on how confirmation bias can be a good thing, I'm just going to describe a scientist without any confirmation bias whatsoever pertaining to the quality of their work, as a mad scientist. Hopefully I've expressed enough, that you know I don't think in binary on this topic, as if there is a yes or no answer. And hopefully maybe at this point, I don't even have to say that when she made this video, she was not arguing that dogs aren't smart. So whoever got wildly out-of-pocket and judged her as a scientist, please "sit."

[@snaileriepimpson]

Is it possible that it just needs more research? I feel like these button dogs are a newer frontier, and there are a lot of full length videos where she does seem to be communicating. Maybe this is just something scientists need to look into instead of writing off because they have never seen it before. A lot of the sequences Bunny comes up with are quite complex but they make sense. For example, she expressed she had a thorn in her foot by saying there was a “stranger” in her foot, conceptualizing the idea that something was there that wasn’t supposed to be. I’m fascinated that you aren’t more intrigued by the idea and want to research it, and are writing it off completely based on nothing.

[@KPassionate]

There has been lots of research on the topic. And it is proven time and time again. That is why I have "written it off". The science is clear. Feel free to read the links in the description and pinned comment.

[@Aliandrin]

The same way she's accusing the believers of confirmation bias, she's cherrypicking the segments that make the least sense. Both are probably going on and it needs a scientific study with a control, which in this case would be a dog taught that random things happen (sometimes treat, sometimes open door, sometimes nothing) when it hits a random button and the results would be generated randomly. Then see if observers can tell the dog that is definitely mashing random buttons from the one trained to use them meaningfully. If the observers pick the meaningful dog enough that it couldn't be by chance (let's say P-value .05) then there's something there.

[@Gebruikersnaam35]

​@@KPassionate you have written it off. Fine. But not all scientists have. Scientific "proof" is a myth. Old proof sometimes gets debunked by new, different or better research.

[@graealex]

@@Aliandrin She has a few arguments, some of them good, some of them bad. She just switches between them however she likes. When pet owners improve their relation with their pet by buying buttons, then she calls the companies that make them scammers. When it is clear that the push of a button does coincide with a need of the pet, she arguments, "you just trained her to push the button to get something". And when she does admit that the button presses relate to current needs, she just moves the goal post to "well but these still aren't coherent sentences and that is required for communication". And when a pet forms somewhat meaningful sentences, well, then that was just "random button mashing" or "too much interpretation by the owner". There is no single coherent thought process in what she actually wanted to disprove in this video. Mostly just rolling her eyes instead of arguments, either way.

[@floepiejane]

​@@graealexwell said

[@BraxEvans]

I think that much like Bunny's owner you are being selective in using the clips and examples that best support your point . Also it shouldn't be ignored that both of your primary incentives are not to remain objective. Its creating content. You set out to make a debunking video and chose examples to support that. Bunny's channel has alot of far more compelling clips that are not as easily debunked. And that show unexpected potential value like Bunny alerting her mom that her paw hurt. Upon investigation her owner pulled out a splinter from between her toes. Giving a pet the tools to communicate when they are in pain has too much potential to just dismiss outright. They are onto something with these buttons and luckily they have been on the market long enough that dirt cheap chinese knockoffs are now available making your whole don't waste your money advice inaccurate. You can get a 4 pack for 20ish bucks.

[@KPassionate]

I just picked a random video but yes it is content creation! I’ve talked about the splinter example that everyone loves to quote in other comments. But I do agree that communication is a good thing. I just think learning how your pets communicate is far more valuable than trying to ask them to do the impossible

[@BraxEvans]

@@KPassionate Agree with you there. And I have no doubt that a majority of people who buy the buttons will probably have unrealistic expectations. They are just a tool. It still takes a teacher who has that understanding in how your pets communicate to effectively train them to use the tool.

[@godesway]

@@KPassionate Doing the impossible is clearly not quite an accurate statement. choosing a random video is maybe lowering the validity of your content. Why would you speak on something whilst weakening your evidence. It is true, an owner has to be skilled in doing just what you mention is better, understanding natural animal behavior, a well established must, in order to begin associating the animals behavior to them with the words. This is essentially not any different from giving an animal a command, the process is simply reversed. An animal understanding a command is already proof that they can learn language. Lastly, the syntax of this dogs sentences is limited to the buttons currently provided. If you are to judge at such a negative angle, it will serve your content to appreciate the evidence of the counter argument. Otherwise your enthusiastic negation is more insulting to the subject matter than illuminating.

[@KPassionate]

@@godesway sorry. You have a misunderstanding of language. You can read more about the studies that have been done on this in my description.

[@Markusbarkus111]

@@KPassionate as a person who studies psychology thank you for putting this video out, trying to explain to people that animals simply don’t understand our language in terms of internal states, like yes they can associate walk with going outside or that car ride means get in the car or sit means sit. That does not mean a dog can say I’m mad at you or I’m unhappy. You don’t have to watch all of these dog button videos to understand the history of trying to teach animals to speak language like koko the gorilla.

[@glitterwizard4265]

I work with dogs, and was having a conversation about Bunny today with a peer. While I’m skeptical, I can say I have a bias, because I’d love for it to be true. I’d love if animals could speak to us with more than just body language. Not because they need to, but if they can have more complex thoughts, Wouldn’t words be helpful in relating them? I am excited to see where this research goes. That being said, there are a few things that make me very curious. First, in her videos without cuts, you can see Bunny being thoughtful of what buttons to press, seemingly to get her point across. Why would she do this, if she’s not actually thinking about which words to choose? Do you think she’s learned some phrases or buttons get more of a response? Also in regards to her paw video, I saw your comments with this, to me, it seemed like she deliberately chose buttons that related to her current situation. Do you believe that this simply needs a concrete study, or is there a way she could more convincingly communicate complex thought? I hope this comes across okay, I’m genuinely curious about your thoughts. Apologizes if you’ve already addressed these questions. I enjoyed hearing your opinion on this.

[@ragevsraid7703]

watch billispeaks and you will know it is true

[@BGr8ful4all]

When I was seven, science claimed that dogs don’t think, feel, and only act upon instinct. I knew then that not all science is true, as I had a poodle and we communicated well. And her actions proved that she could problem solve, as well as show emotion. I currently have three dogs and they easily understand close to 30 words. I do think people need to teach their dog to be familiar with the words they offer for them to use before adding that button. And I do believe some of these videos shown were reaching to assume what the dog wanted by the buttons they tapped. I certainly do think the buttons could be a great tool! But as I stated, the dogs have to already understand what the word means before adding it to the button group. You are absolutely right that animals communicate with us all the time! But I do think these buttons can be a fun tool to communicate outside as you said as well as park, treats (my dogs get fruit or veggies as treats) or other actions or destinations they already are familiar with. Would be great to be able to teach a dog to use the button to convey that their belly hurts or their leg hurts or their ear hurts.

[@KPassionate]

I don’t believe science has ever claimed that animals couldn’t feel things. Although people certainly thought so at one point.

[@BGr8ful4all]

@@KPassionate They most certainly did! They taught that in grade school in the late 60s.

[@KPassionate]

@@BGr8ful4all I’d love to see the source on that.

[@BGr8ful4all]

@@KPassionate Sorry I didn’t keep my science books from grade school.

[@jlt131]

@@BGr8ful4all just because you were taught something in school doesn't mean it was accredited science. the teacher's own bias affects everything, as well as whoever wrote the textbook. textbooks are not infallible either - there are creationist "textbooks" that teach the earth is 6000 years old. That said, science is ever evolving, yes. We do know more about animal behaviour now than we did 60 years ago. It can be difficult for people to accept the new "changes" (nothing has actually changed, we just figured out how to better understand it). But a dog suggesting it's having an *existential crisis* because it hit the buttons "no tomorrow" in sequence (this was another of Bunny's recent videos) is somewhat ridiculous. the dog just as easily could have been saying they didn't want to do a thing tomorrow, or that they didn't want to do it now because it could be done tomorrow, or that the dog doesn't know the concept of tomorrow and accidentally stepped on that button. I do believe a few buttons could be trained and be useful, like "outside" and "treat" and "play" but like she said, we already have communication for those things, so why bother with expensive buttons unless it's just for views/likes on social media? It definitely would be nice to know when something is hurting them, but how do you train for the word "pain" without causing it?

[@joshuakhuffmaster-whyte2847]

Dog Trainer here. Thank you for making this video. When i first saw these videos I laughed it off. It never occurred to me that a mass amount of people would believe this. I am now seeing real life consequences for this line of thinking with my clients that reach out to me for help. For an example, I had a clinet who was using these and she was trying to rehome her dog because she whole heartedly believed that her dog told her through buttons that it was not going to stop jumping on people or attacking the other dog in the house. It is no longer silly or laughable, it is harmful to the society of dogs.

[@KPassionate]

I completely agree! I thought it was harmless at first but wow. Things are getting out of control

[@anitacacosta17acosta9]

Ty for this. I knew from the begining what a scam this is. Just bc humans are greedy. Im so sorry for how harmful thisbis for sonmany innocent beings

[@KristyAshcraft]

I was thinking the same thing. My son is non verbal, and autistic. We are teaching him to use a sound board to speak, but he is struggling with it. My son is human, and he is 7 and is struggling, so I don't see a dog being able to do this. Maybe some sort of primate, that would be a very interesting experiment. Idk if dogs have the ability to comprehend language as a concept in the first place.

[@nussknacker9827]

​@@KristyAshcraft Would sign language help your child?

[@Blablabla44475]

Ok let’s not allow one crazy lady to ruin it for everyone else.

[@thecatsdog]

While I agree there are some pretty big leaps in terms of interpretation, I am convinced my dog has a much better way to communicate her needs and thoughts...yes, thoughts! My dog is learning to use them. They are called the learner because people are attempting this with different species so it isn't limited to dog or cat. Here is my best example of my dogs multiple butting press communication. My husband went off on a Saturday and didn't let her know he was going. I was sitting in the living room with her. She suddenly got up and trotted to the backyard. Then she came running to the front window to look outside. By now she was amped. She grabbed her bed and thrashed it for a few seconds. Then she went to her soundboard and pressed BACKYARD, OUTSIDE, DADDY, DADDY, DADDY, LOVE YOU, DADDY. Since I had seen the entire process I know that she looked for him in the backyard and out the window to the front yard and didn't find him. I cant come up with a random or different way to interpret this other than she missed him and wondered where he went. When I told her DADDY, RIDE, CAR she came over and settled in her bed with a huff. She knows what's going on.

[@adriandillon7761]

Wow! Thank you for sharing that. She obviously is aware and thinking about what's going on. I think it's so exciting that we're exploring this form of communication. Animals are capable of so much more than we give them credit for.

[@bEnderOfWorlds]

This is exactly the confirmation bias she spoke about. You have to evaluate ALL of the responses together, rather than cherry picking data. The anthropomorphism is strong here while the scientific method is all but ignored.

[@stephaniechagnon2532]

Good morning, may I ask ? Is your dog better in communication really or is it that those buttons make it easier for you to think you have a better grasp of what segments of human language the buttons convey? ( Real question, no cynicism here).

[@fernbear3950]

I had a friend recently who said she wouldn't play outside with her dog on one day, and the dog threw a temper tantrum and said that [NAME] (my friend's brother) likes to play outside. They're just like angry, grumpy, silly, energetic toddlers some times. I love it so much.

[@adriandillon7761]

@@bEnderOfWorlds Bias works both ways. You obviously have a bias toward anthropocentrism. The "science" here is so out of date it's laughable. This woman doesn't want to admit intelligence in animals bcz she trains CAPTIVE MARINE MAMMALS at a place similar to SeaWorld, known for abuse. People involved in that industry don't want animals to be seen as intelligent. Wake up Bro!

[@Angi_Mathochist]

I hope you've heard all this by now, but... They say "learner" because people are using buttons with different kinds of animals, not just dogs. It's NOT always assumed that the dog understands everything they "say" with the buttons. But over time, you realize that some things are definitely not just coincidence. And you KNOW that your dog understands a LOT of words. Dogs know the names of their family members (of all species) because they hear them all the time. Of course some dogs are going to be able to use and interested in using some of those words themselves when given the tools. You need to watch more than just one of Bunny's videos. She walks around in circles and plans her sentences ALL THE TIME. In fact, the walking around in circles for ages before starting or finishing sentences is a pretty common trait that's been observed among dogs who use the word buttons (not sure about cats and other animals, but dogs, at least, seem to do quite a lot of planning and thinking before they speak). You just picked a video where they're only showing very short clips of her with the buttons, not whole conversations. Look up the videos where she's talking about dreams. I would bet you anything that in the clip where Bunny said "cat" and "sound" and the cat was upstairs, she could hear the cat making a sound. I would bet that because that's the case in SO MANY of her videos. You can hear the meow -- she says something about the sound. One thing we have learned from all the dogs in this experiment are that the dogs tend to make up their own syntax. They put together the logical words, but the order is not necessarily the same as you would use. Also, they are very good at putting together words to name a concept that they don't have a word for. Like Bunny using "sleep talk" for "dream". Teaching dogs to use words to better communicate with us is not teaching them to be humans. It's just improving communication. If my dog can tell me that he has an ouch and then show me where it hurts, that's FANTASTIC, and I no longer have to guess from his body language that he MIGHT be hurting. And our dogs will say "outside" rather than barking or scratching at the door. Way better! And "back rooms" rather than barking or scratching at THAT door or gate. MAJOR improvement!

[@Rising_Pho3nix_23]

When "beach" button failed, dog used "outside water play". When multiple pets press "food" and get told no, they press "mad". When mirror placed near the buttons, Bunny the dog looks in mirror and says "what is Bunny". Mom responds with "Bunny is dog, bunny is family". Bunny then presses "Why Bunny dog". When it was raining hard and the water was coming up on the deck, dog presses "concerned water outside". When it stopped raining, dog presses "all done water noise". When dog watches their fellow pet being weird and hyper, first dog presses "Otter stranger". I mean I'm just talking about 1 or 2 dogs, there are literally thousands of dogs and half a dozen species. As far as the over-stimulation...I mean that's how sex addictions happen. You don't understand the meaning (relationships) and you just want the reward (physical pleasure). I know 60 year old humans who press the "button" too much in the form of prostitutes, alcohol and obesity. You took a sample set of 1 and came to a conclusion. That's not science. That's religion. Look at Norma the cow, Billie (cat) Speaks, and Stella the dog. There's a sample set that brings us to 4. 4 times the data that you're basing your bias upon. I'm more of a behavioral scientist than you, apparently and I'm not even participating in this EXPERIMENT due to not allowed to have pets in this apartment. But sure. Come to a conclusion before you even gather data. That's how truth works, right? You're an animal behavioral scientist who's job includes training animals to do tricks. Is it so hard to see these examples as PART of the scientific method (experiment)? Maybe you aren't a real scientist after all. What you're reviewing is just a few people (among thousands) running the initial stages of a global experiment. And your confirmation bias has already concluded "there's nothing to see here". If you think animals are too stupid to have thoughts, I hope you get arrested next time you interact with your abuse victims.

[@DrZoonotics]

I can appreciate KPassionate's knowledge and experience in non-human animal behavior and her grasp of the scientific method. With the internet, too many people convince themselves that they can become an "expert" just by "doing their research" which is nothing more than listening to videos by people who have no idea about the subject they are babbling about. I search for a properly educated/trained non-human animal behaviorist for dog behavior and a professional dog groomer to do the grooming but not the other way around. The internet is full of properly educated/trained professionals in veterinary and human health fields to have to settle for wannabes.

[@GrandisSilva]

Alexis, Bunny's owner, has repeatedly stated that she tries to maintain a healthy scepticism, and stay aware of confirmation bias when analysing Bunny's button presses. She has also stated that this training has led to her doing a great deal of research into dog behaviour, and she still aims to interpret Bunny's body language. She benefits from working from home and has worked hard to develop a good bond with her dog. Also, Bunny *does* often look searchingly at the buttons. This video doesn't have great clips, Alexis has been anle to film much better examples, plus a group of scientists are actually studying her. She knows the names of her dog friends because the humans use them! Dogs absolutely have a concept for 'friend' (a known being) and stranger (unknown scent).

[@michaelthomas1614]

But her behaviour is the exact opposite. If you believe ANYTHING in those bunny videos, I got bad news for you. You are stupid.

[@WhiteWolfos]

Bunny does in fact occasionally wait and think about how to form some sentences, the rest just comes naturally and she's able to click what ideas makes sense to her.

[@KPassionate]

She can’t form sentences. Sorry

[@wolf_mouth]

Yeah not to mention the fact that this dog has been doing this since she was 6 months old. Time for dogs moves and feels a lot different than it does for us (in feeling, less in reality) so, that's like saying a human has been training for ballet since they were 6 years old and then this KPassionate lady saying that they didn't stop to think about it so, they aren't actually dancing ballet.

[@b60977]

Yeah I confirm this. Soon the dog will sign a contract with a well recognized publisher for its first novel. Gtfoh!

[@samalass466]

​@@KPassionate care to explain your counter argument in a way that makes sense for this specific comment?

[@lret2070]

@@samalass466 what is there to counter? a person beleives the dog occasionally waits to talk, but the rest comes natural to her? that isnt an argument, it isnt even a syllogism.

[@jnanashakti6036]

I am definitely skeptical about the complex button training, but I 100% think basic needs could be helped with button training. My dog has the same body language for different needs, and I would love to know what he's needing. Maybe a bell is better? Learner is used, I assume, because this used with other pets than dogs. And some folks don't view animals as pets. I myself have a roommate. :) lol

[@aleisterlavey9716]

Some people are like pets. They live rent-free, eat your food, leave a mess, when you're not at home, but your live would be less rich without them.

[@nickmagrick7702]

bells are limited to one stimulus association. Its not better. In fact if you do it wrong, a simple association trigger can do a lot more harm than good

[@Yusa_Beach]

@@nickmagrick7702 couldn't you have multiple bells that have different pitches depending on what the dog wants?

[@nickmagrick7702]

@@Yusa_Beach theoretically, whats your point?

[@Yusa_Beach]

@@nickmagrick7702 well I thought that sense they tend to recognize or remember the different pitches of the sound of a word makes, they would be able to communicate with having a set of bells which had different sounds that meant certain words. I don't think it would really work, but it was a thought I had

[@ministryofpeacekmk]

Does it really matter if it's tone of voice as opposed to words that they understand? Btw, my Chihuahua knows certain words no matter what tone that I use when saying them. I just ordered 4 dog talking buttons to train my doing with. I don't expect to have a full on conversation with my dog, but there are times when she just sits there staring at me , and then I finally realize that it was time for something. With the buttons, she can remind me, and alert me to what she wants. I am very excited to work with my dog with the buttons! 😁 *EDIT: I only paid $20.00 for the 4 buttons that I ordered.

[@KPassionate]

You are welcome to buy as many buttons as you like! But it is a waste of money and benefits these scammers.

[@kuraarachan]

It’s not a scam if the goal is communicate with your pet and the buttons assist with that, even if it is just plain skinner association. You keep saying you’ll believe there is something to these videos if actual research confirms it but then make comments like this that really scream of bias. If you can’t share an actually objective or even neutral perspective then maybe wait for the research to actually come out to make comments if you actually care about sharing accurate information. We simply don’t know enough at this point to make any conclusions about why these animals are interacting with these buttons.

[@KPassionate]

@@kuraarachan the goal is to make money for the company by convincing people that the product works when they are fully aware that dogs cannot do what is advertised. That is a scam

[@michaelthomas1614]

@@kuraarachan Then go ahead and buy those buttons :) Lets see how you do

[@justynpryce]

​@@KPassionateyou replied to a few other comments that said the same thing as this one with "I agree." Did something happen since that makes you think the buttons that play sounds are useless scams?

[@IistheWalrus]

Stella is part of a study involving several pets. This woman watched a video while we watched. I’m gonna hold out for the scientist specifically studying this with several examples and controls and not someone watching a video in real time even if she’s a scientist.

[@whelanmmw]

I'm convinced no one is studying the pets. I think the owners are being studied.

[@warehousejo007]

@@whelanmmw shld be. there's plenty other pet owners that can use a check-up from the neck up. 😼

[@Usernamesarelame378]

Amen to that. Excellent point. Besides what is the harm and this could be very useful for handicapped owners amongst many other things I'm sure there are that is just the first that came to mind.

[@Usernamesarelame378]

@@whelanmmwalso a good point!!!!

[@jasminhas9790]

Hey! Coming from a totally unrelated area of science (I work in medicine), I do mostly agree with your arguments. Respectfully, though I lack the expertise to judge on this issue in particular, bias in science generally is unavoidable, including amongst scientists (myself included!). I imagine behavioral sciences and psychology to be particularly tough, as data isn’t always that objectively measurable as other areas of experimental science. What I’m trying to say is that there is currently insufficient data on how pets are using buttons to communicate. You’re merely looking at case studies in this video, and 80% of the time at one dog. We need systematic studies which are currently lacking. Any arguments we make now are interpretive and based on previous observations (this is where all other forms of bias step in too)! Who knows, maybe there’s an inner Shakespeare in our dogs and we just don’t know it yet 😂 time will tell and I’ll stay curious

[@new0news]

I think her best point is her last one. That dogs do communicate but buttons are not the best way to get them to tell you want they want or mean. they probably would do much better showing you what they want rather than standing by a button because even that concept of displaying meaning while never changing body language or leaving one spot is probably VERY foreign to dogs who never evolved to be able to understand that concept. Like how she said if bunny wanted to find the cat the most direct communication would be to go look for the cat. not stand and press random buttons. xD

[@bookbag6432]

I think for us to believe this is real, an edited video will not work. Someone would have to physically go to the house, do something and then look at the dog’s response and if they are able to communicate what just happened. Only then can we say it’s true. We can’t just believe everything we see. It needs to be properly repeated before we can. So since there is not enough data then we can say lack of data shows it is not true.

[@KPassionate]

@bookbag6432 this is the burden of proof! Yes completely agree.

[@floepiejane]

Well said

[@SashaStowers]

I had a beagle who had what I feel was a pretty complex understanding of language. I could ask, "Hey Uri, whatcha want?" and he would take me to whatever it was, a closed doggy door he wanted opened, the kitchen sink when he needed more water, going to the stove when he wanted some of what I just cooked, pointing me to where his treats were kept, or to an unopened window he wanted to look out, etc. No buttons necessary. That said, I am teaching my mom's cocker spaniel to use buttons. He doesn't have free range of the entire house, so I believe he barks to communicate everything and get people outside his zone to give him attention. Last holiday, my family was saying he wasn't a smart dog because of his constant barking, which I was offended by. No one ever taught him to communicate in any other way, so I thought buttons could be an alternative to barking, and I could show them what a talented dog he really is if trained properly. So far, I've taught him to ask for treats over a few visits, as that seemed the simplest concept, and he doesn't bark at all when given the button. I want to teach him to use a button for attention/affection/play and when there is activity outside to press a button for strangers instead of barking since these are his major reasons, in my eyes, that he barks. In addition, I think I'd like to teach him to be calm down/stop barking on command because he needs to learn not to bark when asked to. I've also given my Mom instructions to be consistent with my training since she will be the one with him ninety-nine percent of the time. She's amazed he's picked up using even one button since she didn't think he had the attention span to do so. As a beagle owner, I feel any dog can be trained as long as someone devotes the proper time, energy, and consistency in doing it.

[@thunderousapplause]

so awesome ❤

[@fasttrackblastback8286]

Yes my dog would do the same and take me to what she wanted and then move her eyes and head between me and whatever it was. The way I see it, the more time you spend communicating with your dog the more you will both understand each other, the buttons can help or even maybe expand your understanding of each other but I have never needed it, I have had great communication with all of my dogs, some of them even learned to spell certain words after we started spelling them out to avoid hyperactivity.

[@BadassRaiden]

I'm sorry but the best example that Bunny understands the buttons is indeed the "stranger" video. There is NO feasible way that that was straight coincidence. Not only did she accurate respond to her owner's questions, but those accurate responses also conveyed accurately what she was trying to articulate. I saw someone else try to debunk this and they mentioned, like you, that she probably hit buttons close to her, or happened to hit the right button for the occasion coincidentally. No. Sorry, no coincidence is that perfect. That would have to be one astronomical fluke. Like bunny indicates mad. Her owner asks why mad, bunny indicates ouch. Her owner asks what ouch, bunny indicates stranger. Her owner asks stranger where, bunny indicates paw, and there was literally something in her paw. She responded perfectly. Unless i see an unedited version where everytime she asks a question, she goes up to bunny, motions to her what button to press, and then edits that out, i will not be convinced that bunny doesnt understand what she is doing. You cannot tell me that her button pushing was merely to get a response from her owner. She could have pressed any button and she would have gotten a response from her owner. But she just happened to press the right buttons in response to her owner's language, and just happened to press the buttons that ultimately conveyed something accurately? Like in hindsight, you look at the end of the video and say well it looks like something is actually in her paw, did she previously convey that idea effectively. "Mad. Ouch. Stranger. Paw." Id say that was pretty effective. Again, so effective that you cannot write it off as a fluke. Not only that but based on the scientific method of testing a hypothesis over and over, which you ironically bring up, there are literally hundreds of videos of Bunny that illustrate she has some understanding of what she is doing, enough examples to essentially eliminate confirmation bias. She also mentions how she would expect the dog to be looking down, mentally "planning" its response like how we look off into the distance or down at the floor when we are trying to think of something. If we are being honest, frankly, that looks exactly like what Bunny was doing in that clip. Her owner asks her questions, and we see bunny pause and kind of look around or stare off in a direction, like many people do, as if she was thinking of how to respond. Now back to the hitting buttons just to get a response. So this woman says that its not access that's the problem, its just that bunny is hitting the closest button to get a response. So why is it, when bunny wants to draw attention to her paw, she walks ALL THE WAY AROUND THE BOARD to go directly to the paw button? It was confirmed there was something in her paw, she obviously wanted to draw attention to her paw and she walked all the way around the board, all the way to the paw button in order to do that. So again, it must have been coincidence that she just happened to walk around the board, just happened to step on the paw button in response when asked the location of the ouch, and it just so happens that the ouch was actually in her paw? There are again, just way too many perfectly aligned coincidences to simply write this off. Whatever anyones education, they dont know everything. We dont know everything and i feel like this position is from a very, "i know a dog cant be that smart" perspective. Its a very human centric view of nature, and a hubristic one at that. There is honestly nothing that truly separates humans from the rest of the animal kingdom. We are animals. Period. Its not our brain size that makes us better, as other animals have larger brains. Some even have smaller brains, like birds, that are as intelligent as young children who have much bigger brains that are albeit still growing, but bigger nonetheless. Its not our brains complexity, as other animals have just as complex, if not more complex brains like say the octopus. We dont even really have a valid metric on which to even define the level and difference in complexity anyways. We are pretty sure Elephants and sperm whales feel real, subjective emotions in the same complex manner we do. It really feels like this is its own confirmation bias where you start from a position of you dont think dogs are this intelligent, so you frame everything to support that assumption. Again very human centric. And also the whole non verbal information is frankly pointless. So uo to 93% of all our communication is non verbal. That means dogs are incapable of this level of understanding? Thats quite the conclusive stretch frankly. And it seems thst despite most of our communication being non verbal, we still talk a whole fucking lot out our face holes. Each works in different situations. Many times they work better when used at the same time. If i want someone to look somewhere, i cant just say there. Where is there? I cant just point in some direction unless they are looking at me because i don't have their attention. So i have to say there, and when that person looks at me, i can be looking or pointing in a direction. This notion, is by no means evidence that dogs are not more intelligent than we give them credit for.

[@Ketowski]

No we don’t know everything. The poster of this video was pointing out the lack of scientific evaluation for this process regarding the conclusions. The only one that demonstrates clearly any understanding is the situation with the sore paw. It’s not been confirmed by another person with the same results, so it’s inconclusive scientifically. Dogs definitely show understanding with humans. They observe the faces of others, more than any other animal, including primates. They’ve evolved alongside us. They’re masters at finding ways to connect and interact with us. No doubt. Do they understand abstract concepts? It’s unclear. And still unproven. Again, confirmation bias is a thing. Demonstrated over and over again.

[@nadiraj430]

Imagine if foreign diplomats couldn’t use a shared language or a translator and had to communicate solely through body language! 😱

[@Ketowski]

@@nadiraj430 That’s a dog’s First Language and the majority of communication around the world.

[@monadyne]

This biologist evidently begins with the premise that people trying to communicate with dogs by means of expensive buttons is a silly endeavor because animals cannot communicate other than by the most obvious physical gestures. The entire video, in which she points out what she sees as confirmation bias in the dog handler, is evidence of her own confirmation bias-- analyzing everything as supportive of her preconceived view. After vaguely mocking the dog owner for her good fashion taste (ad hominem attack to assail her credibility) the biologist says she doesn't understand why the dog owner refers to a dog being trained in the use of buttons as a "learner." Clearly, that is to emphasize the fact that the animal is being taught a new discipline, helping the trainer to keep in mind that its understanding is in a state of continual development. Not seeing that, the biologist then goes on to say that by calling an animal a "learner" somehow implies that the term "dog" would be an insult. There is nothing in this or any other video about Bunny that would remotely suggest the dog owner feels "dog" is an insult. One of the words on the board is "dog", which she uses to help Bunny better understand his own reality. She certainly wouldn't put a "dog" button on the board and use it if she thought it was insulting! The biologist has taken the most ambiguous examples of Bunny's button use to make the word use appear random. Had she watched more videos, she would see Bunny's expressions become much more clearly communicative. The episode called "Talking With Bunny | Ouch, Stranger!" is a great example of such communication, where Bunny informs her owner that she has a thorn in her paw. I have never used button boards with my Border Collies, but they've been able to understand quite sophisticated ideas. If I told our last Border Collie (our smartest dog yet) "Go find little ball in the bathroom!" she would come back with a golf ball if the two balls she found there were a tennis ball and a golf ball -- but if the two balls had been a softball and a tennis ball, she'd return with the tennis ball. In other words, she understood the concept of "big" and "small." All the while, my Border Collies have been training me, too. To get my attention, our dog Vixie will go up to the bookcase in the room where I'm watching TV. If she turns her head to her left, she wants to go out the back door. If she turns it to the right, that means she's asking for a treat (dog biscuit.) If she rests her head on the coffee table, that means she wants some ice cubes. Although she's not using words, Vixie's using "body language" in a way that's much more sophisticated than our biologist here realizes dogs are capable of.

[@KPassionate]

I think it’s odd that you defended the buttons but then went on to describe perfectly how complex your understanding of your dog’s behavior is. Which is exactly what I was saying throughout the video. Buttons are unnecessary and don’t work. Basic understanding of dog behavior and body language does.

[@ellnine66]

Not so sure about this. I can tell my dog to go to her bed in a whisper, a yell, a happy tone or angry tone, and she goes to the bed. I can tell her anything in any tone and she knows the word. She also knows the difference between me saying "the bed" ( my bed) and "bear/your bed" ( her bed). She's not just listening to the sound the word "bed" makes , but also the word before it that differentiates which bed I mean. I also had a cat who was an indoor/out door cat. If he wanted out and I had somewhere to go, I'd tell him "ok, go out potty whatever, come back right back I gotta leave" he'd be back in 10 to 15 min every time all the time for 15 years with out fail. Animals understand words... not just tone.

[@new0news]

i don't think she said they don't. everyone knows dogs can learn tons of commands like look at sheep herding. I think she more meant that words are only a small piece of what a dog understands. They understand that you mean to go to their bed no matter what tone you use but they probably can also interpret your tone on top of that.

[@Missraeraeruru]

Whilst I agree with some of your points, there are a lot of things that just can't be explained or are yet to be explained by science. Talking buttons is a new concept just like how the idea of ships made of metal could float 100 years ago. Many people laughed/snickered at the ridiculousness of it. But here we are now 100 years later.

[@Xajane02]

Jesus, just this computation of a ship and a dogs psychology shows your education and knowledge about how science works.

[@Missraeraeruru]

@@Xajane02 well my point is that the Biologist is stating that there is no 'scientific evidence' to back these claims of the talking buttons. And dog behaviour to her is considered a 'science'. Also ship thing is an analogy

[@Xajane02]

@@Missraeraeruru why wouldn't a dog behavior be a science? Ans she's not saying that for her to believe it, it would have to go through a long scientific research. it's just how there's no proof in this videos that these dogs aren't just randomly pressing buttons.

[@Missraeraeruru]

@@Xajane02 call it whatever you like. And like I just said, some things just can't be explained or are yet to be explained by science. But the way she is smirking at the possibility that dogs can communicate in OTHER ways comes off as narrow-minded to me. There are SO many things in the past that are now proven by science today. You just never know

[@nadarith1044]

There are many ways to rationally defend the buttons, this comment isn't one of them

[@ArgueMe]

We moved to the UK. Tried talking to our senior dog in English… because it is more inclusive to the locals . Turns out she (Maltese) does not understand commands with the same context and intonation in English. Words does matter!

[@DuskLegend]

To play devil’s advocate, these same people would argue that the sounds are what matter more than the words/language of words

[@dowkinners4106]

And yet you can’t use them 😂

[@miks564]

@@DuskLegend I don't understand the issue. Sound is what matters. Words have their phonetic signature (in any spoken language). That's how we learn most words: by hearing them in context. We don't start to read before 5 or 6 years old.

[@DuskLegend]

@@miks564 there is no issue, that’s why I said devil’s advocate

[@thegoddamnsun5657]

Because commands are specific words, dogs pick up your MOOD by the voice tone, not the command, otherwise it would just sit every time you speak in the tone in which you trained it to

[@adrianneavenicci]

I was blown away when Bunny said the dirty bed sheets smelled of “sleep”. Just incredible.

[@KPassionate]

😂

[@OhKayKayKay_RR]

Stahhhppp 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣☠️☠️

[@mariar8261]

So was I, and there was no encouragement from her owner, who was out of town at the time. Those clips of Bunny with her owner's parents are great. Everything is recorded on camera, so that while the "grandparents" often don't even hear Bunny, the viewer understands perfectly what she's saying.

[@DelphineDenton]

I do, on the other hand, see cats walking around and seeming to try to decide which button to press before almost pressing one and then changing their minds and pressing another. Interestingly enough.

[@jakkljackson8927]

Dogs can definitely understand words to a limited extent even without changing your tone. I can say bunch of random words, but the moment I say "outside" or "hungry" my dog still understands.

[@KPassionate]

Yep! That’s what I say in this video. But what they can’t do is form sentence and language

[@ILexI1]

The can absolutely form words. Seen my friends dog do it. Said “stomach hurt” Her dog was not eating. Ended up going to the vet and she had a blockage from the cob of a corn that she had taken out of the garbage. Tons of more examples. Seems like you just want to rely on old science. Or have something against dogs and don’t want to believe it’s possible.

[@steventolerhan5110]

@@KPassionate eventually they will.

[@steventolerhan5110]

@@KPassionate without any evidence to disprove this assertion you assume its an impossibility. You are failing the scientific method. Speaking of scoentific methods have u considered doing an iq test? That’s a scientific experiment we’d all like to see

[@jordanekl5383]

make the sound of an O. Good! Now, make the sound of an E, Very good! Dont those sound different to you? Dont you see how its just a different sounds that can be easily symbolized by, oh lets say a ringing of a bell, or a press of a button? Also, if you do the reverse of what you said and start yelling angerly at your dog but saying nice things, or if you happily start calling them bad things, then the dog wont register the words like the normally would. My point is, that its not about them learning a language at all. Rather, just behaviors. Effect and cause.

[@mary_syl]

There are plenty of very compelling Bunny clips not featured here. I think you were being selective. Have you ever trained with poodles or shepherds? They are remarkable learners and their thinking and processing skills are far beyond what's generally expected from dogs. We greatly underestimate animals but dogs especially keep evolving with us.

[@KPassionate]

As I say in the video, dogs are incredibly smart animals. Intelligence and language are not linked. Humans have language because we are immensely social as a species. Dogs never evolved that skill so they cannot learn what is physically impossible. Just as humans will never be able to learn to smell as well as they can.

[@sd7785]

@@KPassionate Lots of animals are "immensely social" (including dogs) and use methods of communication other than spoken language.

[@ŤĦĖØŅĒÅŃÐÖŇŁŸ]

@@KPassionatethat’s just stupid there are some apes that have learned sign language when language isn’t usually associated with apes it can be the same for dogs and buttons

[@HeatherStrickler]

If I did this I would use the buttons mainly to let me know if they wanted outside, play, potty but full sentences seems a little much. Like you said they have their own way to communicate with you so you don’t really need the words to know what they want.

[@KPassionate]

I agree!

[@JustLavvyy]

She called 'dogs' the "learner" because not only dogs can be taught

[@instant_mint]

My cats have learned like 17 words so far with these buttons, even though only one of my cats uses the buttons to talk. Try it yourself before you debunk it. It's amazing enrichment and really helps with communication!!

[@KPassionate]

Sorry to disagree with you! Thanks for watching.

[@waqarahmad-gx1vl]

Yes True. I felt like she is totally saying all this out of her biased. Time will prove that the buttons really work. Imagine after 10 years we will be laughing at this scientist just because she didn't accept the change in technology. Lile Nokia never accepted the Touch screen and android OS importance and now we laugh at Nokia. Buttons do actually work, we just need to add smell to them for dogs understandings.

[@KPassionate]

@@waqarahmad-gx1vl someone will be laughing for sure!

[@NoastalgiLuffareLife]

@@KPassionate 😂

[@yogawan3805]

@@KPassionate maybe Dog or Cat can't never understand sentence. But they can understand simple word like their name, like sit, shake hand or eat. I believe this button is possible for communication and to teach the dog.

[@fullmetalandtheflame438]

Bunny is far from the only animal that can do this. There are many examples of dogs and cats using these buttons to express desires and questions. And it’s baffling to me that dog’s understanding words and trying to communicate is controversial. My family literally had to speak in code whenever our dog was around so she didn’t think she was going for “walk” or “car ride” or getting a “treat” every time we mentioned the word. She knew tons of other words too. “Bed”, “outside”, “bark”, “leash”, “collar”, etc.And those were all words we didn’t teach her - she picked them up on her own by listening to our conversations. That’s not including commands. The scientific research in this area is severely lacking or just wrong if they think dogs can’t learn to communicate this way. Check out Mili the talking dog, or Billi the talking cat. There are tons of examples of them going to their board, searching out the words, and pressing them intentionally. Milo using her nose to press them, and clearly walks around the board searching for the right words. Look her up. Words like, eat, potty, cuddle, want, mom, and dad are used a lot. She makes basic sentences like “potty now”, “eat now”, “Milo walk soon”, etc. Please do more research in future.

[@KPassionate]

And I am far from the only critical voice urging caution when watching these heavily edited talking pet videos. For example, Dr. Mélissa Berthet is a PhD specializing in Primatology, Bioacoustics, Semantics, and Animal linguistics. She wrote this excellent article about Bunny and other talking pets for Neuroscience News which is the leading journal in the scientific fields of cognition and communication. Hope it helps! neurosciencenews.com/animal-communication-18280/

[@GoddessStone]

Well, what about the dog that kept pressing "stranger" and "paw", and he was thinking about it, no doubt. Come to find out, he had a huge thorn in his paw. And what about the crows that can solve very intense tasks to get a treat out of a box? I'm just saying that we don't really know what animals can and can't know.

[@KPassionate]

We actually know a lot about animal psychology and the way they think. If the dog had touched the buttons "outside" and "help" you would have also thought he wanted help with a thorn stuck in his paw. My point being that any combination of buttons and we humans could have found a way to make it about the thorn stuck in the paw. Confirmation bias. Crows are an entirely different animal and not what I was discussing in the video.

[@KPassionate]

@@suziepeaches321 😂

[@GoddessStone]

@@KPassionate We don't understand HUMAN psychology, let alone animal psychology. The "WE" you are talking about, are perhaps the ones you agree with, but not all psychology practitioners believe the same thing. That is Psychology 101. It is not scientific, because there are too many variables. Additionally, one can't even understand something like trauma, unless they have experienced it, it is impossible, and too complicated to qualify across the board. The same traumatic event will always impact the people involved is very different ways, so trying to prove a scientific certainty with psychology, is flawed from the get-go. How many years were we convinced animals didn't feel pain, or equally profane BS. I used to work with Search and Rescue dogs, and some of the tasks they were asked to perform were extremely complicated, and more dogs wash out, then make it through the program, so even saying what dogs do and don't understand, can not be said with any reliability. The common thinking is that dogs can understand around 150 WORDS, so I don't know where you are getting your beliefs from. If I ask my dog "Do you want..." she will perk up and listen carefully, what I say afterwards, will bring about varying reactions, based on what I am saying next, but if the word is in her large vocabulary, she will know exactly what I am talking about. If I say "to the vet", it is not going to be the same as "to have a snack". So if she knows the word for PAW, she knows the word for PAW, if it took her 5 times to FIND the word PAW on a board, it doesn't just mean she is guessing, it could mean, she is trying to find the right button. I just think people are having a hard time with your absolute certainty about something you yourself, can not say with any scientific proof. If you want to debunk something, you have to evidence. Do your own study with a couple dogs that understand a minimum of 40 words, and show us how it is impossible.

[@alexd1696]

@@KPassionate But if the dog had pressed "dad" and "poop", you would not have suspected that she had an issue with her paw. That's the entire point of language as a communicative tool, as you're aware. My interest was piqued in the first minute of the video by your confidence in attempting to discuss this subject, but unfortunately there was almost no relevant substance back it up. Besides, this phenomenon (and in fact this specific animal) has been the subject of research at the Comparitive Cognition Lab at UCSD for almost two years, as you surely must have known when you made this video less than 6 months ago.

[@Themilkmanmilkermilkingmilkmen]

8:31 “does this dog look mad” a dog wagging it’s tail doesn’t mean it’s happy. It’s an expression of excitement a dog can wag its tail and bite you

[@namaewasubarashii796]

you will never see a dog display body language indicating that its happy and then go to immediately attacking someone (in the vast majoirty of cases). you can see dogs instead nipping and jumping at you when theyre happy but thats not an actual attack

[@Themilkmanmilkermilkingmilkmen]

@@namaewasubarashii796 you just wrong as hell commenting nonsense huh 😂

[@CamiloAcosta1]

Correct. Dogs wag their tail in non-happy situations as well. Naysayers, just google it. The fact the marine biologist in the video didn’t know that shows she’s unqualified to be assessing these Bunny videos. The real deal is Stella the dog, whose owner is a speech pathologist. Her videos are much clearer in differentiating between random button presses and true communication.

[@staticinteger]

trying to use your “science credentials” to say “just believe me I know more than you” is the most unscientific thing to do. If you disagree, cite your sources. I’d there are no sources or studies around this, then the best logical place to be is agnosticism on the subject. But you can’t just say “this is wrong because I’m a scientist and I say so”. Cite. Your. Sources.

[@KPassionate]

Sources have always been cited in the description as well as the comments. Thanks for watching!

[@ZackaryLaster]

Her criticism fails to recognize that she’s not conducting an experiment. She’s observing her own dog’s behavior. She’s making inferences, just having thoughts, about what she thinks about her animal. Like…she never claimed to be a scientist conducting credible experimentation. Someone’s allowed to just think and come up with ideas, curiosity. It’s what drives science.

[@elatafalando]

It's not failing cause the company wants to sell this to every dog owner as a successful case of communication between them and their dogs. But it's not.

[@AnnieAnswersCG]

I do agree that the dogs are mostly just asking for attention but I also believe they know which words they're picking and what kind of attention they will get for pressing each particular button.

[@JackKrei]

I have had dogs in my life all my life for as long as I remember almost always very large ones, GSD, Rotties, and others. You learn as they do to communicate with each other and as she said it all body and face language, some sounds too though like commands and specific barks and whines. Dogs are very tuned into humans and despite what anyone says they love us and care about us. I had one German Shepherd that did not allow me to go swimming because he was afraid I would drown, he would jump in grab me by the trunks and drag me back to shore everytime I went in. He let everyone else go in but barked at them as if telling them "your going to drown and I'll not help you cause I got to save my boy here" But that was his love for me. All of them had that level of devotion to me that I never gave back till I was older and understood it more.

[@revlo8483]

I think this is one of those things that contemporary science denies or can't explain yet, but in the future will be easier to understand and will be taken as common knowledge

[@minervaowl8298]

I agree this something that still needs to be study and there are no conclusions yet.

[@eugene9852]

She explained it quite well. It's basically just confirmation bias. The "learner" could make random nonsensical sentences hundreds of times, and these will readily be ignored, and then by fluke they make a semi-coherent sentence and people think it's proving them correct.

[@eugene9852]

It's just a failure in the education system that so many people believe this nonsense. First step to explaining something with science, is to gather evidence, to confirm that it actually happens. Once you've confirmed, with independent and unbiased studies, that the dogs can in-fact talk, only then you try to figure out how. People unfortunately like to skip the evidence stage and go straight to believing stuff. Like the people who try to explain UFO sightings, or mental telephathy, or psychic readings etc. Like with any extraordinary claims, the most plausible explanation, is simply that the person making the claims is lying.

[@ETPangilinan1]

Given dogs can be a little like children that think and feel, can even be trained to help humans and understand commands, I'm not surprised if they do, in fact, can use these buttons. I put it close to cats that have different meows to mean different things, knowing it will get a certain message across or a certain reaction from their owner. But just like children, they will only have an extremely limited understanding of the words, without needing to go into the origin and philosophy and full understanding of the words. With these dogs making words, I believe its like me speaking a second language. I can piece together what someone is saying but I can struggle putting together words to make a sentence. Hence why the owner will have to deduce what the dog is saying, even if, plenty of times, they can be reaching too far for the meaning. Or just get it wrong. Given how smart Octopi and some animals are, I wonder if its possible to teach them how to use words.

[@KPassionate]

Dogs are not children and vice versa.

[@deborahbrett9101]

Talk about confirmation bias and cherry picking - the biologist is selectively choosing exchanges that support her arguement that the dog isn't using buttons intentionally. For example: Bunny hears a cat meowing from upstairs and pushes "I hear cat cat". Those words, in that order. Clearly that is a sentance, and responding to an environmental cue. Right before time to take medication Bunny pushes "medicine" imediately after taking the medicine "bye is medicine. love you". Some of the words (like mad) while they may not mean what she thinks they should, could still be being used as language. Eg "mad" might mean "I don't like this/unsatisfactory/this is not what i want". Interpretation is always key in understanding - we use tone, context and body language to interpret meaning with other humans, so why wouldn't we with dogs? Further, the biologist is evaluating a snippet of an ongoing communication as if it were an experiment to test the dog's understanding, which it isn't.

[@fiduwg.3485]

I agree with you about this particular owner. However, I have observed Stella the talking dog and her interactions. Stella is much more intentional about what she pushes. I also feel like her owner being a speech language pathologist helps.

[@FortKnoxMovies]

Yeah I’m curious what she would say about Stella because there definitely is a big difference to her compared to the other animals in this video. Like you said there’s more intent behind the buttons being pressed.

[@adaln3561]

and copper the dog

[@GrandisSilva]

@@FortKnoxMovies and whether the fact that Christina Hunger is actually a speech and language pathologist who uses AAC buttons with people would mean anything to her.

[@misspollysdolly]

This dog too. There's a video where bunny ends an interview abruptly and one where he thinks there's a stranger upstairs and when it turns out there isn't he says oops

[@shaynannigans]

Ironically the dogs or cats have trained the humans to react when they push a button. 😂 most of the buttons are good, from going outside to playing. which encourages the pet to keep pushing buttons. But yeah you don’t need buttons for sure. my sister’s cat comes to my sister and meows and makes her follow to the food bowl to eat. There will be food in the bowl but the cat insists on having company while she eats.

[@KPassionate]

Thank you hahaha. It is a perfect example of the animals training the humans.

[@torenicolaifjelldal]

It’s so sad when we constantly underestimate the animals around us. We learn that there are extremely few species who can recognize themselves in mirrors and screens, still the cat filter made dogs and cats clearly show us how they recognize themselves and their owner on the phone screen, and when they sit on the lap and the owner’s head turn into a cat head, they freak out and look ip and check their owner. The sentences this dog make so much sense, all the words make a full meaning together, and the dog interacts with the surroundings according to the sentences it say. Yes, the scientific level on the videos is low, but we mostly see the dogs making sense, not the owner making up shit.

[@amynow]

I agree with your take for the most part, especially when it comes to temporal constructs and questions like “why?” Bunny the dog does walk around the buttons to get to specific ones in the recent videos. Like the one where she hits “walk” and the owner says “all done / walk, and then “walk tomorrow / yes” then the dog walks all the way around the buttons to press “no” and then when the owner presses “all done” and “walk” again, Bunny presses “please” - that was stunning! The chosen words seem intentional. Another incident that was very surprising is when Bunny said she had a stranger ouch in her paw and it turned out that she did have some prickly thing between her toes. I’m sure you’re right about most of it and confirmation bias but there may be more to the button thing than meets the eye. I hope you’ll look at the more recent videos and see what you think :)

[@KPassionate]

I just think that some of that can be explained by chance and it would not have mattered the combination of buttons pressed if it is framed to make it seem like the dog is talking then people will believe that. In the case of the paw…if she had pressed "paw, paw paw", or "stranger, ouch, outside", or "please, help, walk". There are an enormous amount of combinations that would make you think the dog needed help with a thorn in her paw. There is no combination of buttons that could make you feel otherwise. That is confirmation bias embodied. Hope that made some sense. Happy to have these conversations! Thank you!

[@amynow]

@@KPassionate thanks for the thoughtful reply :)) 💕

[@AviationPilot91]

@@KPassionate Isn't this the same case with humans? I could say "Ouch!" Or "My hand!" There may be several factors that influence how and why I decide to use certain words. When I speak Spanish, since I am not fluent, I often speak like the dog in the video. "Me ojos es ouch! Caliente! Caliente!"

[@phucanhell]

@@AviationPilot91 a dog cannot possibly understand that using all those possible combination of words is conveying the same complex meaning, just not how their brains work. People who believe they can do this are not going to be convinced otherwise, as demonstrated in the comments section of this video.

[@nonno318]

@@KPassionate So then, what is your take from that specific thorn-in-paw- situation? I want to know. Isn’t that still contemplating and deliberately choosing buttons?

[@semprejgloh]

Dogs don’t have a concept of human words like we do, but they learn trigger words like outside, treat, their name. If we can teach a dog to communicate with us through a bell to let us know it needs to go outside, I’m sure pressing certain buttons isn’t far fetched, common now. Not only that, a look a lot of Bunny’s videos expresses herself in different ways. Different strokes for different folks 🤷🏽‍♀️

[@KPassionate]

As I say in the video, they can learn simple button presses that represent specific places or things. What they can’t do is form sentences by stringing together multiple words.

[@daqueenbobo]

@@KPassionate But why do they do it then? The dog says "paw ouch" and they find someting stuck in her paw. When the "dad" is gone the dog goes to push "dad where sad". Of course its not as complex as us humans vut theres like hundreds of examples of these dogs stringing multiple words together to form simple sentences.

[@mavel2038]

​@@daqueenbobo they associate paw with the appropriate body part. They associated the ouch button with discomfort or pain. Dogs can learn their name, they can also learn the names of others. Again, associations. Dad is that figure. The second could have been associated with them there.

[@daqueenbobo]

@@mavel2038 Right, I understand that they can not comprehend the same concepts as us humans and therefore they dont TRULY undeerstand the meaning behind the word "dad". Nobody is arguing that. What you are describing is the same thing as humans do when we start speakinng and getting a grasp on language as babies. Babies dont understand the meaning of dad beyond "that one thats always around and takes care of me". We still call that speaking tho. Words have no inherent meaning beyond the associations we have given them. Dogs associations might be more simple but that doesnt mean they arent communicating clearly with us.

[@nathancoffman3025]

@@daqueenboboHow do you associate ouch with pain and prove that the dog actually knows it?

[@tonynoon8693]

I worked with my cat using buttons and I have to say, I went in very skeptical. However, what I found is that my cat repeatedly used buttons in the same way. Rarely did she incorrectly use a button. The exception to this was 'I love you'. She did not use it incorrectly as I experienced it, however, I do not know if she got the true nuance of what it meant. She used it with the body language that I associated with her expressing affection. Slow blink eyes, face rubbing, etc. However, those were the actions that I trained her to push the button with. If she was hungry she would push the food button or the treat button. If her water fountain was out or occasionally if she drank from the fountain she would push the water button. If she wanted to be brushed she would push the brush button. If you tried to pet her instead of brush her she would push the brush button. Unfortunately, my cat was 19 years old and recently passed. We had gotten her to the point where she had correctly used 9 buttons regularly and four more that she had used correctly a few times but did not use on a regular basis. Her last word with the buttons was 'cuddle' then we had to move and put the buttons away. After the move, she was sick and did not use the buttons again.

[@KPassionate]

I’m sorry for your loss ❤️

[@felixoupopote]

This is so sad, I'm so sorry.

[@zfalcon1]

I believe you are making a very important point here. It is more important for us to try to understand their body language and ways of communication than trying to have them communicate like humans.

[@TheScandoman]

K IS also guilty of confirmation bias because she brings it up after watching only one random attempt that apparently does not succeed. K is clearly NOT open to this idea, and is not applying scientific method: she is NOT evaluating all the available data (i.e. saying: *Well, I have watched 20 Bunny videos, and kept track of...*") before stating opinions. No, she apparently just starts vomiting up a litany of pre-swallowed dogma (no pun intended.), almost as soon as she can. And then she has the unmitigated gall to refer to scientific method just as she has totally disregarded it. Yes! Many attempts with these ideas have been flawed, both in their ergonomics, as well as learning methods and over-reinforcement...those failed experiments mainly prove that they were poorly designed, they canNOT DISprove the hypothesis: think about how many jackasses tried to build airplanes, before the Wright jackasses finally did not fail, (though they should have, and almost got one of themselves killed!) because they were all solving the wrong problems! Nonetheless, jerks everywhere would cluck and smirk, and snidely say things about humans being born with wings! All the time, any competent engineer trained since the US civil war could have told you that it will be pretty easy, once someone develops an engine that delivers enough power for the weight that it adds! K is also overestimating the objectives of some people trying to use these techniques with their pets: some of them ARE also expecting too much of their pets' efforts; Some people, like K, are expecting too much; others, like K, are expecting it too fast! Some really aren't. Just as not every kid has the temperment and potential to learn geometry, and calculus, not every pet is going to have the same potential to employ this, or some other form of 'unnatural' form of aided communication. K needs to just shut up, and watch BilliSpeaks all the way from the beginning. And then think before she BilliSpeaks! If she isn't willing to do the research required to support forming an opinion, she should stop being a scientist. If K had prosopagnosia, and watched this video, she would say that the person in the video is proof that humans are incapable of being scientists! Which is, of course, ludicrous, with a sample-size equal to 1, but that IS EXACTLY what she did! NOT science!

[@KPassionate]

My conclusions are based on scientific proof that animals need a specific gene in order to understand language. Dogs and cats don’t have it. There is no amount of watching dog videos that can replace that. Thanks for watching!

[@TheScandoman]

@@KPassionate Then why did you do it at all?! Seriously! Why did you post those videos of you watching those videos? If you believe what you said, then that was just dishonest clickbaiting! I'll be sure to ignore any 'scientific' paper you ever write.

[@KPassionate]

@@TheScandoman because people asked me to analyze the videos. Thanks for watching.

[@TheScandoman]

@@KPassionate So what!? If you 'know' that you don't need to watch them; what you have done is simply pandering, humoring people. It's intellectually, and emotionally insincere, and a betrayal of your scientific beliefs.

[@KPassionate]

@@TheScandoman not at all. But I appreciate your opinion. Thanks!

[@jaimeprice-anderson4693]

They’re clearly communicating after associating words with actions through training.

[@LisaBullock]

As pet owners (not unlike parents) we want to believe there's something "special". But anyone who's had experience with animal behavior knows... It's not the "words" as much as association (if I'm saying that right?). They might be able to associate a word, like a name. But most of it is HOW it's said and body language. Repetition and positive reinforcement helps as well (in my personal experience). Thank you for calling this out though because it bothered me as well... The "pretending to throw your phone" 😂 That's exactly how I felt! I'm one of the people that trained my dogs to use a bell. And my cats are highly perceptive; some people might call them "trained". I feel it's more symbiotic though... I'm also pretty "trained" myself! Sometimes, it seems they mock my human characteristics. But I know to let them be themselves and just think it's a cute coincidence. And if they want to keep doing it? Then it's just a neat thing they started doing to communicate back with me 🤷🏽‍♀️ *Not an expert by any means. **Just a person who gets along with animals considered or previously labeled "problematic" by others.

[@KPassionate]

Really great observations! I agree we all want to believe our pets are special…but the reality is that there is tons of evidence disproving that dogs and cats can learn languages.

[@KPassionate]

@@nullur5726 the study is funded by the people who make the buttons…and in order to parti you have to buy the buttons. This is of course highly unethical and an egregious conflict of interest

[@KPassionate]

@@nullur5726 just the stuff that is unscientific and unethical.

[@water9584]

Good video. I'd say this button stuff only works when it's simple and the words can be connected to specific actions (such as a treat, walk button). This can be helpful sometimes when you don't know what your dog wants. However, my boyfriend's dog can communicate really well without buttons. As you sais, body language is the key. She's 50% border collie and extremely smart and pretty weird. She loves eye contact and observing you for example. She understand what mirrors are and uses them to spy on people. When she wants to play, she'll bring you a toy and put it onto your knee. When we forget to fill up her water she'll act weird and tries to guide us to the bowl to show us what's wrong. When she want's to go outside, she'll stare at people, have a sad expression or look outside the window or stand at the door. When she needs comfort, she'll just open doors and invite herself in to snuggle. When she wants you to pet her in a certain place, she'll take your hand into her mouth and put it where she wants it to be. When you play with her in the snow and he thinks you're doing a bad job by not kicking enough snow onto her, she'll woof at your feet. No words needed. Oh, and when she wants a treat, she'll go to the treat bags, sniff them and look at them.

[@KPassionate]

This is really interesting and aligns with a lot of the data I've seen recently. Specifically, how important eye contact is for human-canine communication as well as how some dogs will use mirrors as tools. Links to these studies/articles are in my pinned comment if you're interested. Thanks for sharing!

[@cursedalien]

1:33 Body language is far from universal for humans. A lot of what comes naturally to neurodivergent people is read by neurotypicals as signs of dishonesty, for example. And for me, my tone and body language when I'm near an anxiety attack is interpreted as aggression. 7:52 My dog definitely has the concept of a stranger. He HATES all unfamiliar people and dogs and he barks at them ferociously.

[@alison__16]

20 seconds in and I just had to say I'm in love with your necklace. Ok, off to watch the rest of the video now 😆

[@KPassionate]

Thank you! It is two exact replicas of a baby beluga named Tiqa and a baby false killer whale named Chester that I worked with ❤️

[@RocRolDis]

As far as I know, Bunny's owners aren't the ones running the experiment. The data is going to a local college, if I remember right.

[@keeshy]

Yes, it's going to UC San Diego which is a widely respected institution.

[@milutii]

"Don't see dogs walking around picking their words"....you need to watch more videos! 😂

[@KPassionate]

The videos are each more ridiculous than the last. Painful. But thanks for commenting!

[@elliot_rat]

@@KPassionate why do you write like trump tweeting

[@KPassionate]

@@elliot_rat you have discovered my true identity! 😂. Except Trump for sure believes in talking dog buttons.

[@thegoddamnsun5657]

​@@KPassionatebiden doesnt know what dogs are

[@floepiejane]

​@@KPassionatedo people ever complain that you're a control freak? Don't answer, just consider.

[@buff_mermaid]

The owners know their dogs. Most of the time I don't need buttons to know what my dog is thinking. The thing you are calling "confirmation bias" can actually be very helpful with learning since I usually know what my dog wants to ask of me (we are at that stage, short sentences, about 25 buttons), so I can help her somewhat with questions. But I definitely encourage you to watch more Bunny videos. It's evident that you watched only snippets. And I encourage you to try this with your dog, not a walrus. You might be surprised...

[@KPassionate]

Sorry. The studies clearly show dogs can only (and with years of professional training) string together two words. And only some of the time. I have no doubt people can communicate very well with their animals. But you do not have a background in animal training or biology. Just like I do not pretend to know anything about dermatology, or law. I leave that to the experts.

[@ethans3180]

@KPassionate like the other person said I think it was pretty evident you've only watched (frankly old) clips of the dog and facts from random studies doesn't discredit the complex sentences and ideas the dog has tried to make out. Whether you think the owner is guessing or reaching at things. It's said some deep stuff that doesn't sound accidental and was definitely more than object/place oriented and longer than 2 words

[@KPassionate]

@@ethans3180 the science is clear and as a professional animal trainer, it is very easy to see what is happening. Thanks for watching

[@sophiaxiao5824]

I agree with you that the KZbinr only watched few clips of bunny vids. As a biologist myself with a dog(tho I’m not a professional animal trainer) I’d find it more convincing if the KZbinr list out the references of the studies she mentioned. Or even recent review articles on legit journals.

[@KPassionate]

@@sophiaxiao5824 they are in the description as with all of my videos. Happy reading!

[@Feitan722]

She doesn’t believe that a dog can express being mad bc they are wagging their tail, but wagging tail is an expression of an emotion! Also when a dog wags tail to the left they are expressing nervousness/fear/anger.

[@didgeridooo]

Billi the cat is another animal that uses buttons and it uses them in the right context alot

[@KPassionate]

I have heard this! Stay tuned for another video about the cat soon!

[@smelma]

The HUGE issue is that there is no reversibility. For example, if you showed the dog a cat and it touches the cat button, that would show more solidly that a dog knows the word- the association between object and word. What doesn’t work is having the dog just freely hit buttons and the owner explaining what they just said.

[@KPassionate]

Exactly! I am so astounded by how many people don’t see this.

[@jeremydavila7168]

This is a professor I think at some college. This is an experiment with her colleagues I believe. So she’s not doing this just because she wants to, she’s studying something

[@thealohamu808]

Like an English professor running an experiment? The details actually matter and the scientific method works even in "unscientific" fields. The point of scientific method is is narrow the variables. I dont see narrowing variables to get resolve. I see projection and would highly recommend therapy to work out why she needs to project on a dog in the guise as an experiment that is clearly not following scientific method.

[@NebulousPenguin]

Its is.

[@ZeroCool-DBG]

Have you watched Stella, the owners dog that first did this with dogs? She actually navigates the board and puts together words that make sense.

[@juliematovich5621]

She also is a linguist

[@dosdoggies]

Bunny also navigates the board to find her words, the videos were cherry picked not to show that.

[@pedrodeo4099]

@@dosdoggies So do you think if we replace every button with words that she doesn't know she would not press any button ?

[@bunnylacy2097]

@@pedrodeo4099 I think they would be confused cause they learned where the button they want is in the board so they click the one they want and be confused when it’s not the word they’re looking for. So no, doing that wouldn’t prove anything. They’re not reading the buttons. They’re memorizing where the buttons are on the board.

[@hadditor7848]

@@dosdoggies She didn't cherry pick examples. She literally just watched the video that the dogs owner put out. The dogs owner assembled these clips.

[@JeraWolfe]

I completely agree with your breakdown. Furthermore, I think dogs like Mila or the cat Billie from Billiespeaks are examples of what you're looking for. The first thing that struck me was the drastic change in the cat's attention behavior and body language, focus of attention, in the cat videos. Knowing many cats seem to lack affect hunger, I am very interested in cats seeming to evince this behavior. While I can't say these other sources are valid, I can say they aren't approaching it with strict scientific rigor, but do seem to be aware of confirmation bias and other common analytical pitfalls, but they are applying the idea in a more rigorous and structured manner, and I think you'll find those more educational about whether this is a complicated form of operant conditioning or if its actually a type of executive function and you can see from the rate of response and the animal's body language that they are selectively interacting with the buttons is a high likelihood as opposed to random and easy attention getting interactions. Mila's videos include Schatzi, her sister, who acts as a control, not being trained on the buttons. It requires watching more than one, I'm afraid, but they're short. I found it fascinating. Billiespeaks kzbin.info/www/bejne/l4eXq6JmZsRreMk Mila kzbin.infor1wLUp-7uOc This assumes of course, these videos are presented with integrity. I have not verified or validated any of it of course.

[@Mark1Mach2]

Bunny definitely has a good understanding of the buttons, some if not all. She is great with them and it’s amazing.

[@KPassionate]

Disagree

[@johnnyfearlesszrx]

The dog pushes buttons which it has been conditioned to do from being a puppy. The owner then makes those presses into a meaning, and makes the dog respond to her cues. I guess the owner deletes a whole load of videos that don't make the grade. Dogs can be extremely intelligent and can be taught to push a button for a walk or treat etc. but these conversation button videos are way over rated. I'd like to see an unedited 20 minute video, that would show how many buttons were randomly mashed or repeatedly pressed.

[@thesnowmiser6728]

Then you're a complete and utter fool. Congrats, you're extremely gullible!

[@Mxiiznon_binary]

​@KPassionate BRUH you disagree because it's true, bunny is self aware and knows what bunny wants to do

[@Mxiiznon_binary]

​@@KPassionateBunny learns the buttons, bunny knows the bunny's, human bad, bunny good

[@dzonybajlando9270]

7:25 that kinda looks like a *confirmation bias.* You asumed how motor coordination works together with thought processing: Are you sure, the dog needs to specifically "stop and think for a moment" to carry out such action? He might not need time to coordinate himself to the right direction, thus sending a supposed legit message.

[@vteckordi3]

I love how you didn’t show any of the videos of bunny asking if she’s a dog and if mom is a dog. Explain away those is love to see it

[@KPassionate]

Because they are just as silly as the videos I did show. Literally all just the owner making things up to fit a narrative.

[@TheAaronRodgersTao]

No, they aren’t. You hypocritically cherry picked the videos you could easily ridicule the best.

[@edubbya]

She is the one with confirmation bias, that’s why she needed to tell you she isn’t

[@KPassionate]

Ah like some sort of reverse psychology! I’ll try that in the future 😂

[@theriverschool822]

Humans have a preconceived notion that dogs can't talk, not vice-versa. That's super weird you think human bias would be to think a dog can talk. Our general bias is towards what we expect and have already experienced, especially in the field of science. The fact you can't admit your bias is not scientific. I had a bias dogs couldn't talk I had to overcome when presented with evidence. If I hadn't met a talking dog I would be relatively confident dogs couldn't talk, but I would also be open minded to evidence and not make fun of the possibilty. It makes it harder to learn when you find your wrong.