Do Pet Buttons Work? The Science Behind Talking Dog Buttons

[@KPassionate]

In part 2, I take a close look at the video where Bunny looks in a mirror and appears to say "who this" and discover something shocking → kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIDFlIusnb-olbM Learn more about animal training with these videos! [1] How and Why Zoos and Aquariums Train Their Animals → kzbin.info/www/bejne/rl7VZ6F8g6miptU [2] Secrets of the Navy's Classified Dolphin Program → kzbin.info/www/bejne/qZWpdI2FfsebaqM [3] How to Train Your Aggressive Dog → kzbin.info/www/bejne/honWc6B6gMqpe80

[@waterguy001]

Google PETA and Aquariums Marine Parks (Pseudo Sanctuaries) The link is getting deleted here

[@KPassionate]

PETA is an organization of eco-terrorists who don’t actually care about the welfare of animals but only the publicity they can garner. Their kill rate at their shelters is more than enough evidence of this. As such, I will not be allowing promotion of the PETA on this page. That kind of misinformation is dangerous at best, and cruel at worst.

[@waterguy001]

There seems to be a lot of anger inside of you.

[@KPassionate]

@@waterguy001 animal abuse and misinformation do make me angry for sure.

[@waterguy001]

@@KPassionate But it doesn't seem to be only PETAs view. I don't know all of their methods, which I may condem as well if they are using criminal means. Anyway there seem to be a lot of democratic, free states that do ban at least marine parks/dolphinariums? Or isn't that true either? I think it's always important to have a critical mind and not only use information that validate what you already seem to know. Otherwise either you or me could end up like the owner of bunny the dog and me living in a world of delusion :D

[@krat5576]

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

[@phylippusvonhohenheim3232]

The SAME THING can be say about "God" responses

[@Selfproclaimedtheologian]

My dog is very smart and I love him but I don't think he will be able to talk through buttons she's right 😅

[@afenismama]

Bunny is female❤

[@boydprince1870]

I think some of you maybe over thinking this, by a lot. Dogs, cats and if there are other animals out there are not people. They will not think like people and will not utilize human communication vocalizations, but they can communicate with or without buttons. Or motivational treats that gets them a ride on a helicopter so they can see squirrels in the tree tops. (BTW, the answer to the math question was 6, if you are dyslexic and anxious, made this dumb mistake once before and need better glasses but can here the stupid clock ticking and the teacher is standing silently behind you and the other test takes are finishing up and and and.... Well I seemed to have strade from my point.)

[@brandonnhunxho6772]

How do you communicate without projecting your thoughts… Dogs dont have the freedom of speech we have. As long as animals and humans are alive, we share the same thoughts being, hunger, boredom, and using the bathroom.. Also everything is “raised” meaning we are only as smart as we are taught.. Basic communication in any language is still basic.. In that case, if the dog knew many languages id say thats smart, or many words of one language .. -25 words isnt smart nor a good method of communication even if the dog was smart and thinking these words. My point is, the trainers arent that smart. So the dog isnt that smart.

[@chrisl6496]

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

[@KPassionate]

I really appreciate you watching! Thanks for taking the time and keeping an open mind even if you didn’t intend to 😂

[@obeseperson]

It’s not just Bunny doing it, this isn’t an uncommon thing lol that’s why it’s so weird to see all these people doubting it. There’s probably even someone local to you that has trained their dogs to communicate like this and you can witness it yourself.

[@thoughtfulskeptic7529]

The videos about Chaser are really fascinating. I think my favorite is the one where Neil deGrasse Tyson (spelling?) visited her, and tested her himself, without the owner present. He asked her to find a toy named Darwin, but she had never met or seen Darwin before. It took her longer than usual, but she correctly figured out that the one toy whose name she didn’t know must be Darwin, and she brought him the correct toy. Most of her vocabulary was non-abstract nouns, but she was also starting to learn verbs, and understood the differences among touching something, picking it up, and bringing the requested object to her owner (or the third action may have been to place it in a bin, but they were three distinct actions). And she was so cute! She loved this endless game of words! She and her owner have both since died. 60 minutes also has a segment on her as part of an episode they did on animal intelligence, which also explores the question of non-verbal intelligence.

[@ladyangua1]

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

[@KPassionate]

Yes exactly! There is no indication at all that the dog is uncomfortable

[@faithschue9420]

I will say that my vet once told me it’s instinctual for a dog to hide/mask pain. (This came up because my dog had a large ulcer created by a snaggletooth and I was like dude that would hurt me SO BAD but she hasn’t expressed any pain whatsoever). Similarly, she doesn’t verbalize when her tummy hurts unless it’s pretty bad.

[@nadinabbott3991]

Exactly.

[@laracroft5351]

@faithschue9420 True!!! I have this issue with my dogs teeth!!! And my vet said (and every other vet I have ever been to over the years) that dogs hide their pain and that’s why it is so difficult to find it! This said, my dog had a tick once between the toes and I didn’t realise until it was already huge - it definitely must have hurt while walking. Ever since I always control the toes after walks and pretty often find something like a thorn or a little stone etc stuck and I wonder how the walk was no problem.

[@laracroft5351]

My dogs hardly ever show when something hurts them or when they have something stuck between their toes etc!!!!!! Hence I think you are completely wrong if you always assume you know of every pain your dog has all the time…!!!! Very, VERY wrong…!!!

[@FIRING_BLIND]

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

[@FIRING_BLIND]

KZbin won't let me edit further....but I would like to point out that in the bird video....the dog could've also just smelled a bird nearby. Now, if I were training the dog I wouldn't reward this usage because I don't know if it's correct. Oh yay! You talked some about this at the end! And yeah, dogs get words confused easily. Im looking forward to part 2! This was much more well explained in this video than your first, iirc. Good work! Looking forward to part 2!

[@lunawolfheart336]

The dog using bird to explain a plane reminds me of a video where Apollo the African grey was calling a snake a bug as he didn't have the word for snake yet so he used the closest word to describe it.

[@rsharpy24uk]

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

[@KPassionate]

I am ready!

[@batacumba]

Sorry you’re in the hospital, I hope you are on the mend!

[@obcl8569]

Wishing you a speedy recovery 🤍

[@rubysun8923]

I agree with you and also feel like these buttons are a positive because if the buttons cultivate a deeper level of interaction and connection for both parties, cause people to have more empathy for animals and they aren't hurting anyone, it just seems like a win win to me. Nobody has to agree with my perspective. I can also see how some would want to deconstruct the "lie" in it all. I just choose to look at the better parts of the community that are interacting with the buttons and their pets or from watching others use them. My 0.02$

[@DakotaHerb]

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

[@KPassionate]

God-tier comment 😂

[@MarysZenDoodleArt]

Lol 😋

[@ShatteredSoul2]

😂😂 Best comment!!

[@BaughbeSauce]

🤣🤣

[@MelB868]

No the owner just wanted a 1,000 dollars don't fall for that

[@talonsaurn5764]

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

[@KPassionate]

It is very similar to that for sure!

[@andreameigs1261]

Yes. People believe anything. Just look at the prevalence of religion. Any "miracle' or 'sign' is confirmation bias.

[@chrisshort732]

It even looks fishy when she edits out the 25 other buttons that were pushed and only gives you the one she wanted. We didn't even see the foreign object in the paw or come out of the paw. Pure fiction. These folks are blown away by magic and ouija boards and people who talk to the dead.

[@universalvindicator]

A lot of people believe this vid too just because it's a biologist. Animal people can tell animal behaviors without "experts" explaining. We don't need your validation. We're humans too.

[@stickyrubb]

@@universalvindicator You mean that you want to interpret these video's as an extraordinarily smart dog that learns to talk by using the human language? Go ahead, do that for yourself. Just know that you are, in fact, wrong.

[@TheAkjody]

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

[@KPassionate]

Glad you enjoyed it! Thanks for sharing your experiences

[@BaughbeSauce]

I also teach mine with hand signs and words. My service dog, Khaleesi, is trained in Japanese and often responds better to Japanese. I only have a few commands for the puppy in Japanese (for security reasons). I think they respond better because of the very simple pronunciation. All a's are āh, all e's are "ēh," etc. The language is relatively clear and simple (phonetically). I notice even the puppy picks up my service dog's Japanese commands faster than English ones. My service dog and I communicate very well without the use of buttons. I know what her bark means if it's a stray cat outside or at a coyote/raccoon she is barking at. It's the difference between "play!" And "danger!" She tells me when she is hungry, needs to potty, or doesn't feel well. For us, communication is very important. She is very clear. I took the time to learn her language. The puppy, on the other hand, is a crackhead and hard to understand. She hasn't taken to any method but the button for telling us she needs to go out. She's so smart and learns so fast. The buttons are a little more for my boyfriend's benefit (who refuses to learn dog or how to speak to my service dog) and my 4 year old son's benefit. As well as helping me understand when she is in pain. Vex is not Khaleesi. Their personalities are so different, I love her, but they will never be the same. And by the way, daschunds are anything BUT humble. Lmao 🤣

[@millergrrrl]

"Unless they use it consistently and appropriately..." 😂 🤣🤣🤣 A lot of your commentary and criticisms could also be leveled at children in public schools. Or the obscene travesty going on in Springfield and so many other small towns across the country. Anthropomorphization.... 🙄 🤣🤣

[@AaaaNinja]

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

[@KPassionate]

It is wild to me how many people don’t look at information on the internet with a critical eye. Especially videos. The amount of people believing in clearly virtual videos is astounding.

[@orchdork775]

And they won't listen once you point it out, because then they would feel stupid. Instead, they find a way to frame you as the person who is wrong, because you're just negative and want to ruin everyone else's joy, or in this case, because you clearly think dogs are incapable of intelligence. Good old cognitive dissonance, am I right? 😅

[@KPassionate]

@@orchdork775 ah I do love a good gaslighting in the morning! 😂

[@universalvindicator]

​@@KPassionateit only tells what kind of person you really are.

[@sellingacoerwa8318]

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

[@KPassionate]

😂

[@friendhaus1858]

dogs are definitely self aware, but not to the extent more complex life is. Their sense of self is much more limited, they likely don't even realize they're not the same species as the humans around them.

[@universalvindicator]

​@@KPassionateI agree with her no matter how dumb it sounds like.❤

[@felinakats6716]

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

[@G-starr13]

Because its kinda cool

[@RevPeterTrabaris]

Why can't we admire them as they are, and also want to communicate more clearly with them? I don't think that the two desires are either one inappropriate.

[@yourewrongabouteverything]

Its because they are lonely

[@saskiadavies111]

Why assume that non-humans have nothing in common with us? Why assume that anything they think or feel is only something humans are imagining?

[@purpleonii]

yea is the same for ppl that feed carnvore pets greens like cats

[@shannonessig5959]

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

[@Shydore-Official]

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

[@CrankyGrandma]

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

[@KPassionate]

Some of Bunny's video appear to be faked or in some ways doctored, which I'll discuss in part 2, but if you take a close look at the "who this" mirror video you can clearly see that Bunny only presses the "this" button and not the "who" button even though that is what we hear. As for Billie the cat, I strongly recommend you take a look at Jackson Galaxy's excellent video on the topic. kzbin.info/www/bejne/emqal6mHerWYodU

[@aspiringcrone]

​@@KPassionateI agree that something seem fishy about Bunny. I recently saw the video about Bunny learning the "dream". Bunny pushed "dream" and the owner asked "what did you dream about?...did you dream about ___? Did you dream about ___? Did you I dream about dad?" So, Bunny pressed "dad". That is absolutely not conclusive proof that Bunny dreamt about dad. I'm a former educator with a master’s in early childhood education. I've worked with little ones my whole life and I've taught ESL to adults. I dabble in linguistics and languages. So, I'm pretty familiar with how language development works with little humans. So, even if these animals are capable of communicating at the level of a human toddler, these owners still aren't going about it the right way. I see them giving a lot of prompts and cues and making a lot of assumptions. Again, my experience is with HUMAN language development. That being said...as a crazy cat lady and a big fan of Jackson Galaxy...I didn't really agree with his video about buttons. It seemed like just his opinion and not based on evidence. I'd prefer to see a reaction video from him on someone like Billie the cat, more like how you did this video. He seemed to believe cats can't understand the words "love you" or "mad" but will demonstrate them with body language. When Billie presses "love you" she slow blinks and rubs against her humans. She uses the words and matches them with body language. When she presses "mad" her ears are back, an obvious sign of a cat being unhappy. I have seen the owner, Kendra, make mistakes and jump to conclusions about more abstract things, but not to the level of Bunny and some of these other talking animals. Kendra is a vet, has clicker trained Billie (just as Jackson suggests), and doesn't do editing magic like the others, though there could be lots of stuff she's not showing us (maybe Billie babbles utter nonsense most of the time). She does speed things up when Billie is taking forever, but she's pretty good about letting Billie finish her "thoughts" instead of giving her prompts all the time. She does give prompts sometimes though. Is it perfect? No. Does it prove Billie is actually thinking and meaning these things? No. But it's a lot less fishy than Bunny and does demonstrate a decent level of communication and understanding on Billie's part. I do think Billie is probably more intelligent than the average cat and I wish I could've tried buttons with my former cat who was very social and intelligent. My two current cats are amazing, but don't have much going on upstairs lol. I'd love to see your reaction to Billie, particularly her more abstract "conversations". Those are the ones I'm more curious and cautious about. But mostly she just asks for food, pets, play, and complains about noise or other cats.

[@TuxnDog]

I would love your opinion on Tuxndog the talking Cane Corso.

[@BaughbeSauce]

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

[@BadgerandBee]

I am considering adding a few buttons for my 5 month old puppy, with essential words like potty and eat. I don't imagine I'll have more than 3 or 4. I believe it's our job to learn their natural cues. I'll keep an open mind and play it by ear. First I need to find a good brand. I've read some reviews that complain about poor sound quality.

[@jasperjudd]

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

[@KPassionate]

Birds are very much outside of my wheelhouse but I believe there have been studies that show they have language, both physical and verbal, and there are even parallels between their languages and human speech. Many bird species have also passed the mirror self recognition test! The world is wild.

[@jasperjudd]

@@KPassionate thanks so much for replying!! I completely understand you not wanting to make a video of it, I study zoology as well and bird intelligence isn’t my strong suite either 😂 all I know is that they can be crazy smart! It’s so fascinating though and I love learning more about it! If you’re interested, I’d still highly recommend you check it out just for the joy of it (not to make a video but just because who doesn’t love to watch videos of amazing intelligent animals!)

[@DerdOn0ner]

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

[@KhanMann66]

As education drops in quality so does the rise in misinformation.

[@universalvindicator]

They can post their entire life there as evidence for people like you but why would they think people are all like you?

[@DanKaschel]

My favorite comment was, "all you have is your EDUCATED OPINION". Like that's a bad thing 😂

[@TheCrosshare]

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

[@KhanMann66]

I don’t understand how anyone can interpret a bunch of mumble jumbo from a radio box that siphons hundreds of radio channels.

[@ZombiieLoveQuadCreations]

I haven’t completed the video yet, but I have 3 animals. A dog and 2 cats. I got the talking buttons for my dog to let me know when she needs to go outside, but the only animal that uses the buttons and wasn’t trained is my cat who is part bengal . She picked it up almost immediately and now we have a whole vocabulary and the dog still refuses to touch the buttons. My dog communicates with her head and ears and body language. My dog also watches the security cameras and knows what side of the house to run out to when she sees something or someone.

[@zoeykralovetz1744]

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

[@Happytravellerkimmy]

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

[@pb3030]

I’ve owned dogs, out in the country, for 50 years now. They do one of two things when they have a thorn in their paw: 1) stop, hold up paw, look at me. 2) try to remove thorn with their teeth. I would argue that behavior #1 is higher IQ. I’ve conducted this “experiment” thousands of times.

[@John_Weiss]

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

[@notmyname9625]

I’ve also heard that horses can hear your heart beat. I used to walk a trail that had a lot of horseback riders and they would always remind us to keep talking when we pass them because they can hear your heart beat so if they know your there but cant see you or hear your voice they might suspect that you are a threat. Idk if its even true or not but if so that could be part of it too. If so i think horses probably use all 3 (body language, intonation and heart rate) to be so in tune with us.

[@parenteflavia]

I entered this comment section precisely to mention the clever Hans' (der kluge Hans) case. Not only the humans at first were unaware they were giving physical cues Hans was picking up on, even when this was found out by Oskar Pfungst he couldn't help but produce these cues involuntarily regardless of whether he wished to exhibit or suppress them.

[@John_Weiss]

@@theriverschool822Where did I say anyone "accidentally" trained Clever Hans? I think you need to watch a video about Clever Hans. The tests done in him were done with Hans' trainer behind a screen or otherwise out of sight of Hans. In other words, they designed the tests to account for the trainer signaling the horse. The problem was, Hans was looking for _any_ change in human body-language. The independent investigator later realized that _he himself_ was leaning forward as Hans got close to the correct count. Or a second investigator noticed that the first was doing this, completely subconsciously. But that was enough for Clever Hans to notice. *_That_* is the _real_ Clever Hans Effect: when we humans underestimate how perceptive animals are and thus fail to account for all of the ways an animal will pick up signals, even inadvertent ones, from the human experimenter.

[@theriverschool822]

You're right, I didn't fully understand that. I thought it was just the trainer. Thank you for that full explanation. Clever Hans doesn't explain talking/language though. A talking dog can answer questions you don't know the answer to.

[@theriverschool822]

@@John_Weiss I don't think Bunny can talk, but dogs can learn to speak vocally. I'm going to turn my dogs language into visual language using the wave-forms, since learning dog dialect English is a learned trait. You can see the answers in wave-forms to see language visually. I would love ideas for tests. I don't doubt he can talk anymore, but I did my first talking dog and even this one until I could test him. I'm an ME engineer. He's really good at talking. We can almost have a conversation. I just don't have a social media following.

[@SepiaSapien]

I NEED PART 2 NOW

[@KPassionate]

In the editing process!!!

[@marymorgan285]

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

[@lordofthe6string]

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

[@KhanMann66]

Some people refuse to see the truth. Animals can’t speak human language.

[@batacumba]

I know, and they’re so mean about it too. I’ve noticed people get especially nasty when their silly, childish worldviews get challenged. 🙄

[@ModernMedusa]

Being closed minded is childish too 🤷🏼‍♀️

[@emilystubbs5650]

This makes sense. I think the buttons would only work for one word things like..."outside" or "potty", "walk", "treat", "eat" or "dinner".

[@KPassionate]

I think a button for "outside" or "potty" is a great use for these buttons.

[@SaskiaSketches]

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

[@friendhaus1858]

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

[@maikibordercollie]

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

[@neon2870]

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

[@KPassionate]

I am going to do a video on the Koko the gorilla hoax as well!

[@justjane805]

​@KPassionate I will be very interested to see that

[@almawalker6617]

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

[@KPassionate]

Many of these videos are staged if not faked outright. Which you can plainly see shortly after the 3 minute mark of part 2 below. [1] kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIDFlIusnb-olbM As I mentioned here in part 1, knowing names of people and toys and responding correctly to instructions is an auditory association and that is different than the ability to speak. In fact, auditory association and speaking are governed by different areas of the brain. They are as different as the ability to throw a frisbee and the ability to catch one. Dogs are experts at catching frisbees but they can't throw one. I don't doubt that your dog understands a large vocabulary. Chaser the dog famously could identify and retrieve 1,022 toys by name. What Chaser could not do, and neither can Bunny, is tell you the name of his toy in words and what he specifically thinks of it. For example, while many dogs learn to sit and stay when given the command, they cannot tell their owners to sit and stay.

[@ScarlettTheViewer]

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

[@wisewordings]

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

[@KPassionate]

Koko the gorilla couldn't actually use sign language. In fact, no gorilla or chimpanzee could sign. We just wanted to believe they could so we did. bigthink.com/life/ape-sign-language/

[@latrapp4641]

I agree @wisewordings. We bring a baseline bias assumption of our own that animals must prove their communication abilities beyond a shadow of a doubt using a human standard and then only giving them a limited vocabulary to do so. Animals use the word buttons as conceptually as they do literally because if you only had 50 words with which to communicate, you’d do the same thing. Having a cat that uses buttons, I have experienced this myself. She once told me: vacuum-upstairs-now. ???? She is scared of the vacuum. Earlier I was cleaning the upstairs bedroom and was flipping the mattress, leaving it half off the bed. Well, it was her afternoon sunbathing time on the bed. All I could surmise is she wanted me to put the mattress back, using vacuum conceptually to mean clean up. Wouldn’t we give a toddler the same benefit of the doubt? She once also told me: Gracie (her name)- look. So I look at her but quickly get distracted by checking emails on my phone. Her immediate response- mad. My reply, why mad, reflexively putting down the door phone and looking at her. Her immediate reply- happy. She wasn’t randomly pushing buttons. She always thinks very carefully about what she wants to say. Animals can train humans too. It goes both ways. Like a toddler, she will try to negotiate with me about the meaning of the word later in regards to getting more treats. I’ll tell her treat all done, more treat later afternoon. She’ll reply with soon 😂. She figured this out early on in her button learning, trying to negotiate for a treat later soon instead of just later. Every word I have introduced to her she has used correctly, either literally or conceptually. Do I always understand what she’s trying to say- no, but I blame myself for that not her. It’s clear through her intent and body language she knows exactly what she’s saying even if I can’t puzzle it out. Sometimes she’ll push a blank spot because she doesn’t have the word she needs on her soundboard. We can debate all the day long about what is language. But as carbon based life forms with similar nervous systems and brain structures that are simply differently adapted, must we automatically assume they don’t have similar emotional lives or thoughts as we do? If there’s anything I’ve learned from my cat it’s humility because she’s shown me more than once she knows what she’s talking about even when I can’t figure it out right away.

[@Travelin_Gal]

@@KPassionateseems to me that the only thing KoKo’s passing did (besides making people sad) was establish that nobody could CONFIRM OR DENY this. Nobody has an absolute answer. No, she didn’t speak traditional ASL. BUT She DID speak with signs that were possible for her to physically and mentally use. If one cannot speak, say, mandarin, does that mean that they cannot communicate? No. They just communicate in a different way.

[@KPassionate]

@Travelin_Gal if you imitate mandarin words without any idea what they mean then yes you do not speak mandarin. That is what Koko was doing

[@Travelin_Gal]

@@KPassionate I guess we shall have to agree to disagree on KoKo and Bunny.

[@junkobash2365]

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

[@rousedg]

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

[@stevemichael8458]

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

[@KPassionate]

Thank you! I agree, there is far too much misinformation out there and it can absolutely cause harm.

[@the.magic.catbus9459]

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

[@emmaghows3841]

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

[@KPassionate]

The dog mom who is a speech language pathologist is a different woman. I believe her dog is named Stella. Thanks for sharing your thoughts!

[@OneTheAndOnlyOne]

Dogs know sounds, not words. They can associate sounds with certain meanings. For example as a kid we had a dog and my mom would watch a certain TV show and after the TV show she would walk the dog, so after a while when the tv show ended and the themesong or end song what ever it is called played the dog jumped up(even while sleeping he would quickly wake up) and knew he was going to go outside.. So when my mom didn't want to walk the dog at that moment she would quickly mute the end song of the tvshow so the dog wouldn't jump up to get outside (so it wasn't time based or something). BTW that dog could in fact "throw" a frisbee and all sort of things (from his mouth).

[@Katness07]

Bunny is also being studied by the University of California (I think Davis?) and their videos are constantly filming the buttons with no cuts or fast forwarding of the videos. Their language assessment will be the best representation on Bunny and using her language buttons. Alexis started the whole process of teaching buttons as another way to communicate with her dog, and make it easier for her to understand what her dog needs. To me, the addition of a second poodle, Otter, shows that not all dogs are as complex mentally, and the third dog, a papillon named Tenric, has some additional context, but of the three dogs in the home, Bunny does have the most advanced language skills. Check out later videos & shorts where Bunny tells Alexis that she forgot to give Bunny her medicine for the day. I couldn't convince my dog that his medicine is going to help him at all, but Bunny tells Alexis to remember to give her the meds before leaving to run errands.

[@KPassionate]

No, Bunny's videos are not being studied by UC Davis. They've published a study and explicitly did not use any of Bunny's home videos, nor did they test whether or not dogs understand abstract terms like Bunny's videos claim to demonstrate. This study has been grossly misrepresented in the media, and I suggest you read it for yourself. journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0307189 Additionally, I recommend watching part 2 of my series because shortly after the 3 minute mark you can clearly see that some of Bunny's videos are staged if not outright faked. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIDFlIusnb-olbM

[@babblebrain4963]

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

[@KPassionate]

Many of these videos are staged if not outright faked, as you can clearly shortly after the 3 minute mark of the below video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIDFlIusnb-olbM Yes, dogs have lived alongside humans for quite some time. They were first domesticated around 20,000 years ago. In contrast, it took humans MILLIONS of years to evolve language skills. That doesn't mean dogs haven't learned how to live and interact with humans. They can smell our emotions, read our body language, and learn incredible skills like those of service dogs.

[@MomDestr0yer]

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

[@KPassionate]

I am also happily child-free lol. Thanks for watching!

[@ComplacentOtter]

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

[@kristengerding7203]

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

[@StatedCasually]

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

[@divahc1]

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

[@Marowanna]

Shes equated the 2 . She's not speaking to you.. she has no idea what those buttons means..just if she presses you let her out.

[@divahc1]

Aren't you a ray of sunshine?! She certainly does know the word "wee wees". I can use it in any intonation and syntax and the result will be the same. I don't expect her to give me a written definition lol! But you said it yourself she knows what pressing it means. We'll see how she progresses. Meanwhile educate yourself more, especially on the intelligence of toy poodles. As my dad always said, "Any fool can criticise".

[@MelB868]

@@Marowannamy 4 year old dog knows what potty means too

[@sillygo0oser]

She knows the button means go outside, in the sense you will let her out to go outdoor to pee. My dog jumps at his leash to tell me the same thing and he knows the word “outside” means get gets to go outdoors. I think they think in pictures and smells.

[@sillygo0oser]

One thing that’s important to remember that dogs and ppl are both social species. But we have completely different languages. We can understand what certain dog body language equates to but we don’t always know to speak it. Similarly dogs know what some of our words mean and that it’s usually something they can learn to equate the word to. Humans have two specific and diff areas in our brain devoted to speaking words and understanding words. No other animal has those areas (song birds have similar specific regions though, which makes sense as they’re social animals that are very “spoken”). Dogs still process behaviors and words in other areas but not in the same way and the level we do, which makes sense as spoken interpreted language is a human thing. They’re extremely intelligent animals. Their brains just work differently than you or i. They’re built to be dogs.

[@giftofthewild6665]

Using "potty" to signify an urgent need to go out totally checks out for me. This seems like a pretty normal dog thing to do. My dogs have often "lied" and pretended they needed to potty when really they just wanted to go out and play or look at something. I dont use buttons but they communicate their intentions and desires in normal dog ways (scratching a door, a certain kind of demand bark, putting a paw on my lap etc). They will do the "I need potty" routine if the normal "I want to play" (eg bringing me a ball, looking at the door) routine fails. Sometimes if after we go out and they dont potty, just want to play, and I refuse to play and ask them to potty they will pretend to pee (lift a leg or squat but without producing any pee) to shut me up / satisfy my demand. For the record I do think the owner is editing the videos to make them seem more significant. A lot of the time I disagree with her on what the dogs were actually trying to communicate. She always makes out the thought process going on is a lot more complicated than it really is. Most of the time I think the dogs are seeing or hearing something and pressing buttons their owner has pressed before in those circumstances. Similar to how young children say things they've heard their parents or other adults say, even though they have little to no understanding of the meaning behind the words. Ive heard a 3 year old say "tell me about it in the comments below!" at the end of a story she was telling, but she had no idea what comments were or why they would be below, she was just mimicking something she'd heard at the end of youtube videos. Yet we wouldnt say the 3 year old had no understanding of language, she clearly had some, but that short phrase was just a parroted phrase with no meaning for her. She knew it was something people said at the end of speaking (associated the phrase with a specific circumstance), but not what it meant. Thats how children learn, they eventually put meaning to the words and phrases they mimic. Bunny's use of buttons looks much like the earliest stages of human language acquisition to me. She associates words and phrases with circumstances or actions, just like the 3 year old did with the YT comments phrase. Maybe thats all most dogs can manage in the end, their brains arent wired for verbal language like ours (or most of ours) are. Or maybe they do understand more deeply than we think they do, who knows?

[@dragonscottage9796]

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

[@itsnotme07]

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

[@cherylmillard2067]

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

[@FromRussiaWithLuv007]

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

[@KPassionate]

We're already on the same page. The common language is body language. Study after study has shown that dogs are adept at reading human facial expressions and body language and that they use body language and facial expressions to communicate with us. [1] pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27338818/ [2] www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6116041/

[@justjane805]

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

[@valstarkgraf]

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

[@John_Weiss]

I recently learned - to my horror - that the are people who consider _sign language_ to not be a "real language" or even a valid form of communication! And I'm not only hearing, I'm _very_ sound-oriented. And I find that bias towards verbal communication over all others to be utter garbage. Your right, the stigma is real.

[@valstarkgraf]

@@John_Weiss this is exactly that, anthropomorphized.

[@orchdork775]

There's a really interesting video about koko the gorilla and why she couldn't talk, and it goes into exactly what you are talking about regarding the ability to talk being equated with intelligence and worth. For example, when people thought they might get to talk to gorillas, many went out and learned sign language. Apparently, being able to talk to the millions of humans who are deaf wasn't enough of a motivation, but being able to tall to a single gorilla was enough. It goes into the discrimination that people who are unable to talk experience. People act like those who are unable to communicate their feelings and thoughts don't have them. It's a really great video if you haven't seen it already. Just look up "why koko couldn't talk" and it should be the first one.

[@KPassionate]

I actually plan to do an entire video about Koko as well!

[@John_Weiss]

@@orchdork775 The most damning thing from that video is that Koko's handlers didn't listen to the sign-language professionals beyond the equivalent to, "What's the word for __ in __ ?" And worse, Koko's handlers approached sign-language from a perspective that _ignored the fact that sign-language is _*_non-auditory._* For example, if Koko signed something that didn't make sense, her handlers would use _homophones_ to "interpret" it. Forget the interpretation part, let's just focus on the fact that _homophones DON'T EXIST in a non-auditory language! DUH!" And here, I always thought that the people working with Koko were primatologists who'd learned and become fluent in sign-language. But no, they were more like that restaurant owner in the middle of China armed with a Chinese-English dictionary, who goes translating his menu by going word-for-word and just picking the first translation listed for each entry in that dictionary. And we know the disastrously funny results of that! [Anyone for an order of "fvck the vegetables silk"?]

[@CatherineSTodd]

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

[@edwardschneider6396]

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

[@bearivermedia]

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

[@Travelin_Gal]

@@bearivermedia the edits I have noticed are simply sped up sections when Bunny is processing her words.

[@KPassionate]

In addition to edits, the audio of many videos is also manipulated. Sometimes, you hear words that do not match the buttons being pressed. As you can clearly see around the 3 minute mark of the below video. kzbin.info/www/bejne/oIDFlIusnb-olbM

[@DaniS398]

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

[@KPassionate]

There are some really cool studies that I'll discuss in part 2. Specifically, that dogs can smell human emotions like happiness and fear. It's one way they always seem to know when to comfort us when we're feeling sad or unwell. They also are surprisingly good at reading human facial expressions!

[@DaniS398]

@@KPassionate my older dogs are 13 and 14 and seem much smatter than my 2 year old pup, and I keep telling my hubs, he's still learning. He definitely responds more to hand signals than verbal cues. Like I can tell him sit or lay down but more times than not, if the command doesn't come with a hand signal he just looks at me like a derp. My older 2 are good with either but they've been living with humans for more than a decade lol

[@debrahunt5374]

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

[@alexisleonard4971]

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

[@UKfeath]

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

[@theriverschool822]

I have my talking dog posted on my channel and included a fluid shot video of me asking different questions for skeptics like you. Editing means I cut out my stupid commentary and dead space to keep the video going faster on the other 2 videos, but still include longer shots. The reality is; I don't make any money from my talking dog and don't plan to, I only record him less than 1% of the time on my phone. I'm teaching him to talk out of my own curiosity and learning experience. My channel isn't even monetized.

[@batacumba]

@@theriverschool822 ok so I watched your video of your dog supposedly talking and what I saw was a dog making random whining sounds so he could get treats and you applying a whole lot of your own interpretations in order to arrive at the conclusion that he was saying names and using words. But when he supposedly repeated the same names several times it sounded different each time. Almost like it’s just a dog making noises because he knows he’ll get a treat for it. You’ve got to be kidding me. 😂 your dog is smart in that he knows if he gives you certain vocalizations his owner is goofy enough to think he’s talking and he’ll get rewarded for it, but that’s all.

[@UKfeath]

@@theriverschool822 I'm not a skeptic :) I'm a beliver. I brought up the editing issue in my post, and totally understand why you need to. (I recently got a set of buttons, because I want see if my kitten can communicate this way.) I also want to try using 'cat language' in my buttons, to see if that works. I do believe but at the same time, I have to be a skeptic enough to know it's true, or I'm being biased.

[@theriverschool822]

@@batacumba He gives me unique information that I don't already know. Like what he did with my wife outside or who's at the door. That's the definition of language. I didn't understand some of my Indian professors dialect in the engineering program, but that doesn't mean they didn't speak English. It just meant I couldn't understand them. I could easily do a test, but you would say it was fake. The only way to know he's talking is the viewer understanding dog body language enough to match the dog's words/understanding. I only expect dog trainers and people in linguistics/anthropology fields to be interested in my videos. Training a disabled persons dog to talk has huge advantages. As primitive as it is, I'm offering my piece of research for free. I'm going to teach my puppy to hunt morel mushrooms in March. That's how he'll make money.

[@theriverschool822]

@@UKfeath That's great. I think the buttons are all about how well the owner trains them. I break tricks into 3 orders, 1.) simple commands 2.) 2-step/complex commands like "pick it up and give it to me." or "go look out the window" 3.) 3rd party command, "pick it up and give it to John." (I trained dogs on that level for 15 years before I realized dogs could learn to talk.) The argument that dogs learn "commands" not words comes from people who don't train 3rd order tricks. If you have 10 objects to pick up and 10 people to give it to. The dogs now knows either 100 commands or 20 words. They have to learn more this way. For sure, the human is the weak link in communication, even with me. He learns to talk faster than I learn to understand him. If I was better at understanding him; he would learn so much faster. Dogs really need their own language within their natural vocal range. I'm convinced A.I. will give us it.

[@MultiBlamm]

Love it ❤ can’t wait for part two. Keep up the great work 👍

[@steggopotamus]

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

[@CelseyAnn]

I'm glad that my algorithm put your channel and this video on my recommendations. I have always felt weird about the animals with buttons to begin with because of the inconsistency and "fast forwarding" most of the videos do. My dog knows basic and important commands but definitely cannot have "humanly coherent" thoughts.

[@KPassionate]

Welcome in!

[@steggopotamus]

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

[@KPassionate]

As I mentioned in the video, understanding words that we hear and the ability to speak are two very different skills that involve separate areas of the brain. And studies have shown that dogs aren't capable of distinguishing similar sounding words.

[@brendasears9650]

Hey good for you. I recently watched Bunny for the first time. My reaction was "cute, but gotta be fake' I have trained animals my entire life and know they can accomplish great things within their abilities. Bunny is not an example of human language and you explained this perfectly.

[@MasterMetaphysicalAstrologer]

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

[@TheCheshireCats]

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

[@buysk29]

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

[@batacumba]

I commented on your original video and I’m really glad you’re continuing to spread awareness on what bs this is. My dog of 18 years just died and I wish more than anything that I could have verbally expressed certain things to him, but I know that isn’t possible and all I could do is show him love in ways he could understand. I wish people wouldn’t get caught up in the trap of using emotional rather than logical thinking. Of course most of us want to verbally communicate more complex concepts to our animals and have them do the same in return but they just communicate differently than us and that’s ok. They are perfect as they are.

[@KPassionate]

Thanks for watching. I'm really sorry about your 18 year-old companion. That's so incredibly hard... sounds like he lived a long and happy life though. I didn't get to it in this video, but studies have shown that dogs can smell human emotions which is why they always seem to know when to come over and comfort us when we're not feeling great. So I'm positive he knew how much he was loved.

[@batacumba]

@@KPassionate thank you! He was a mini dachshund and I was definitely lucky to have him as long as I did. His health began to decline a couple years ago and he started having dementia and incontinence issues and then eventually congestive heart failure and most likely cancer as well. I guess when you live that long all sorts of fun things start popping up. He got along surprisingly well but his last month was tough and I knew the end was near when he started being picky about food after being an indiscriminate garbage disposal his whole life. He let me know when it was time and he went very peacefully at home with a home euthanasia. I’m not a spiritual or religious person but a couple nights after he passed he came to me in a dream and he was happy and seemed restored to his original self. I knew he wasn’t real in the dream and mourned him and said I wished he could be real but maybe he was letting me know he was ok. I have no idea where we go after we pass but I hope it’s somewhere nice. Thanks for listening and for your kind words.

[@jimmynumale5560]

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

[@KPassionate]

I largely feel the same about Billi. The sentences are always reconstructed by the owner and there is no way to empirically test for an emotional state. I did a video on Billi a few years back but it's not my favorite video and I'm not a feline expert. I strongly recommend Jackson Galaxy's video on cat buttons because I think he more eloquently states the concerns I have with Billi. kzbin.info/www/bejne/emqal6mHerWYodU

[@lookingglass9966]

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

[@nachoijp]

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

[@lucyj7688]

I wholeheartedly agree with you & it's all obviously set up to suit the owner. Love your work. Keep it up.❤❤❤😁🇦🇺

[@alyssapowell1799]

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

[@nik7183]

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

[@brianbutz3306]

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

[@cate01a]

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

[@KPassionate]

I would say you have this mostly right, yes. Two minor distinctions, though. The first is that cats, dogs, and other animals all perceive the world in unique ways that are different than how you or I perceive the world. For dogs, their primary sense is smell. Their sense of smell is so powerful they can smell illnesses and even our emotions, which is how they always seem to know when we need to be comforted. The other distinction is that they experience abstract concepts like "love" and "tired" differently than you or I do. In my opinion, it would be extremely challenging if not impossible to teach a dog or other animal to comprehend and understand the meaning of those concepts in the same way that we do. Even if it was possible, how do we test and empirically prove they understand those ideas on an intellectual level? For a dog, "love" is likely a feeling or emotion they experience in certain circumstances. The same is true for "tired." If a dog is tired, they're just going to find a comfy spot to lay down and close their eyes but they're not going to think about exhaustion the way we do when we're tired.

[@Sarappreciates]

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

[@garnetbelial]

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

[@MegF142857]

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

[@KPassionate]

Oh for sure. Pets are excellent at communication, they just use different tools like body language and eye contact. Dogs are also capable of smelling human emotions! Which is how they always seem to know how we're feeling.

[@peacebestill439]

I just appreciate your evidence driven research and assessment. Lots of speculation leads to false conclusions. BTW, because animals are instict driven, they do not entertain and are not capable of complex thought processes.

[@carma326]

Thank you! The videos tell a story that is staged. While entertaining -not true. Sad because there is so much that dogs can communicate with out staged stories

[@MaskersChannel]

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

[@ComplacentOtter]

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

[@Billchill40007]

This really made sense! Can you also make a review video on Sapphie dog's activities? He uses buttons with full sentences

[@iamlight1]

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

[@psychoticbeans]

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

[@gabrielleperson4794]

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

[@Vry9]

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

[@BradStubbs-q1h]

You hear 2 clicks meaning 2 buttons were hit before word Paw was said. Clearly the button sounds are added afterwards to tell the story otherwise there would have been 2 sounds.

[@KPassionate]

Thank you, I didn't notice that! In part 2, I looked at a video where it was clear Bunny only pressed one button yet we heard two words.

[@RetsamX]

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

[@cibelebarbosa8244]

Forgive my ignorance... But I think the main question is: does Bunny's owner claim that her own experience is proof of dogs cognitive abilities, or is it just a fun thing she has going with her dog? The former would be frustrating, but the latter is just... a fun story at the end of the day. It's normal for humans to attribute special meanings to whatever means something to each of us. If the lady has faith in her dog, let her. Thanks for making this video!!

[@KPassionate]

I agree, if it was just a fun story then that would be fine. Unfortunately, it is not. I would love to explain in detail but it is a lot... so I highly recommend the article I cited from Neuroscience News as it provides a lot of context, backstory, and criticism that I share. neurosciencenews.com/animal-communication-18280/ One thing the article doesn't mention is that many people are now using these buttons to make medical decisions for their animals. There is a video on KZbin of a person who euthanizes their cat after pressing the buttons "all done" and "goodbye."

[@cibelebarbosa8244]

@@KPassionate Wow, that is actually extremely concerning, and people should be made aware of it. Thank you for shedding a light and bringing SCIENCE into this conversation. Really loved your videos on it, and can't wait for part 2.

[@pinkysperfectpets2585]

Thank you for this!! I am currently in school for animal behavior but have been training dogs for 17 years. I also figured it was a Clever Hans type situation but you definitely put the words to why this irked me so!

[@KPassionate]

I originally thought it was a Clever Hans situation as well. I hope you check out part 2 because after a closer look I think many of the videos are staged or outright faked. Good luck in your studies!

[@pinkysperfectpets2585]

@@KPassionate I did and am now sending my clients your videos any time they ask me about these buttons lol

[@theriverschool822]

Similar buttons were used in certain service dogs before the tiktok people. They are normally a single button to control a device or one sound. Trying to use one extreme (Bunny) to say dogs can't learn them at all is a little crazy. I'm not a fan of soundboards, but Stella clearly uses it intelligently. If she wanted to dispel dogs could talk, she should argue why Bunny, (with an owner who says she knew nothing about dog language/training before getting the buttons for social media,) was the best example. Why not Stella with an owner with a PHD in speech pathology that created the buttons? Those are also good questions to ask. I bet I could prove humans can't do calculus by choosing who I test.

[@KPassionate]

@@theriverschool822 every study ever conducted has shown dogs cannot string together words to form sentences. One button for word association of a simple place or item is completely unrelated. As always, links to actual studies are in the description. Enjoy!

[@theriverschool822]

@@KPassionate If there is a study that dogs can't string together sentences, you didn't include it. There is, in fact, no one that tests talking dogs (outside of the button study.) So, no testing equals 0 confirmations. There was a school for talking dogs in Germany that existed in Germany (Hundesprechschule Asra) 1930-1945. I would suggest talking dogs have been proven, but you think it was fake. When you train a dog advanced tricks like "pick up the shoe and give it to Alan" and then I introduce a new person Sarah. Do I have to one-by-one teach the dog "pick-up the "sock" and give it to Sarah" and then "pick up the "shoe"... and so forth? Advanced dog training would be impossible if dogs couldn't string together words/sentences. I can tell when I hear you talk, you don't train dogs. I respect your opinion if you don't call it science. That's the only painful part. I agree with you about Bunny, but why use this dog as an example, if the training is so bad. (And I agree the training method is awful.) The video editing is impossible to follow, and body language never matches the buttons. The owner should have a confirmation of translation, or dismiss a bad translation. The owner admits she doesn't know much about dog training. She's doing a social media thing. I think the buttons make language harder, but Stella clearly used them for basic language.

[@TradingPantheonNasirTrades]

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

[@SilverHairSimmer]

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

[@KPassionate]

Exactly!

[@AnBelF26]

So, what would be the difference between a bell and a button that say "walk"?

[@lilyro3818]

We need a cross-over video. Kpassion visits bunny.

[@rainstriderstreamflower5645]

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

[@plantlifeforever6994]

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