Dogs seem to intuitively understand human emotions, and they can be trained to understand and respond to a nearly unlimited number of words, phrases, or commands. Some experts say smarter breeds can learn hundreds of different prompts! It makes you wonder how far off they really are from being able to truly communicate with us using something resembling language.
People have been wondering and experimenting with the idea for a long time. Speech-language pathologist Christina Hunger and her dog Stella were the first to experiment with talking buttons in 2019, where Stella could press a button with her nose to activate a word sound, thereby speaking, in a sense. Since then there has been a surge of online content showing other pet parents using similar kits to communicate with their own pups.
The most fascinating aspect of this phenomenon is the question of whether or not canines are able to understand full-blown complicated sentences beyond “treat” and “outside.”
While the overall jury is still out on that, scientifically speaking, dogs like Ripley — a 2-year-old Australian Shepherd — seem to make an incredibly compelling case for believing the hype.
