My girl and I celebrated 10 years together last Friday! The traditional tenth anniversary gift is tin/aluminum, so I figured her food cans counted. I really did spend all weekend turning to her and saying “Happy Anniversary!” (which wasn’t pathetic at all). Each time I’d do it she seemed excited, judging by the waggy tail, but pretty quickly her expression morphed into “so… do I get food for this or what?” As much as I love my girl and recognize her superior intellect, I do figure that the main thoughts on her mind are “feed me” and “touch me,” occasionally sprinkled in with “take me outside.” Am I selling her short, though? A new breed of pet-parent has emerged (breed—see what I did there!), and they are pioneering the age of “button dogs.” Basically, you purchase a mat of buttons, record a word for each button, and teach your dog how to speak. It’s become such a phenomenon that “button dog videos” has become a genre on social media (so we know it’s real). Button dog parents, researchers, and experts weigh in:
Button dog 101: Sascha Crasnow believes that Parker, her two-year-old Beagle mix, can “speak” to her by using her paw to tap buttons with prerecorded words on them. The dog recently coined a new term for ambulance, after spotting one parked outside, by pressing the buttons “squeaker” and then “car,” she says. During a visit from Crasnow’s father, the dog asked his name by using three buttons: “what,” “word” and “human.” They are known as “button dogs” for their perceived ability to communicate by pressing buttons identifiable by pictures, symbols or location corresponding to specific words. Pet parents record nouns, verbs and emotions, and believe the buttons enable their dogs—and in rare cases, cats—to ask questions, express such feelings as pain (“ouch”) or anger (“mad”) and indicate something they want (“treat,” “cookie” and “outside”).
Some doubtful opinions: “We already understand what dogs are trying to tell us without the buttons, but when we use a human linguistic interface, we start ascribing too much to our joint understanding of these words,” said Amritha Mallikarjun, a postdoctoral fellow at the Penn Vet Working Dog Center at the University of Pennsylvania. “If a dog hits the button ‘love,’ maybe what it means to the dog is: ‘when I hit this button, I get pets, or everyone says my name.’” Sarah-Elizabeth Byosiere, director of the Thinking Dog Center at Hunter College, believes “our dogs have been ‘talking’ to us this whole time, but we just haven’t been ‘listening,’” she said. “The short videos I see online seem to indicate that dogs are able to form associations between a button press and an outcome, but it’s really difficult to say if anything more is happening.”
Studies are being done: The research, created by Federico Rossano, the principal investigator, is being conducted in partnership with FluentPet, which produces and sells buttons and soundboards. The company is sharing data with Rossano’s lab and the University of California at San Diego, but is not funding the study, he said. “We are not paying for the data, and they are not paying us to analyze the data,” Rossano said. “My lab collects additional data and runs behavioral experiments as well, completely independent of FluentPet.”
Are these dogs just pressing buttons: The scientists also plan to visit the dogs and run tests to establish if they are actually communicating or randomly pressing buttons. Results likely won’t be available before year’s end. The scientific papers outlining their evidence are either under review for publication, or in the process of being submitted. “While there are clear individual differences among dogs in the study, we have now compelling evidence that for several dogs in our study, the button presses are not random,” he said.
Maybe we should learn their language instead: Alexandra Horowitz, who directs the Dog Cognition Lab at Barnard College, pointed out that dogs already “tell” us what they want, signaling when they want to go outside and tossing a ball when they want to play. She thinks dogs can learn to use the buttons, but that doesn’t necessarily advance their current ways of communicating. The risk she said, is that focus on button communication “may distract us from the elaborate communications they already make.”
The line “and in rare cases, cats,” made me laugh. You just know cats are thinking “fine, I’ll learn this stupid thing just to tell you to f— off.” So, my inclination is to agree with the experts who suggest we should devote more energy to learning about dogs’ natural languages, rather than making them learn our own. That being said, the proud parent mentioned in the article, Sascha Crasnow, just shared this tearjerker video of her Beagle Parker using the mat to say she had an emergency bathroom situation—the only hitch was Crasnow was out running errands and caught the whole scene later on the dog cam. Fair warning: it’s a rough watch. After a thorough discussion with my girl, where we reviewed the pros and cons and if she was even interested in learning to speak button human, we ultimately decided that the $20 to $235 the mat sets can cost would be better spent on food, treats, and more food. Happy Anniversary!
Photos and videos via Instagram @whataboutbunny @puppyparkerposey
Yeah my husband follows this dog named Bunny on IG who does this shit and I’ve always told him this is just classic Pavlovian response stuff. As they said here, we know that dogs communicate with us but it’s not in a traditional, human way. My cats know that if they sit at their treat bot, the bot will eventually “throw” them a treat, They don’t understand that we can talk through that thing or see them or anything–they just know “sit, and treats come out” or “bot is ‘talking’, treats to follow”. I always say that cats understand sound more than they do language, which is why I usually use vowel-heavy, simple words and say them with a certain emphasis—they understand the strange sounds even if they don’t know the actual word. And keep it simple. For instance, if I just ask “do you want a treat?” they’ll look at me blankly but if I say “TREAT-EE??” they start meowing.
I also agree that it’s more important that we understand how they engage/communicate with us; how to speak THEIR language than it is for them to learn ours.
EDIT: Oh sorry that’s Bunny in the pics, actually. For some reason pics on this site don’t immediately load for me.
I disagree. Cats and dogs do learn what certain words mean. Especially if you say it the same way each time, and don’t clutter up your phrasing with unnecessary words. The concept of “not” is more abstract and not useful. You just have to focus on what’s important. Saying “don’t poop inside!” is pointless. Saying “poop outside!” is a simple concept, expressed simply, using two familiar words.
Just because they can’t speak doesn’t mean they don’t understand.
I had a cat who asked me to scoop the box by first scratching on the scratching post (meaning “want” as we used treats to encourage using the post) and then walking over to the box and looking at me. He knew what he was expressing and so did I.
Obviously they think about things differently than people do, but they do think. They get it.
Most of your your comment is fighting against an imaginary argument that I did not make. Never once did I say they don’t understand us.
But I stand by what I said that animals do not know words–if you write “treat” on a piece of paper, they cannot read it–the word in and of itself is virtually meaningless to them. But they understand the SOUND of that word, particularly if you say it in a certain way, hence my example of saying “Treat-EE”. Treat-IE with an emphasis on the “ie” means a treat. Using eye contact helps. Asking them “would you like a treat?” in an affectless tone while reading a book or something and they will not understand what I’m saying to the point where they ignore me entirely. Again, it’s about learning to communicate with THEM in THEIR way, not forcing them to communicate with US in OUR way.
Literacy isn’t the same as intelligence. Everyone knows dogs can’t read. You’re making a straw argument there.
Reading is a whole level of processing beyond even not understanding the word/concept of “not/don’t” which they don’t.
They think differently than we do. But they are not stupid and they do learn the meanings of words.
My cats understand the word “treat” even in causal conversation. My friend’s relatively stupid dog understands it. Your cats have learned what you mean. Pretending they don’t get tone of voice when you say it is just silly. They know you’re bullshitting if you don’t say it that one way. That’s pretty smart.
So I think people not seeing this is wilful misunderstanding. And probably linked to justifying eating meat (which I do, so don’t come after me for that).
Your cats are smarter than you think they are.
Um my cats are extremely smart? Never said they weren’t.
No I said nothing about literacy–I’m talking about words as language, in context–conversational language. I simply used the written word as an example of what language means in a broader sense.
And yeah no, my cats absolutely do NOT understand what treat means in a casual conversation lol. If I’m talking to my husband and ask him to buy the cats treats at the store they don’t have any idea what I mean. If I look at them and say “do you want a treatie?” with emphasis on treat and making eye contact they know EXACTLY what I mean. THAT’S how I communicate with my cats because THAT’S how they understand me.
But congrats on your Mensa kitties that you have human conversations with. My cats are NOT at that level lol although they DO absolutely understand how to communicate with me–or rather, I understand how to communicate with THEM on THEIR terms.
I respectfully disagree. Our sheltie knows all our names, many words, and phrases. That said, my personality is one that always tries to hone in on meaning of words, body language, expressions in humans and furry friends, so I spend more time thinking about & gauging responses from bipeds and quadrupeds alike . I can’t call it pavlovian, as it does not involve food or salivation- rather a specific excited physical and vocal response that is specific to any situation.
Different strokes for different folks.☮️
I’m inclined to agree. My cat recognises certain sounds and has an association with them, ‘bedtime’ means go upstairs and cuddle on the bed with the human after you’ve watched her mess around in the room with all the water. I repeat the word a few times and he follows me upstairs (mostly, he is a cat). He’s definitely smart – he turned his catflap into a doorbell when he figured that instead of going through it he could put his microchip close enough to unlock it and if I was in the kitchen I’d hear the click and let him in – but does he understand the concept of bedtime and going to bed to sleep in a different place to all the places he’s spent the day sleeping? No, I don’t believe he does. Same with ‘breakfast’, I say it a certain way and and he recognises that and knows the actions that go with it.
Exactly. Sarah. And the thing that kills me is this insistence that intelligence = understanding human language.
And that’s why anthropomorphism annoys me so much: because that level or projection requires a fundamental lack of curiosity and understanding of the thing you’re projecting upon. Like, if the only way you can understand something is by relating it to the qualities YOU possess then maybe you just don’t care enough to actually understand it. Cats are amazingly intelligent, sentient beings —they’re just not intelligent in the same way that humans are.
“he turned his catflap into a doorbell when he figured that instead of going through it he could put his microchip close enough to unlock it and if I was in the kitchen I’d hear the click and let him in”
Like, I’m sorry but that is smart as HELL. Cats are clever, they’re survivalists, they’re cunning, athletic, affectionate, determined, amazing creatures but no, they don’t understand conversational language and thank GOD because if they did, we’d never be able to take to them to grandma’s house because they’d immediately hide under the bed lol. Seeing the cat carrier laying around is enough of a cue for them…
@Kitten- I get what you are saying and i do not disagree. Surely conversational human language as we know it (encoding, decoding, prosody and rhythm, grammar and syntax) isn’t within a lower mammal’s (complex) ability. But they do get broader strokes, intonation, facial expressions, and likely cues that we cannot understand with their senses that are far and away more acute than ours. Some are able to more finely tune their historic co- dependency with us to more “language” acumen or practical skill.
We can agree that there is some type of mutually learned communication that helps us help them.
I’m so tired of people assuming animals are somehow below them and less intelligent beings. No, animals are smart, and humans are idiots. Of course dogs can speak with those buttons – and they have to use them because humans are too moronic to understand animal language.
I genuinely don’t understand the correlation between knowing the English language and intelligence. There are so many different types of intelligence that are more important IMO: emotional intelligence, sensory intelligence, kinesthetic intelligence etc.
I think the mistake that humans make is equating adherence to humanlike qualities with intellectual/mental capacity. Animals are smarter than us in many ways, even if they can’t articulate the way we do or don’t understand every word of our language.
I often come across videos of Bunny (she looks like a sheepadoodle) speaking to her owners with buttons. I find the way the buttons dictate how the owner speak with Bunny — annoying. And I wonder like in the article… whether the owner is ascribing more meaning to the interaction than might be there. (Sometimes I think Bunny is right on too… She seems to relate to her owners when they poop lololol) Regardless, the owner and Bunny really love each other and they have a great bond and that’s all that matters in the end.
I’ve never seen the videos, but I’m guessing they’re only posting the ones where it looks like she’s talking to them. How many outtakes are there of the dog pressing nonsense buttons that make no sense?
That as well! She spends a lot of time recording Bunny and spoken very broken English. Bunny must understand holding up the phone is a cue to perform!
I taught my cats to scratch a scratching post for treats… one is very treat motivated, Sometimes he pathetically puts one paw on the post and picks lightly — which makes me laugh. Such a cat.
Bunny is an ongoing investigation with Stanford. To what end and to from what source IDK. Bur there is some academic research taking place, and it has been over the last 3-5 years-ish.
What exactly is the difference between “understanding” what the buttons mean, and pressing them to get a specific outcome? FFS.
I think people discount animal intelligence and communication so they can continue ignoring their dogs and eating burgers and not feel guilty about it.
My friend bought a set of buttons for their cat, and the cat couldn’t be arsed. I was like, she already tells you what she wants! Why should she bother with the buttons?
But I do think the critters understand the correlation. Which is all that really matters.
I’d these sorts of things actually worked the way these people think they do, the military industrial complex would have been all about them. It’s a cute gimmicky thing that the dogs have been conditioned to but they aren’t having convos.
Are you claiming that animals can’t communicate? Because that’s simply not the truth.
No, I’m not. I’m saying they are conditioned on what to push because of the human’s reaction. They are hardwired to observe us through eons of parallel evolution. They certainly think, but they don’t think or interpret the world the same way we do, the same is true in reverse.
So you’re saying it works.
WE are conditioned to respond to them just as much.
They get it. We get it. That’s communication. And intelligence.
I have a friend who is a linguist who insists that this type of animal “communication” is the animal learning based on a human system of association and humans doing all sorts of interpretations. The people who have large YouTube followings have very real interests in keeping these “conversations” seen as real because it is very lucrative for them. A funny example about cats…The cat knew to tell its parent it wanted to go out. The other 3 cats didn’t know how to use the buttons. However, they learned that if the other cat was using the buttons to get behind it because something was happening.
“A funny example about cats…The cat knew to tell its parent it wanted to go out. The other 3 cats didn’t know how to use the buttons. However, they learned that if the other cat was using the buttons to get behind it because something was happening.”
@ Jeannine–Absolutely believe this LOL. We have two cats that only tolerate each other but say, if our boy gets his claw caught and yelps loudly our older girl kitty will come running into the room. We always joke that as much as she hates him, she is super-protective of him too. But in reality I think it’s more that she gets scared that whatever is happening to him is going to happen to her too LMAO. Honestly, I wish humans could just enjoy animals for how amazing they are without all the anthropomorphism. It’s ok that they’re not the same as us–in fact, it’s for the best.
@kitten,
I think that’s all the prior posters to whom you responded might have been trying to say. There is meaningful communication at a basic level, and that can be explored and maybe improved through various methods.
While I adore my dog to a ridiculous degree — to the point of obsession, really, because she’s just so wonderful — I expect she’d try to eat the buttons. (She’s a Lab.)
Well I’m of the mind that animals understand everything we say, lol. I fed my daughters cat a different type of food and she wouldn’t eat it and walked away. I asked her “Don’t you want the nibbins?” and she looked at me and meowed something that sounded exactly like “no”. It was the funniest thing. So I wouldn’t be surprised if they found out the dogs are communicating with intention.
My sassy old kitty that just passed away used to meow “No” to me every time I’d tell her to stop doing something bad lol. She was the very best and I miss her every day
Oh my god this just reminded me of a video I saw (I think it was originally on TikTok?) of a dog pressing a bunch of random buttons that made no sense and the woman making this huge leap and being like “you want me to play you the guitar?!”
It was so funny and ridiculous. I remember wondering at the time whether or not the woman was joking, but I don’t think she was. I wish I could find the original video.
I think animals are smarter than people think. And they understand a lot more than we think as well .. my dog definitely understands some words like for example the word “here”. He will immediately perk up and go bark out the window thinking we have visitors. However he cannot distinguish between “here” and “hear” lol. So we try not to say the “H” word.
The buttons thing hmm I’m not sure. I need to see more studies.
I agree! Our girl definitely knows “walk” (or “walkies” because she’s so cute, I kind of baby-talk to her) and “cookie” and “outside.” She can also go “find” other family members in the house if you say “where’s daddy/brother/sister”? Her natural communication is remarkable, too; she will catch my eye and then kind of “dance” to the treat jar (big, looping, joyful leaps) to indicate that she’d like one, and she will “point” to the door with her nose when she wants out. Those are just a couple of examples, but she is very, very expressive.
I don’t think the “button dogs” are actually learning our language, I think they are learning that when they do X, we do Y and they like Y so they’re gonna do X.
That dog’s picture is killing me. My dog is boarding and I miss her so much. Thanks for the pic!
Dogs recognize words, not just tone of voice. If you’ve seen Molly Burke, a blind Youtuber, she’s been through a few service dogs lately. Her dogs react to the commands and the way they are pronounced… in French. She gets her dogs from Mira, an organization in Quebec, and the dogs are trained in French. So you tell them to sit or stay, they are going to ignore you. Molly is not a native French speaker so she does her best in her Anglo Canadian accent (she does pretty well) and the dogs follow her commands from her French pronunciation. The words mean nothing to Molly who doesn’t speak French, she’s only memorized them so she can communicate with her service dogs. The service dogs know what they mean immediately and do what she asks because they’ve been trained with French commands by Mira. It’s not all about tone of voice in my opinion.
For anyone wanting to follow a button cat, I follow Billi the cat who is very cute and constantly asking her human owner to play with specific toys.
My son (A teenager, lol) bought a pack of the buttons and recorded things on them for our cat. I did NOT participate, lol.
I came home from work the other day and the cat strolled out, went up to the buttons and pressed three buttons: “Welcome Home B*tch”
I have never laughed so hard in my life, lol.
My kid is grounded for life (Kidding!) for teaching the cat these buttons lol
If you have ever spent a lot of time listening to people speak a language you don’t know, it’s kind of the same thing. You hear a particular set of sounds and the subway doors close. You don’t know exactly whether it said “caution beware of closing doors” or “doors are closing please stand back”, but you get the general meaning.
I spend a fair amount of time around people speaking Hindi, which I don’t speak. I recognize a lot of sounds and ascribe meanings to some, probably incorrectly in a number of cases. I’m probably roughly on par with Bunny the dog, because that’s how you learn a language through immersion.
The difference between understanding language and making associations between sounds and concepts is smaller than you might think.