Can dogs communicate through buttons?

Brut America

Can this dog communicate through buttons? Some scientists are studying her responses.

Transcript

00:00What now?

00:02What now?

00:05I don't know where I am!

00:16Ma, love you!

00:18Love you too!

00:20I bought some buttons and by the time we brought Bunny home at eight weeks old, I had an outside

00:32button sitting by the door.

00:35No expectations, but was really, really excited to give it a shot and see how far we got.

00:39So within a couple of weeks, she was using it consistently to request to go outside herself.

00:44And at that point in time, it was sort of game on.

00:47We started expanding the board, adding more buttons.

01:15See if they come.

01:16Can you see us in the mirror?

01:21What do you want to play?

01:30There are moments, sometimes there are days where it seems like she is just sort of exploring

01:35the buttons.

01:36She's putting together combinations of words that she hasn't used together before.

01:40She'll press them.

01:41She'll look up at me waiting for a response.

01:42If it doesn't make sense, I'll ask her to clarify.

01:44She'll try a different combination.

01:45So there's a lot of exploration.

01:47And I think skeptics might look at that and say, well, this is proof that she has no idea

01:53what's going on.

01:54And to me, it's proof that she has a willingness and eagerness to learn.

01:59The fact that she's exploring, the fact that she's trying, she wants to be able to communicate

02:03in this way.

02:15But what we're really interested in is sort of, can we find something in the way in which

02:26Bunny and many other dogs that are actually part of the studies, can we find something

02:31that is more similar to the way in which human children learn, for example, language, and

02:36the way in which they combine signal towards producing communication?

02:40So with Bunny right now, we're doing it 24-7.

02:43So that literally you have a camera on the soundboards and you have a camera also on

02:47the participant that is interacting with Bunny so that we can see simultaneously whether

02:51there's something else going on that the owner might be, some cues that the owner might be

02:56sending that might actually affect the responses of Bunny.

03:00These interactions are not forced.

03:03There's no like every day from this time to this time you do it.

03:07These are natural moments in people's lives when they can train the animal and the animal

03:14can decide when to interact with it or not.

03:17And over time, if this becomes a valuable tool, hopefully there will be something we

03:21get from it.

03:30So my goal with Bunny from the beginning has always been to have the most connected relationship

03:36possible.

03:37And I definitely feel like our use of the buttons is mutually rewarding.

03:43She likes to please me when she presses the buttons and expresses something complex or

03:48even not complex.

03:49I'm very, very happy with that.

03:52And then I act on that and that makes her very happy.

03:54So it's mutually beneficial.

03:55I think she feels understood and heard.

03:58And I really enjoy being able to meet her needs in this way and really, really try and

04:02understand what's going on in her brain.

04:05Definitely communication.

04:07Not sure about the language part just yet.

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