- Can dogs really learn to talk to us?
My name is Alexis Devine.
You might know me from the Mashable video
I did talking about my dog, Bunny.
I've been teaching bunny to speak using AAC
or augmentative and alternative communication
for about the last 10 months.
Today, I'm gonna teach you how to train your dogs
to communicate using the very same method.
While my board has 48 buttons,
today, we're gonna start with just three:
outside, play and all done.
I received my own board as a beta tester through FluentPet,
a canine AAC company that combines the ideas
of the Fitzgerald Key with insights from cognitive science.
The idea is to provide some clever hits that can help
your learner grow their vocabulary more quickly.
As your learner advances,
I'd recommend using the Fitzgerald key to group your words
by how they fit into a sentence.
Hopefully this way your dog will have a better shot
at figuring out how to put words together.
But for now, we're just gonna start with a few buttons.
Teaching buttons one or two at a time
seems to get the best results.
Before you get started, here are some quick tips.
Patience is key.
One of the things we've learned over the past year
is that dogs seem to process language a lot more slowly
than we do.
So giving your learner between 15 and 40 seconds
and not rushing them will help.
Use paw targeting exercises so that your canine learner
will be primed for button pushing.
Avoid giving your dog a treat or eat button,
as this is likely to be too exciting for them,
especially if they are highly food motivated.
Before you start,
you should have at least some rudimentary communication
such as commands or understanding your dog's body language.
Learning to communicate on their terms first
will set you up for success.
Oh, and never ever grab your dog's paw and force
them to push the button.
Okay, let's get started.
Number one, how to model outside.
Outside is one of the best words to start with,
as many dogs already know what it means.
They're communicating that they wanna go outside
when they scratch or paw at the door, right?
That's why it's a great first button to start with.
In our group of beta testers,
here's what we found works best.
First, put the outside button by the door,
start modeling the outside button by saying "outside",
pressing the outside button, then letting your dog outside.
Continue modeling outside by pressing it
every time you leave the house and every time
your dog goes outside.
Keep encouraging your dog to press the buttons.
Try to stay positive, even if you're frustrated
and reward small steps,
like looking at the button or moving their paw closer
to the button.
We've come up with a series of stages so that you can gauge
how well your dog is progressing linguistically.
Stage zero, your learner does not know
what the buttons are or their meanings.
In this stage, we are introducing the buttons
to our dog and teaching them how to press them.
Stage one, when you've reached this stage,
your learner will know to expect a response
when they press a button,
but they may not know the exact meanings of each button.
When your dog eventually presses the button,
take them outside and reward the heck out of them.
Remember, the key is repetition and reinforcement.
Stage two, your dog is in this stage when they are regularly
pressing the button that the word refers to,
such as outside.
At this point, I'd recommend moving your buttons
to a central location, such as the hex tiles.
Number two, how to model play.
Play will be one of your dog's favorite buttons,
which makes it pretty easy to model.
Begin by asking your dog in an excited voice
if they want to play.
Use the button and the word play before playtime.
Play can and should consist of all sorts of things
like tug of war, tossing a ball,
or really anything that motivates your dog's play drive.
It can be helpful to keep the play button
near their favorite toy or a toy box.
Keep reinforcing the word
until your dog eventually understands.
Make sure that the meaning is relative to the way
that you normally play with them.
When you're able to model multiple words
and your canine learner is fully engaged,
you've reached stage three.
Number three, how to model all done.
You can use this button to model all done
when you finish any activity.
After you're done playing, for example,
press the all done button,
say all done and walk away from your dog.
You can also take away your dog's toy,
press the all done button and say all done to signify
the end of playtime.
Remember, patience is key.
It might take your dog weeks or even months to learn a new
button, which is why we recommend starting with only a few.
If you or your learner are frustrated, take a break.
Dogs are very sensitive to our emotional state.
At stage four, your learner is using multiple words
and responds appropriately when you ask them
to use their words.
Once you reach this stage with your learner,
remember to model one step higher
than their current ability.
So if they are using one word sentences,
model two word sentences and so forth.
Teaching your dog to use the buttons productively may take
months or even years, but if you keep at it,
I'm sure you'll be surprised at what your pup has to say.
- [Robotic Voice] Friend, love you.