Dogs TALK with humans using soundboards for first time… and it’s what they DIDN’T say that’s depressing

A groundbreaking study shows that dogs are able to form combinations of two words when they use a sounding board to communicate with humans.

In recent years, thousands of dogs have been trained to use soundboards with buttons that can be pressed to produce human words or phrases.

Some have even become social media sensations, like the famous TikTok sheepadoodle Bunny.

But scientists still weren’t sure whether these “talking” dogs were pressing buttons randomly or deliberately.

Now, a new analysis has revealed that the dogs’ behavior cannot be explained by random pressing, and that certain combinations of two buttons too often appear to be the result of random chance, according to the study.

The researchers found that the most frequently used buttons were related to the dog’s essential needs, such as ‘outside’, ‘treat’, ‘play’ and ‘potty’.

Combinations such as ‘outside’ + ‘potty’ or ‘food’ + ‘water’ were also too common to be coincidental, and were used in meaningful ways.

Furthermore, the researchers identified differences between the dogs’ pressure behavior and that of their owners.

For example, buttons like “I love you” were pressed far less often by dogs than by their humans, suggesting that dogs don’t imitate pressure from their owners. This will be a blow to owners who believe that the feelings of total devotion are mutual.

This study provides strong evidence that dogs use sounding boards to intentionally convey meaningful messages to humans – a groundbreaking finding in this ongoing research.

“This is the first scientific study to analyze how dogs actually use sounding boards,” says study leader Federico Rossano.

‘The findings show that dogs deliberately press buttons to express their desires and needs, and not just imitate their owners.

“When dogs combine two buttons, these sequences are not random, but appear to reflect specific requests,” Rossano added statement.

Rossano led a team of researchers from the UC San Diego Comparative Cognition Lab and analyzed data from more than 260,000 button presses, 195,000 of them by 152 dogs over 21 months.

The researchers used data collected by the FluentPet mobile app, which owners use to record their pets’ button presses in real time.

Using advanced statistical techniques, including computer simulations, the researchers analyzed the data to determine whether combinations of button presses were random, imitative, or truly intentional and meaningful.

The researchers published their findings in the journal Scientific reports.

These results suggest that dogs can use sounding boards to intentionally communicate with humans.

This study has improved scientists’ understanding of interspecies communication, which has been studied for decades.

Early studies attempted to teach monkeys how to talk to humans both vocally and through sign language, but this work was heavily criticized for several reasons, Rossano and his co-authors wrote in their report.

Methods were often inconsistent and underreported, researchers tended to overinterpret animal behavior, and the conditions in which the monkeys were raised were detrimental to their health and safety.

However, this study provided interesting anecdotal evidence indicating that the monkeys were engaged in meaningful communication.

For example, one study reported that a chimpanzee named Washoe drew “water” and “bird” when seeing a swan.

Subsequent studies used augmentative interspecies communication (AIC) devices, such as lexigrams, magnetic chips, and buttons, in a similar manner to the soundboards used today.

These studies have shown that some animals, including monkeys, dolphins and two professionally trained dogs, Sophia and Laila, can learn to use AIC devices to communicate requests.

Although that research was not without criticism, it laid the foundation for today’s sounding board studies.

Rossano and his team’s conclusions confirm the value of sounding boards in helping owners better understand their pets’ needs, the researchers said.

“Although dogs already communicate some of these needs,” Rossano said, “sounding boards can allow for more precise communication.

‘Rather than barking or scratching at the door, a dog might be able to tell you exactly what he wants, even combining terms like ‘outside’ and ‘park’ or ‘beach’.

But their findings will require further study, the researchers said.

Rossano wants to explore dogs’ cross-species communication skills at a deeper level, exploring whether canines can use buttons to refer to the past or future, such as telling their owner they are missing a toy.

The researchers also want to know whether dogs can combine buttons more creatively and communicate concepts for which they don’t have specific words.

“We want to know if dogs can use these sounding boards to express ideas beyond their immediate needs, such as absent objects, past experiences or future events,” Rossano said.

“If they can do that, it would dramatically change the way we think about animal intelligence and communication.”