Dogs Using Buttons To “Talk” very interesting

I have seen this before, but this is very interesting.

Mixed feelings on this. First off, I’m happy that it’s being studied, and if they adhere to strict scientific process, perhaps this will be groundbreaking.

I’ve seen the Bunny videos, and they are interesting, but I hasten to add that it’s possible and very easy to only show the times that the dog pushes the right button. One could probably group this under confirmation bias. I’m not calling anyone a liar, but I recommend not taking any video at face value. A lot can happen in the editing process, even if the overall intentions are good.

That having been said, it is increasingly obvious that animals are proving to be smarter than humans have given them credit for being. They do not, however, have the capacity to articulate speech with their mouths. They simply are not created to be able to produce the range of sounds that human speech requires and the sounds they make may even seem to mimic human speech, such as the earlier video about the husky who seems to mimic “I love you”, but animals do not have the precision that human speech requires.

I know that animals “speak” in signals. “Ow” is a signal, “you stepped on my foot” is symbolic language. We know that animals can understand commands, some understanding quite a few. Cats strike me as not being very verbally oriented, but my cat knows the word “outside”. It takes her a second, but once she processes that word, she runs to the door and uses signals, constant meows, to hurry me in letting her out.

So, from the video, it appears that these dogs have some degree or comprehension of speech, but my acceptance is tempered by guardedness, that we could be anthropomorphizing our analysis. So I’ll say, yes but; with the precaution that this is still a bit avant-garde.