“Happy Ball Want Outside:” Dog Learns To Talk Using A Word Machine, Already Knows 29 Words
Probably every pet owner has dreamed about having a conversation with their little friends. Well, proud dog mom, Christina Hunger has found a way. And no, she’s not a mind reader. The 26-year-old speech-language pathologist is communicating with her pup through a custom-made soundboard.
Hunger has an 18-month-old Catahoula/Blue Heeler mix, Stella. Whenever she wants to express her thoughts and feelings, she just steps on buttons corresponding with words Christina recorded and programmed into the device.
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Image credits: hunger4words
Image credits: hunger4words
The soundboard has been working wonders. With it, Stella has been able to tell her owner when she’s tired and needs a nap, when she’s hungry and wants to grab a bite or when she wants to go for a walk – specifically to the park.
Stella is also a wonderful student. She not only knows 29 words but can put together phrases as well. One day, Stella was whining at the front door, unable to stay in place. Hunger thought that she needed to go outside. However, Stella walked to her device and said, “Want,” “Jake” “Come.” The pup then stood in front of the door and waited until Jake, Hunger’s fiancé, returned home. Stella then pressed “Happy” and rolled over, asking for a belly rub.
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“Last night, right before this video was taken, I accidentally said “ball” on Stella’s device while I was actually reaching for a different word. But, Stella took this very seriously! She picked up her ball, dropped it on her device, and said “Good” (Translation: Good idea, Mom!)
I started recording right after she said “Good” and caught the rest of her thought: “Happy ball want outside!”
Like all AAC users, Stella thrives when we talk to her using her device and say words that she loves. She never needs to know it was on accident!”
Image credits: hunger4words
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“Stella adapts her message when she isn’t feeling understood, just like we all do! If someone doesn’t understand us or we don’t get the response we were expecting, we change the words we’re using to explain ourselves better.
Watch this sequence of Stella telling us, three different ways in a row, that she wanted to go play!
First, Stella said “Come play.” When we didn’t come play, she added more details and said, “Outside play love you.” Finally, she got as specific as she could and told us, “Park.” Stella is truly a great communicator!”
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“Stella uses language differently when she’s in a heightened state versus when she’s calm!
Today when she heard some noises outside and wanted to go investigate, I told her we were staying inside.
Stella responded by saying, “Look” 9 TIMES IN A ROW, then “Come outside.” She was clearly in a more frantic state, and her language use matched that. We all sound differently than normal when we’re in distress, Stella included!
I’m impressed that Stella is communicating with language during her more heightened states, not just when she’s calm and in a quiet space. This shows me that words are becoming more automatic for her to use. It’s similar to when a toddler starts using language to express himself during times of frustration instead of only crying. That happens when it’s easy for the toddler to say words, not when he’s still learning and it takes a lot of focus to talk.”
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“Wait, wait, wait, then wait some more! Best practice in speech therapy with beginning communicators includes giving the learner increased wait time to process what’s happening and generate a response. Pausing before prompting or talking more gives the communicator a chance to respond!
Stella benefits from the same wait time. In this video she hit her “outside” button twice, but no sound came out. Instead of jumping up to fix it, I bit my tongue, stood still, and waited a full 13 seconds before Stella said “No. Help help!” Way to go Stella for telling me her button wasn’t working and asking for help!”
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“Don’t you just hate it when your dog talks back to you?? After Stella finished her breakfast this morning, I said and modeled on her device “Stella all done eat.” She immediately responded “no,” and walked back to her dishes while licking her lips.
While this made me laugh, I also think it’s pretty amazing because Stella is really starting to appropriately respond to what we’re saying and participate in short conversations.”
Image credits: hunger4words
Image credits: hunger4words
People were blown away by Stella’s skills
It's always been thought that dogs have the intelligence of a 2 year old human, but I think Stella is way beyond that. Maybe all dogs actually are.
Well, we might also need to challenge our understanding of how intelligent 2 year olds are. Many people believe small children are dumb. They are not. They know more than most admit, and they understand much more than they themselves can express.
Well said, Hans; I completely agree.
Yes, whenever I see someone comment "They're a kid, they won't remember it" I think "Don't count on that!"
I saw a documentary about two parents who were deaf, so their child had to learn sign language. I think that the child was under one year old, but she could communticate a lot more than her peers (they did not yet have the words, but she had the signs). In preschool (some kids in Norway are as small as 8 months when they start, though most are 12 or more), she started learning how to speak too.
I agree with this. When I had my own 2yo I realised I could understand most of what she was indicating, and that it was effectively language. She may have only had 2 years experience, but she had full size emotions and opinions.
......and so do animals, Hans.
Maybe they're like kids in this regard...Intelligence of a 2 year old initially but can learn beyond that with patience and practice.
How much time have you spent around 2 year old humans? They are generally capable of expressing things like wanting to play at the park or missing a person they love. They also enjoy pushing buttons. 😉
2 year old humans are stupidly smart. It's just that they don't have the language, usually, to express it. Adults aren't any smarter than children, on a fundamental level. We just have education and experience that they don't have yet. That's completely different than intelligence.
If I were to make one of these ingenious boards for my cat it would feature words like: worship; queen; overlord; puny human; slave; servant; fancy feast; knock stuff off table; 2 am hairball; random 2 am freakout; destroy; and a bunch of obscenities.
You'd probably be surprised how much your cat does not think like that.
Hah hah, I know Martha. Was just being cheeky. I love both cats and dogs. My cat is extremely friendly, but does have a “queen of the world” personality at times.
One of my cats used to tell me that he had made his way inside upstairs by calling me. He said "maamaa!" so convincingly that he repeatedly got my mother in law to tell me that her precious grandson had woken up. She was actually wondering why on earth I wasn't reacting to him calling for me and she hardly believed me when I said that it was Bruno (the cat) telling me he had come in.
Nah... the cat would just go "F you, you learn cat, I'm not learning human."
She had better buy a few more buttons to replace "Eat"and "Outside" should wear out pretty quickly
And "Ball" too
I was thinking there needs to be more buttons. Definitely a "Squirrel!!!!" one.
*In Dug voice*; SQUIRREL!
It's always been thought that dogs have the intelligence of a 2 year old human, but I think Stella is way beyond that. Maybe all dogs actually are.
Well, we might also need to challenge our understanding of how intelligent 2 year olds are. Many people believe small children are dumb. They are not. They know more than most admit, and they understand much more than they themselves can express.
Well said, Hans; I completely agree.
Yes, whenever I see someone comment "They're a kid, they won't remember it" I think "Don't count on that!"
I saw a documentary about two parents who were deaf, so their child had to learn sign language. I think that the child was under one year old, but she could communticate a lot more than her peers (they did not yet have the words, but she had the signs). In preschool (some kids in Norway are as small as 8 months when they start, though most are 12 or more), she started learning how to speak too.
I agree with this. When I had my own 2yo I realised I could understand most of what she was indicating, and that it was effectively language. She may have only had 2 years experience, but she had full size emotions and opinions.
......and so do animals, Hans.
Maybe they're like kids in this regard...Intelligence of a 2 year old initially but can learn beyond that with patience and practice.
How much time have you spent around 2 year old humans? They are generally capable of expressing things like wanting to play at the park or missing a person they love. They also enjoy pushing buttons. 😉
2 year old humans are stupidly smart. It's just that they don't have the language, usually, to express it. Adults aren't any smarter than children, on a fundamental level. We just have education and experience that they don't have yet. That's completely different than intelligence.
If I were to make one of these ingenious boards for my cat it would feature words like: worship; queen; overlord; puny human; slave; servant; fancy feast; knock stuff off table; 2 am hairball; random 2 am freakout; destroy; and a bunch of obscenities.
You'd probably be surprised how much your cat does not think like that.
Hah hah, I know Martha. Was just being cheeky. I love both cats and dogs. My cat is extremely friendly, but does have a “queen of the world” personality at times.
One of my cats used to tell me that he had made his way inside upstairs by calling me. He said "maamaa!" so convincingly that he repeatedly got my mother in law to tell me that her precious grandson had woken up. She was actually wondering why on earth I wasn't reacting to him calling for me and she hardly believed me when I said that it was Bruno (the cat) telling me he had come in.
Nah... the cat would just go "F you, you learn cat, I'm not learning human."
She had better buy a few more buttons to replace "Eat"and "Outside" should wear out pretty quickly
And "Ball" too
I was thinking there needs to be more buttons. Definitely a "Squirrel!!!!" one.
*In Dug voice*; SQUIRREL!