Your dog communicates with you all the time using body language and vocalizations, like barks, whines, and growls. Plus, a great deal of dog training involves teaching dogs what our body language and words mean. But what about when you add a soundboard into the mix? Do dogs actually understand what those talking buttons mean?
What Are Soundboards, and How Do They Work?
A soundboard consists of a series of buttons that, when pressed, play words the owner previously recorded. So one button might play back the owner saying “outside” and another might play “water.” The idea is that dogs, a species unable to produce human speech sounds, can press these buttons to use words to communicate with their human caretakers.
Soundboards are a type of Augmentative Interspecies Communication (AIC) device, a machine or gadget that helps bridge the communication gap between humans and animals. Dogs aren’t the first animal species to use AICs. Scientists have used them with dolphins and apes, for example. But using an AIC with dogs isn’t just the domain of scientists. Dog owners all over the world are using soundboards with their dogs and social media is full of canine celebrities button-pushing their way to fame.
Can Dogs Understand Soundboards?
Contrary to the claims on social media, there is no scientific proof that button-pressing dogs are talking. They could be pressing buttons at random while their owners interpret those presses to endow them with meaning. Or the dogs might be responding to their owner’s inadvertent cues. To prove that dogs are pressing buttons deliberately to communicate, we need to see if the dogs understand the meaning of those words in the first place.
That was the point of a recent study in the journal PLOS ONE. Led by Dr. Frederico Rossano, associate professor of cognitive science at the University of California San Diego, the researchers tested 30 pet dogs that had already been trained by their owners to use soundboards. The dogs included a variety of mixed-breed dogs, as well as purebred dogs. The study focused on words that meant “outside,” “play,” or “food,” and all the dogs’ soundboards contained such buttons.
The scientists looked at whether the dogs made contextually appropriate responses to those three words when they were spoken by the owner or researcher or made by pressing the soundboard button (by either the owner or the researcher). According to Dr. Rossano, an appropriate response would be one that fit the situation. For example, if the dog has just been outside, and they press the button for outside, they might not know what that word means. But if it’s time to eat, and they press food, then you can start assuming they get it. “For our study, we looked at whether they would go, for example, towards the door when they heard ‘outside’ or whether they would retrieve a toy when they heard ‘play.’”
For two of the three words, “play” and “outside,” the dogs performed contextually appropriate behaviors regardless of who produced the word or whether it was spoken or produced by a soundboard button. Therefore, the study concluded, “pet dogs can be successfully taught by their owners to associate words recorded onto soundboard buttons to their outcomes in the real world, and they respond appropriately to these words even when they are presented in the absence of any other cues, such as the owner’s body language.”
Can Dogs Communicate With Humans Using Soundboards?
So dogs can understand the meaning of at least some of the words on a soundboard. Well, that’s not really a surprise. After all, teaching dogs verbal cues for behaviors is a tenet of dog training. Dogs learn that the word “sit” means they should sit down, for example. Although a recent study in the journal Animal Cognition showed that dogs tend to prefer gestures to verbal cues, other research has shown that dogs understand the meaning of spoken words. But just because dogs understand the words on their soundboards, it doesn’t mean they produce those words to converse with humans. There may be other, simpler explanations. However, Dr. Rossano’s study was an essential first step in exploring that possibility.
Dr. Rossano believes soundboards might be a window into the dog mind, and he is recruiting participants to register with his lab as he examines how dogs themselves are using the buttons. He wants to see if dogs actively select buttons to request things from humans and whether they intentionally select the right button based on their needs and wants. “We have 2 studies currently under review in which we are looking at which buttons dogs tend to push the most while home with their humans, and whether they are just mimicking what they are trained on or whether they show some flexibility. Also, we look at what happens when they press sequences of buttons one after the other and whether those sequences are random or not (they are not!)”
Should You Teach Your Dog to Use a Soundboard?
If the jury is still out, should you invest the time to teach your dog to use a soundboard? Dr. Rossano doesn’t recommend for or against their use. He sees his job as assessing to what degree soundboards are valuable for dogs, owners, and scientists, and to provide the strongest scientific evidence possible to support such assessments. That’s why he and his lab are running a longitudinal study with 10,000 dogs.
However, he strongly feels that any way in which we can provide dogs with more voice and control over their environment is beneficial for their welfare. That can be particularly useful for anxious dogs. In fact, many of the dogs Dr. Rossano has studied like to use their soundboards to communicate about things that cause them stress, like loud noises or strangers outside. He has seen other benefits to soundboard use too, such as dogs barking less at home, owners reporting enhanced bonding, and dogs tending to get what they want more effectively. “I do believe that these devices can be particularly valuable for working dogs and for [rescue] dogs,” he says, “to facilitate their bonding with new owners who might struggle to understand the needs and wants of a dog already struggling with the excitement and stress of moving to a new environment.”
How to Teach Your Dog to Use a Soundboard
So, if you’ve ever wondered what your dog is thinking, a soundboard might provide some insight. Start teaching words like “play,” “outside,” or “water,” as they’re concrete and easier to associate with their consequences. Dr. Rossano’s main tip is to teach your dog to use the button the way you would teach a young child. “You describe what you are doing, might repeat it several times, and you need to be consistent in your responses. Because the dog needs to learn the association. We also recommend not to start with the button ‘food’ or ‘treat’ and not to use food as a reward, at least in the beginning. Praise, cuddles, and play are often better than food rewards to train with buttons.”
Be patient and don’t set your expectations too high. Although the famous dog “Chaser” learned over 1,000 spoken words, not every dog is going to excel with a soundboard. Dr. Rossano has seen massive individual differences between dogs. Some dogs use over 100 buttons in ways that he describes as “very interesting,” whereas other dogs might fail to learn to use the buttons at all. Have fun with it and look at it as a chance to provide mental stimulation and bonding. It’s not about making your dog more human. As Dr. Rossano says, “Dogs should stay dogs. They are perfect as they are.”
These AIC devices might reveal emotional and cognitive abilities that we’re as yet unaware of, which Dr. Rossano believes could change our attitudes towards our pets for the better. “Dogs are better than any other animal on the planet in understanding human communication. It would not be surprising if having made all the effort to learn our communications, they would like for us to better understand what they are trying to communicate to us.”
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