This Dog Can Communicate In Sentences Thanks To A Soundboard And Lessons From Her Owner
Stella did not start out as a talking dog. She started with one button, one word, and a curious owner who wanted to see whether communication could go both ways.
Cristina Hunger, a speech pathologist from San Diego, began teaching her Catahoula/Blue Heeler mix Stella to use a soundboard after wondering if dogs could do more than just understand human language. With help from her fiancé, Jake, Stella learned to press buttons for words like outside, eat, water, and play, then began combining them into short phrases.
Now Stella knows dozens of words, and the results have people debating just how far this kind of training can go. Read on.
Cristina and her fiancé, Jake, began by making a button that said "outside" and then pushed it each time they said the word or opened the door. After a couple of weeks, each time Cristina said "outside," Stella stared at the button.
In no time, Stella began to push the button each time she wanted to go outside.
They added more buttons: "eat," "water," "play," "walk," "no," "come," "help," "bye," and "love you."
"Every day, I spent time using Stella's buttons to talk with her and teach her words just as I would in speech therapy sessions with children," she recorded on her blog.
"Instead of rewarding Stella with a treat for using a button, we responded to her communication by acknowledging her message and responding accordingly. Stella's voice and opinions matter just as much as our own do," she continued.
If Stella's water bowl needs refilling, she says "water." If she wants to play, she says "play." She even learned to tell friends "bye" if they put on their coats by the door.
It did not take long for Stella to start stringing words together.
Stella quickly learned to combine different words and make phrases.
On one afternoon, soon after daylight saving time, she started saying "eat" at 3:00 PM.
When Cristina didn’t respond by bringing her food, she said "love you no" and stormed out of the room.
Today, Stella knows 29 words and can combine up to five at a time to create phrases and sentences.
"The way she uses words to communicate and the words she's combining is really similar to a 2-year-old child," Cristina reveals on her blog.
She believes her work has the ability to change the connection between people and dogs.
"I think about how important dogs are to their humans," Hunger said. "I just imagine how much deeper the bond will be."
This is the same lesson as 7 pet owners who say humans need to talk to dogs more, because recognizing phrases helps everyone.
That bond is exactly what has people talking.
Stella wants to play ball outside.
Stella needs some more breakfast.
After a day at the beach, Stella needs to go back.
Stella telling Cristina that she doesn't want her to go to work.
How do you feel about this? Should dogs be taught to communicate like this? The comment section is all yours.
Stella is making a strong case for herself.
Wait until you see how Stella jumped over the fence Jake built to “keep her in.”
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