Can this dog communicate through buttons? Some scientists are studying her responses.
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00What now?
00:02What now?
00:05I don't know where I am!
00:16Ma, love you!
00:18Love you too!
00:20I bought some buttons and by the time we brought Bunny home at eight weeks old, I had an outside
00:32button sitting by the door.
00:35No expectations, but was really, really excited to give it a shot and see how far we got.
00:39So within a couple of weeks, she was using it consistently to request to go outside herself.
00:44And at that point in time, it was sort of game on.
00:47We started expanding the board, adding more buttons.
01:15See if they come.
01:16Can you see us in the mirror?
01:21What do you want to play?
01:30There are moments, sometimes there are days where it seems like she is just sort of exploring
01:35the buttons.
01:36She's putting together combinations of words that she hasn't used together before.
01:40She'll press them.
01:41She'll look up at me waiting for a response.
01:42If it doesn't make sense, I'll ask her to clarify.
01:44She'll try a different combination.
01:45So there's a lot of exploration.
01:47And I think skeptics might look at that and say, well, this is proof that she has no idea
01:53what's going on.
01:54And to me, it's proof that she has a willingness and eagerness to learn.
01:59The fact that she's exploring, the fact that she's trying, she wants to be able to communicate
02:03in this way.
02:15But what we're really interested in is sort of, can we find something in the way in which
02:26Bunny and many other dogs that are actually part of the studies, can we find something
02:31that is more similar to the way in which human children learn, for example, language, and
02:36the way in which they combine signal towards producing communication?
02:40So with Bunny right now, we're doing it 24-7.
02:43So that literally you have a camera on the soundboards and you have a camera also on
02:47the participant that is interacting with Bunny so that we can see simultaneously whether
02:51there's something else going on that the owner might be, some cues that the owner might be
02:56sending that might actually affect the responses of Bunny.
03:00These interactions are not forced.
03:03There's no like every day from this time to this time you do it.
03:07These are natural moments in people's lives when they can train the animal and the animal
03:14can decide when to interact with it or not.
03:17And over time, if this becomes a valuable tool, hopefully there will be something we
03:21get from it.
03:30So my goal with Bunny from the beginning has always been to have the most connected relationship
03:36possible.
03:37And I definitely feel like our use of the buttons is mutually rewarding.
03:43She likes to please me when she presses the buttons and expresses something complex or
03:48even not complex.
03:49I'm very, very happy with that.
03:52And then I act on that and that makes her very happy.
03:54So it's mutually beneficial.
03:55I think she feels understood and heard.
03:58And I really enjoy being able to meet her needs in this way and really, really try and
04:02understand what's going on in her brain.
04:05Definitely communication.
04:07Not sure about the language part just yet.