<a href="https://www.hungerforwords.com/post/teaching-my-dog-to-talk-1" rel="nofollow">https://www.hungerforwords.com/post/teaching-my-dog-to-talk-...</a><p>This is a fascinating summary of training process and accomplished results. Author is speech therapist for children and applies similar approach instead of rewarding dog for just pressing buttons. Most of comments here are too dismissive of methods and results.
This dog and its button pushing communication system have come up a few times here on HN. It really does seem incredible. I trained my dog to ring a bell to go in and out of the back door whenever he wants, but this is on a whole other level. How do we know this isn’t just a sophisticated version of the “The Clever Hans Effect”? [1] I’d love to believe this is what it looks like, but my skeptical radar is tingling.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clever_Hans</a>
So she gets attention when she touches the buttons and gets food when she pushes "eat".<p>I like the idea but I don't think you can conclude it's communication any more than a rat pressing a lever to get his brain stimulated was.
I feel like this is missing some context. E.g. the word “mad” seems complex; how has this been introduced and how do we know that this is what the dog is trying to communicate?
Every Dog does that all the time..it's not special, he bark's or pushes me with the nose, i ask food? If he look's down with his eyes rolling to the left as if there is a virtual bowl i know he want's food, if its not food he goes to the door and pushes the door with the nose, if cuddles he presses his body against my leg. The only difference here is that this poor dog had to learn howto use color buttons because his (former?)-owner (probably) cannot interpret his face or gestures.
Hmm, so what the dog wants to communicate is that she wants a food treat. Not exactly unexpected.<p>Reminds me of the famous Gary Larson's comic:<p><a href="https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1d/b5/27/1db5279f8a07f1601bf75a92caf9db0a.jpg" rel="nofollow">https://i.pinimg.com/originals/1d/b5/27/1db5279f8a07f1601bf7...</a>