Since we don’t speak the same language, communicating with our pets can be a challenge. Fortunately, a new study has revealed some interesting findings that may help owners in this process.
The research, conducted by the team at the Comparative Cognition Lab at the University of California in San Diego, involves dogs and the use of “soundboards” to “speak.”
The new study, published in Scientific Reports on December 9, 2024, suggests that dogs use soundboards to intentionally “speak” with us and are not just mimicking their owners or pressing buttons randomly.
For the study, the team wanted to learn more about the devices that some pets use to communicate with their humans.
“Thousands of pets were trained with Augmented Interspecies Communication (AIC) devices, consisting of soundboard panels with buttons that can be pressed to produce pre-recorded human words or phrases,” the study summary explains.
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Next, the research team analyzed data from 152 dogs over 21 months using soundboards. The data includes over 260,000 “button presses,” of which 195,000 were made by the dogs themselves.
The data were collected through the FluentPet app, where the dogs’ button presses were recorded by their owners in real-time. The research team focused on dogs that had at least 200 recorded interactions via the app.
The dog owners decided the layout of the soundboard and which of the 68 available words would be used. The words included in the study were grouped into categories for data collection. For example, the words “kibble,” “dinner,” and “food” were all grouped in the “food” category.
After analyzing the data, the research team reached some fascinating conclusions. For example, they found that the dogs involved in the study used the buttons intentionally and accurately used combinations of two buttons to communicate their needs.
“This is the first scientific study to examine how dogs actually use soundboards,” said Federico Rossano, senior researcher, associate professor of cognitive science at UC San Diego, and director of the Comparative Cognition Lab.
“The findings reveal that dogs are pressing buttons intentionally to express their desires and needs, not just imitating their owners. When dogs combine two buttons, these sequences are not random but seem to reflect specific requests.”
The study also highlighted that there was only a minimal correlation between the buttons dogs pressed and those their human parents used. For example, humans pressed the “I love you” button more frequently than their pets, suggesting that the dogs were not just copying their owners.
The team hopes to expand these findings to learn more about how dogs communicate. Future investigations will include whether dogs can use button combinations to share their thoughts when specific words are not available or use the buttons to refer to the past or future.
Photo and video: Unsplash. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
