#dog buttons

[darkwood-sleddog]

If dog buttons have one hater I am that very hater.

Communicating “in the same language for the first time” through dog buttons as Christina Hunger describes in her book is a failure of the most human proportion, putting too much value on the human (English) spoken word and ignoring that every detail, movement, twitch of our dogs is an act of communication itself. They are already communicating with us, just as human and primitive dog first did thousands of years ago. Just how we have shaped each other’s evolution by our very relationship. The dog understands you without buttons. If you can’t understand a dog without buttons, or “speak the same language” without human spoken language that is your HUMAN failure.

[blueboyluca]

So to summarise my experience of reading How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger: if it’s not clear, I hated this book. It’s trash. It belongs on the dog edition of If Books Could Kill. There is nothing of substance in it, nothing of value. My major issues with dog buttons remain the same and are now in fact more pronounced. Those issues are:

Dog buttons replace existing communication dogs use with human-centric communication, which only devalues humans learning real dog behaviour

All dog use of buttons is assumed deliberate and meaningful

All dog use of buttons is explained away with creative storytelling

Supporters of dog buttons rely heavily on harmful anthropomorphism

The novelty of dog buttons is considered more important than existing research of dog behaviour and practice of dog training

People like Hunger are either lying to themselves or lying to everybody else and it doesn’t really matter which because functionally the result is the same

I went on the Hunger for Words Instagram page to see what they are up to today. I recognise that Stella seems to use her buttons in a way that suggests familiarity with them, but that doesn’t equate to language use. She also still displays calming signals like yawning, stretching, flat ears, pacing and looking away while using her buttons.

The videos are all short and without much context within the footage. The captions are complete storytelling. There is no way to know that what is happening in the video is valuable because it’s surrounded by unverifiable storytelling and commentary from Hunger.

The Instagram also features videos from other laypeople who think their dogs can talk. One recent video shows a golden retriever repeatedly pressing a button that says "car". The owner attributes this behaviour to the dog "throwing a tantrum about the car". In another featured video, a Pekingese mix presses "chew" then "come" and then puts his lifted paw down on "get it" which is also taken as deliberate communication.

One of Hunger’s tips in the book is to wait for your dog to respond after you have talked to them. Think about how this looks from the dog’s perspective. You have stopped talking, you are making eye contact, you are waiting expectantly. What do dogs normally do when confronted with this kind of body language? They throw out appeasement signals and they offer behaviours that might lead to reinforcement. This is what is recommended as language breakthrough, and that any button pressing that may result from it is deliberate linguistic communication and not instead meaningful communication about the dog’s emotional state and response to your own body language.

My emotional state after finishing this book? Exasperated and sad. The most important thing you can take away from this story is that your dog is always communicating with you, and you don’t need a plastic button to learn what they are saying.

[release-the-hound]

Just a heads up if I see any of you being ableist during dog-button-discourse I'm instant-blocking and also Whim and Biscuit will both hate you.

Dog trainers have a really nasty habit of dehumanizing disabled people. Disabled people are human beings with human needs who deserve to be treated with dignity and respect. The way a nonverbal person communicates is worthy of respect.

I'm going to be crystal fucking clear about this: equating disabled people to dogs is ableist and dehumanizing. Disabled human beings are not dogs. Nonverbal human beings are not dogs. Do not use disabled people in your dog training metaphors, do not use them to justify your dog training decisions.

[hashtag-xolo]

Dog buttons upholding Proper Verbal Communication as the one and only true valid form of communication with humans is the bane of my autistic, poor auditory processing, tonally flat, occasionally nonverbal existence. And as the parent of an ADHD kid whose primary mode of communication is not spoken words.

If my fiance can tell I'm happy because I'm flapping my hands, and I can tell what my kid is saying with a gesture and squeak, then you too can learn that your dog staring deep into your eyes and then walking towards something is clear communication of "I want a thing"

[nostimroads]

X-X-X    X-X-X     X-X-X

“Hmm, it seems you like to play with fire. Let me light up your fingers then!" Blaze the cat stimboard

[oatmilk-vampire]

Today i got my dog those buttons you record with words or simple phrases so they can communicate differently with you and I was upset because a phone call went very bad and i was on the verge of crying

anyway my dog walked into my room, pressed the "I love you!" button, then laid down beside me.

I'm not crying, you are.

[juniperinautumn]

never gonna beat the puppygirl allegations if i keep acting like bunny the dog whenever i go nonverbal

[doggozila]

(via CAN DOGS COMMUNICATE USING BUTTONS? TALKING DOGS - DOGGOZILA)

[mochathesamoyed]

Push To Talk - No one could have ever anticipated a cursing dog!

www.mochathesamoyed.com

www.patreon.com/mochathesamoyed

[darkwood-sleddog]

Sorry y’all the entire Clever Hans wiki article should be basic required reading at this point.

The “Clever Hans” effect, also understood as animals performing tasks because their handler/owner subtly and often unknowingly cues them that they’ll get a positive response is well documented. Hell, it’s been observed in drug sniffing dogs where the dogs will give false positives based on the dog’s observance of the handler’s body language. Scientifically that’s very interesting.

Dogs using buttons are not “speaking” they are using what they know will get them a desired response. Dogs do speak, to us and each other, in their own form of communication (body language mostly). We as humans are adept at being able to learn to read this just as dogs can read OUR body language (body language we often don’t know we are communicating btw). That’s neat as heck.

[blueboyluca]

Because I want to be a committed hater, I am reading How Stella Learned to Talk by Christina Hunger. She opened with a prologue that outright stated her dog can talk. Sure.

I know that I am probably annoying at this point and it's hard to not be biased now that I've reached this hater position, but here are my thoughts so far from reading the first six chapters.

The first chapter was a story about how she did not work out what a child patient of hers was trying to communicate for six weeks until she came upon the object he was referring to by chance. She frames this as an amazing breakthrough and example of this child's ability, which it is, but it's also an example of her struggling for six weeks to understand something that, by the sounds of it, could have been worked out faster if she had enquired further than she did about the child's previous history in the therapy office. By putting this story in chapter 1, it's also telling us a lot about how she already views communication and her work. The framing of this narrative is to set up the idea that disabled children (and, later, dogs) are trying to talk to us if we just listen hard enough – and also ensure they are communicating specifically through an AAC device using words we accept and understand. Feels weird.

The second chapter was about two doodles she dogsat who used a bell to communicate, and how it seemed sad to her that she could not understand their vocalisations.

Ringing their bell was just supposed to mean they wanted to go outside, but I started noticing that Ozzie seemed to ring it for all his needs. I wondered if he used the bell for everything because that was his only option.

I found this passage frustrating. It seems to me that the dog is using the bell because any other communication is ignored. The dog is likely communicating different things in different ways, but the humans have been told to pay attention to the bell. So the dog adapted. This is an example of humans being poor listeners, not dogs being limited communicators.

Chapter 3 was a story about how she applied for a dog at a shelter, was denied, then immediately – as in, same day – bought a puppy from Craigslist. Only to find that night she had been approved at the shelter after all. To me, this did not read as an endearing story but an exasperating one.

In chapter 4 Hunger demonstrates that she was incredibly observant of Stella and her broad range of communication abilities. Hunger seems surprised that everything Stella did was surrounded by communication with humans. This is not some breakthrough, but I can appreciate the feeling of deeper understanding of dogs once you have a dog as an adult. She then does some minor research on dogs and communication but from her description she doesn't get very far. I don't think this is a good sign.

In chapters 5 and 6, Hunger describes the process of conditioning Stella to three buttons: outside, play and water. What frustrates me is that she describes so much communication that Stella is doing.

It amazed me how intentional her communication was, even from this starting point. She did not push a button and walk away. She expressed her desire to go outside first through her bark, eye contact, and pacing next to the button. Then she advanced from using gestures to a word right in front of my eyes.

This is empathically not Stella "using a word" in the way Hunger means. This is a very basic example of the ABC model. All of Stella's behaviours as well as Hunger's button-pushing are the antecedent, Hunger opening the door is the behaviour, and the consequence is that Stella goes outside. This is excellent communication, but it's not evidence of a dog "speaking".

And how is this not enough already? Why do you need the dog to also press the button? Stella knows what outside means. Her also pressing the button does not change the functionality of the word "outside" to either her or Hunger.

Maybe this is why there was no research on dogs using AAC. Maybe the similarities between dogs’ and humans’ language capabilities stop here, at understanding words and communicating concepts with gestures.

I'm not suggesting that doing further research isn't worthwhile, but the entire premise here from Hunger is flawed in my opinion. She is coming to this only from a speech therapy angle. That is, speech therapy for humans. There seems to be no real consideration for the dog's biological reality. The focus is entirely human-centric. We use words, so getting the dog to use words feels natural. But why should it be?

After weeks spent talking to Stella, modeling words, and observing her communication patterns, that night, for the first time, she and I spoke the same language.

This drives me up the wall. Hunger and Stella have actually already been speaking the same language and that is a human–dog language that has been developed over the last ~30 000 years. This is a result of the co-evolution of our species! To suggest that none of that is as important as the dog learning to use a button that says a human word is honestly maddening to me.

I knew in my heart and in my head that I was witnessing something fascinating with Stella. If anything, my coworkers’ confusion showed me how far our field still needed to come. I hoped someday I could be part of a movement toward more understanding and acceptance of AAC for all who need it, even dogs.

The gall to write something like this but to have shown very little inclination to do any kind of real immersion in research of dog behaviour or body language. To have shown no interest in existing dog training and dog communication. To frame everything through the human-centric lens of speech therapy. To back up statements only with references to child development research. This is like the ultimate example of anthropomorphism.

AAC is for people with impairments related to spoken and written language. It is for humans to help other humans communicate in a species-appropriate way, to bridge connections where connection may have been lost. Dogs, actually, don't need AAC. They need humans to make more of an effort to meet them halfway and pay attention to the huge amounts of communication they already do.

[wolfpai999]

Circus balloon dogs!! 🎪🎈

I wanna make these into stickers and maybe buttons c:

Would anyone want to take em home?

[rockythebullterrier]

Fluentpet launches app-integrated talking button system for pet communication

Fluentpet launches app-integrated talking button system for pet communication

We all wish we can talk to our animals. Now, Fluentpet, a US-based company that built recordable talking buttons that let your pets communicate with you, announced that it has launched a new connected system that tracks every button press and allows dogs and cats to ‘text’ their humans. The new system aims to deepen the connection between people and their dogs and cats. “For centuries, we’ve…

[hugsohugs]

last night i dreamt i was playing a bizarre bootleg first person pikmin game and at one point i threw 3 pikmin at an enemy simultaneously and somehow accidentally merged them into a hot pink Gun Pikmin that i could pick up and fire. it looked something like this

[galoogamelady]

Is buttons (fallout) allowed to be happy for more than 15 minutes at a time or is he the punching bag? He just radiates this pitiful vibe. I want to give him an ice pack and a little box of cereal to nibble on.

Meg makes him happier than anything or anyone in the Vault.

It's possible he would have crawled back in there to have a miserable rest of his life if it wasn't for his newfound freedom in the wasteland and the meaningful relationships he made along he way.

[tourettesdog]

Today I read the insane phrase "DPxDC fanon" and I just want to gently remind yall that there is No Such Thing as "DPxDC canon" 😂

If anyone is feeling nervous about writing for the crossover-- or any fandom-- because you're worried about "doing it wrong", just remember that fandom is meant to be fun, and that if people want to see characters written a certain way they can pull up their writing program and do it themselves. 💜