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Meet the dog who can really TALK and tell mom ‘love you’ thanks to his sound board
AN ADORABLE pup learned how to tell his parents when he wants to go out, get scratched and even that he loves them using a dog-friendly soundboard.
The dog, a nearly one-year-old sheepadoodle named Bunny, lives in Tacoma, Washington with his owner Alexis Devine.
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He was introduced to a special soundboard just a few weeks after he was born, when he first moved into the Devine home in September 2019, .
Bunny's soundboard currently has 45 words on it, and a sweet video shared to TikTok shows the pup using it to tell Devine, "Love you, mom."
The video also shows the pup asking for "happy stritches" - a little scratch on his head.
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Devine said that the first command Bunny learned was "outside" when he needed to make a potty trip. Now he appears to know several other commands.
Devine said she was inspired to try out the soundboard with Bunny after seeing other dog owners use the training method online.
She decided to try the method with Bunny after seeing videos of speech language pathologist Christina Hunger have success using the communication technique with her dog, Stella.
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Devine's soundboard technique gradually developed to be more advanced.
"The first soundboard that we used was one that I had made after following Christina's guidance on her blog," she said. "We used that for several months before I connected with Leo Trottier, who is a cognitive scientist."
"He was looking for beta testers of a new device and that is the board we are currently using with Bunny."
In another video , Devine acknowledged that it's difficult to say for sure if Bunny actually knows what she is communicating.
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"I am not a scientist but I recognize that large amounts of data need to be collected before we can make a judgment as to whether or not Bunny actually understands what she's saying," she said.
"I'm also aware that I inevitably skew the data in favor of saying that Bunny is consciously communicating with me."
Either way, she said, it's a fun and exciting experiment to try out with the beloved family pup.
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