Can Dogs Talk Using Buttons?

[DaveC426913]

Yeah I’ve seen that documentary style stuff, it’s interesting but I’m still a bit skeptical about how much “language” is actually going on with the button boards.


Dogs definitely can associate sounds with outcomes (like “outside” = door opens), but that’s not quite the same as understanding grammar or forming structured communication the way humans do. A lot of what you see in those datasets could just be strong conditioning plus pattern matching from the owners rather than actual symbolic language use.

I suspect we all agree with this.

The controversial parts come when some people think they are managing to adapt their learned use of the buttons to new circumstances. eg. making up a new combination (like "RED BANANA" to mean "SAUSAGE" *not a real example, I just made it up)

I am highly skeptical of this level of intelligence.