Rover, watch your mouth!
This is Sandra Tsing Loh with the Loh Down on Science.
The University of San Diego has been teaching dogs to talk!… by pressing soundboard buttons. Each button plays a different word. Some dogs have constructed fully coherent phrases. But are they just following their owner’s cues?
Amalia Bastos and team investigated.
The researchers pressed the buttons in front of the dogs. The dogs’ reactions were then recorded. And? It didn’t matter who interacted with the buttons. Most dogs responded as though they understood the word.
This suggests that these dogs understand language better than we thought!
Can Rover speak? Eh, his bark is worse than his button.
Reference: Bastos APM, Evenson A, Wood PM, Houghton ZN, Naranjo L, Smith GE, et al. (2024) How do soundboard-trained dogs respond to human button presses? An investigation into word comprehension. PLoS ONE 19(8): e0307189. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0307189