Dogs Are Able to Combine Words Using Speech Buttons, New Study Finds

By now, most of us have seen videos of pups pressing on buttons to communicate in English, whether they’re stomping on “out” to request a walk or, in the case of the famous Bunny, communicating their deepest emotions or making small talk about the weather.

If social media comments are any indication, most people are delighted to see the “speech buttons” — buttons pre-programmed to announce words aloud when pressed — in use, but some are a little more suspicious, chalking the behavior up to chance or prompting. Now, there’s some compelling news for skeptics: A new study published in Scientific Reports found that dogs can combine words using speech buttons in ways that surpass imitation or random chance.

Over the course of 21 months, researchers collected data from the FluentPet mobile app, where pet parents logged their pets’ button use, as well as their own button use. In the end, researchers analyzed 194,901 soundboard interactions by 152 dogs. Nearly thirty percent of the soundboard interactions — 56,676 presses — were multi-button combinations.

Using statistical analysis, they found that combinations pressed by dogs were not random, and certain combinations happened more often than expected by chance; for example, words like “outside” and “potty,” as well as “food” and “water,” were frequently combined, reported Phys.org. “Our results suggest that owner-trained dogs can press buttons on their soundboards in a non-accidental and non-random fashion,” Amalia P. M. Bastos, the study’s lead author, wrote.

They also found that dogs were not simply imitating their humans’ behavior when they pressed buttons, because many of the most commonly pressed buttons by humans different from the most commonly pressed buttons by dogs. “We found that there was only a minimal association between the identity of individual buttons pressed by dogs and the buttons pressed by their owner,” the study’s lead author Bastos wrote.

It’s still unclear exactly how far dogs’ understanding of speech buttons goes — and how many dogs truly have a talent for language. Some so-called Gifted Word Learner dogs can learn dozens of words, while others have more limited vocabularies. Researchers point out that there is variation between the study subjects, with some pups being more consistent with combinations, while others approach randomness. So, while there’s evidence that dogs can intentionally combine words, that might not mean that any pup is the next Shakespeare.

Regardless, Federico Rossano, a senior researcher on the paper, is excited about what the results say about the potential of dogs to communicate with humans. “Soundboards could allow for more precise communication,” Rossano told Phys.org. “Instead of barking or scratching at the door, a dog may be able to tell you exactly what it wants, even combining concepts like ‘outside’ and ‘park’ or ‘beach.’ This could improve companionship and strengthen the bond between dogs and their owners.”