Videos of dogs pressing buttons on a soundboard to “talk” to their owners have been going viral for a while now, but questions remain about whether dogs actually communicate with their owners or are simply responding to cues. A new study confirms that man's best friend may be smarter than we thought.
In the published research; A Public Library of Science The journal details what scientists found when they studied the phenomenon. The small study consisted of two parts. In the first part, researchers visited the homes of 30 dogs and tested their responses to soundboard buttons, while the second part involved citizen science or 29 dog owners conducting the experiments themselves at home with guidance from the team.
Scientists found that dogs trained to use these soundboards responded correctly to words like “play” and “outside,” whether the words were spoken out loud by their owners or reproduced by pressing a button on the soundboard. This means that the dogs were actually processing the words they were hearing, rather than trying to understand their owners' body language or presence.
“Our study shows that dogs were more likely to exhibit play-related behaviors after an experimenter or owner produced a play-related word, and were more likely to exhibit outdoor-related behaviors when an experimenter or owner produced an outdoor-related word. This suggests that dogs are at least capable of learning an association between these words or buttons and their consequences in the world,” the authors wrote in the study.
While TikTok videos appear to show that dogs are smart enough to use these soundboards properly, this is the first scientific study of its kind to support these claims. “Our findings provide the first evidence that dogs using owner-trained soundboards understand the button word, and show that dogs’ contextually appropriate responses to button presses are similar regardless of the identity of the person using the soundboard and the absence of other environmental cues related to the word,” the team said.
Study co-author Federico Rossano explained why the study is so important in the big picture. “This study addresses the public's skepticism about whether dogs really understand what the buttons mean,” Rossano said. Physical“Our findings are important because they show that words are important to dogs and that dogs respond to the words themselves, not just the associated cues.”
Still, more research needs to be done to learn more about dogs' complex cognitive abilities and how well they can understand and respond to human speech.
“We’re just scratching the surface in this study,” Rossano said. “Future studies [should] “Explore how dogs actively use these buttons, including the meaning and systematicity behind their button-press sequences. Our research highlights the importance of studying animals in their home environments, providing a more ecologically valid understanding of their abilities.”
You wouldn't be wrong if you thought your dog was a genius who understood you.