Is it BS? Can dogs ‘talk’ with speech buttons?

I...Am..Skeptical...Eat..Play...Double Blind...Squirrel

Science journalist’s Sadie Dingfelder’s writing has appeared in National Geographic, the Washington Post, and Washingtonian magazine. She is the author of Do I Know You? A Faceblind Reporter's Journey Into the Science of Sight, Memory, and Imagination. You can hear this very discussion on The Gist to discuss science-based claims in the recurring segment “Is That Bullshit”.

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My TikTok feed is 80% cute animals, and 20% cute nerds explaining things. On the animal side, one critter keeps popping up: a doodle named Bunny, who “talks” to her owner, a woman named Alexis, via speech buttons.

Bunny, Sheepadoodle, Pusher of Buttons

It’s undeniably adorable, but I’m skeptical. The long pauses between button presses, the oddly timed “I love you’s”... it reminds me of Clever Hans, the famous horse who wasn’t doing math—just picking up on his trainer’s unconscious cues. I often feel like Bunny’s just pawing around randomly while Alexis fills in the blanks, a proud dog mom doing Mad Libs.

However, occasionally, they have an interaction that has me wondering, could this be real communication? Federico Rossano at UCSD wanted to find out. So he rolled up his sleeves (and probably lint-rolled off some fur) to do some actual science.

In one study, researchers ruled out the Clever Hans effect by visiting the homes of 30 dog owners, and pressing covered buttons while wearing noise-canceling headphones. When they hit “outside” or “play,” the dogs often responded appropriately—grabbing a toy or bounding to the door. But “food”? That one didn’t fetch a consistent reaction. Maybe because "food" is an ambient state of mind for most dogs.

In another study, Rossano and his colleagues recruited 152 people with dogs that were already using speech button boards. The humans in the study reported every time their dogs pressed a button via a custom phone app — capturing a total of 194,901 soundboard-dog interactions over the course of 21 months.

The verdict? Most dogs weren’t just mashing buttons willy-nilly. And they weren’t copying their owners, either. Indeed, the majority of the dogs were pressing buttons with purpose. The crowd favorites included “Go outside,” “treat,” and “food” — basically, the holy trinity of dog life.

Interestingly, the researchers captured many incidents of dogs initiating communication by pressing the buttons, so they seem to be finding them useful.

It’s worth noting that dogs are already masters of cross-species communication. They follow our points, yawn when we yawn, and evolved eyebrow muscles just to tug at our heartstrings. But our interpretations are often more about us than them. That soulful “I’m sorry” stare? Just a canine trying not to get in trouble.

Future studies will dig deeper — looking at whether emotion-button presses map to physiological states, and if dogs can invent novel button combos to describe things in their environment — for instance “squeaky” and “car” for ambulance. Until then, we’re somewhere between “fetch” and “leave it” on the question of whether dogs are truly talking.

But one thing’s clear: they’ve got us well trained.