If Your Dog Could Talk, What Would They Say? We Now Have Some Insight Into That

What do you think of first when you imagine talking animals? Is it Dug, the enthusiastic and loving golden retriever from Pixar’s Up? Babe the pig? Or maybe your memories date back to the witty and sardonic Mr. Ed.

You might not imagine your own pet as a talking animal. But if you deploy a bit of patience and today’s technology tools, you can accomplish exactly that. FluentPet is one of several manufacturers that creates recordable sound buttons that allow your pet to communicate with you in English (or whatever language you choose). The company recently completed a study involving more than 2,000 dogs and cats to determine the most common first words, unique speech patterns, and other insights that may help us learn more about how cats and dogs think.

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The Difference Between Dogs and Cats

The FluentPet team analyzed more than 50 million button presses to reveal patterns. It probably won’t surprise pet owners, but dogs and cats have different priorities.

For dogs, the most common first word button was “outside.” Cats, on the other hand, prioritized “treat.”

Other top words for dogs, in order, included:

• Play
• Treat
• Potty
• Food

Top words for cats were:

• Play
• Food
• Scritches/scratches
• Cuddle

While human babies often learn the words “Mama” or “Dada” first, these were within the first three words for only 5% of pets.

Surprising Insights

While cats are typically viewed as more standoffish than dogs, their emphasis on scratches and “cuddle” seems to indication they want affection even more than their canine counterparts do.

The study also revealed that pets seem to combine words in specific order, which could hint at grammatical structure. For example, animals tend to put a name or identifier (“Mom” or “Dad”) before a command, request, or statement. While a human might say, “Love you, Mom,” a pet is more inclined to reverse that order.  And when the pet is incorporating a time into a request, they tend to put the time (now or later) after the request. Nearly two-thirds (64%) of pets say, “Food, now,” or “Outside, now,” rather than the reverse.

“It’s tempting to project human grammar onto these button presses,” said FluentPet CEO and founder Leo Trottier in an article about the study.  “But the fact that we see such consistent patterns across thousands of learners shows this isn’t just random behavior. We are finally able to explore the neglected questions of how animals think, reason, and string concepts together.”

Find Out What Your Pet Wants

Once your pet becomes comfortable with using speech buttons to communicate, it can help solve the mysterious question of “What does my pet want right now?” Speech buttons can also help pets convey discomfort, alarm, or happiness.

Alexis Devine taught her sheepadoodle mix, Bunny, how to communicate using some of the first FluentPet buttons created. “Being able to understand the things that she’s thinking about that she couldn’t express using body language, alone, is a huge benefit to our relationship,” she said.

For instance, Bunny might tell Devine there’s a bird outside. “Then I can watch it with her, which brings her comfort.”

In addition to finding out immediately what your pet is barking (or meowing) at, pet buttons can take away some of the guesswork of whether your pet wants to go outside, play, or sit on the couch and cuddle.

Getting Started

Devine recommended starting with one to three buttons easily actionable buttons. Devine started with an “outside” button and began using it the day she brought Bunny home at eight weeks old.

“I would push the button and say the word every time we were going outside. There was no expectation of her pressing it herself,” Devine recalled.

One day, when Devine was watching Bunny from the kitchen table, the puppy pressed the button on her own. Devine immediately took her outside.

“It was sort of ‘game on’ after that,” Devine said. “She knew that by pressing a button, she could control an outcome.”

Today, Devine teaches pet parents to begin with buttons that communicate easier to accommodate commands, such as “snack,” “play,” or “scritches.” You can’t always let your animal outside, but it only takes a few seconds to offer a small snack, give them a favorite toy to play with on their own, or pet them.

Teaching Emotion Words

It’s equally possible to teach pets how to convey emotion using the buttons, Devine said. Studies show that pets can pick up our emotions based not just on body language and facial expressions, but also by the chemical changes in our body, which they detect as different scents. Pet owners can use the buttons to put words to the body language and smells their pets are picking up on.

“Any time I was feeling an emotion, whether it was love or happy or concern, I would say the word, model the word, and pair it with my name,” Devine explained.

Likewise, if Bunny looked happy, with wide eyes and a wagging tail, Devine would use the button to put a name to that mood.

The Surprising Benefits of Speech Buttons

Devine has multiple speech buttons and multiple pets in her home. They’ve all learned to communicate using the buttons to some degree. But that wasn’t Devine’s initial goal.

“My goal was just to have the most connected relationship possible and the best communication possible,” she said. “We talk about the buttons being a tool to give our animal companions choice, agency, and control. But I think the real magic of the buttons is in how they change the way we listen.”

During the learning process, Devine explained, you’ll need to be especially tuned into what’s most important to your pet. What’s their favorite toy? What’s their favorite snack?

“In order for our animal companions to be motivated to use the buttons, we have to give them words that are really salient to their experience and highly motivating. It teaches us to listen in a really beautiful way,” she said.