What Cookie Says
My dog, like thousands of others, communicates in English by pressing buttons.
Disclaimer. This post is not a scientific text, an argument, an attempt at convince you about anything. If you are a member of the anti-button brigade, who believe that expanded communication options is dog abuse, this post will only make you angry. Hopefully you find someone who cares. This post is for the people who have been following Cookie, my dog, through my disjointed twitter posts and occasional instagram videos. It will not be a how-to about training your own pet — for that you can refer to the numerous online resources, and especially the FluentPet community. I am not affiliated to the brand, but by listening to their users and organising connections, they have fostered a vibrant community of users of buttons of all types.
How many words does Cookie know?
We started with two buttons: Ball, and Tug. Now Cookie has more than 70 buttons on his soundboard. He does not use them all (“Cheese” is a favorite, “Cold” is barely touched), and might not understand all of them (I don’t think he completely understands how to use “Where”, even if he uses it a lot). He understands many more words that are not on the board (orders, like “Sit”, “Bow”, “Wait”, “Stay”; but also words I just use a lot when talking to him, like “You”, “Fruit”, “Shower”…). Each button is expensive and takes space, and some just would not get a lot of use (“Flower”). He also makes his own word combos for concepts that are important to him (“Water Snack” = fruit, “Chew Ice” = frozen jelly, “Ball Water” = rain…).
What does Cookie say?
Cookie mostly asks for things. In single-word utterances, he asks to go in the garden, or in the front yard. He asks to go upstairs. He asks to go look at the window, to see the neighbor, to see his favorite petsitter. Then there are, of course, the full sentences. Often he does not need to, but he likes to make sentences. “Go Outside”. “Want Cheese”. “Cookie Want Cheese”. “Lana, Cookie Want Cheese.” And then there are all the things I don’t understand, or understand days or months after he has said them. He might combine two words, and seeing that I don’t understand, add more and more words for ‘context’ until I am even more lost. He might repeat it, in the same order, obstinately, for days, until I figure it out. When he was little, I could just dismiss it as “random”, or “button mashing”. But as he grew up and became more deliberate, it became clear that even the random stuff had meaning to him. Sometimes I just don’t get it.
He does not only ask. Sometimes, he just describes things. The talking pets community calls it “narrating”. He farts, sniffs his butt, and says “Butt.” He says “Toy”, and goes bite his toy. He had a weatherman period, where he would talk all day about how sunny it is, or how cold, or rainy. Nowadays he mostly says “Rain” a day or so before it actually rains. I have learned to stop saying “It’s not raining right now, Cookie”.
What does Cookie NOT say?
From the point of view of a human, it’s difficult to understand what is hard or easy for a dog. Cookie understood the “Tomorrow” button as soon as I added it. But, unlike some other dogs, he still cannot answer “What is this?” when I show him an object. I might grab a ball and ask “What is this?”, and he’ll give some random answer. He also cannot be ordered to say something. I might go, “Say ‘Outside’”, and he presses a random button at the other end of the board. Initially, it made me doubt the entire thing. If he can’t pass such a simple test, surely it means he does not understand anything, any of the basic concepts, and certainly not stuff like “Happy” or “Tomorrow”? And yet, out of 70 buttons, when he is not being quizzed Cookie will choose those that make sense in context. He might say “Outside”. I say no. He says “Garden”. I say no. He says “Go Garden”. I say no. He says “Poop Outside”. I say oh, let him in the garden, and he does his business. Or, I try to use his board, mutter “where is the ‘eat’ button…” and he goes to press the Eat button. Or, we hear some construction work in front of the house, and he asks “What Human Outside?” Why not some random combo, like “Box Water Go”, or “Belly Play Sunny”, or another of the 343,000 possible 3-word combination? Most of the time, there is a very simple and direct correlation between what he says, and what is going on. So what is the difference between him looking at his ball, saying “Ball”, then going to bite the ball, and me asking “What is this” while holding the ball, and him being unable to answer? Or me asking “Do you like these flowers?” then him saying “Like”, and me saying “Say ‘Like’”, and him being unable to answer? I have no idea. I have tried actively training him to say “Ball” when I show the ball, and “Cheese” when I show the cheese. For months I have pointed directly at the correct button, and gave him a treat for pressing it. He still refuses to answer correctly. Some people think the buttons are some kind of Clever Hans effect, sublte reading of clues to press the right button. My dog refuses to read the “My finger is litteraly on the button” cue. He will decide that wet food is called “Chew Snack” and absolutely refuse to repeat after me when I tell him it’s just dog food. “Because, Chew Snack!!” he explains. It’s chewy and watery, and similarly a fruit is not a snack but a water snack. He refuses my cues, but he talks to me when I am in another room with the door closed. I am sure Clever Hans would have been a more docile pupil.
Was it hard to teach him to use the buttons?
Not really. I got interested in the buttons after seeing a 10 years old cat on youtube learn seamlessly to communicate her cat feelings, like “Mad”, “Mad”, and “Mad”. (Thank you Billi, you are the best). There are many rules floating around about how to properly teach button use. I initally followed two of them: do not offer food as a ‘reward’ for pressing the buttons, in case in the excitement all buttons become synonym for food (so, do not have a Food button as your first button either); start with few buttons. I ignored a big one: modeling. Modeling is what the community calls using the buttons yourself, as a human. The more you use the buttons, the more they get interested in it, and since many pets enjoy imitating their humans, they end up pushing buttons as well. You might push the “Outside” button every time you open the door, to create an association in your learner’s mind. It is said to be especially important when adding a new button, so that the meaning of it sticks.
I do not model a lot. I don’t remember where the buttons are. I don’t want to get off the sofa every time I talk to my dog, because I am lazy. It does not seem to bother Cookie too much. When I add a new button, I show it to him, I press it and demonstrate the meaning, or if it is an abstract concept, I use it in a sentence. For the rest, he has to figure it out by himself, from my reaction when he uses it (Cookie: “Where”; Lana: “Where what?”). It is usually a word he has heard me use before, so he might have an idea of where it goes in a sentence. Or he might use it wrong (“Where Outside”), and I’ll tell him I don’t know what he is saying. I might propose alternative sentences (“Go Outside?” “Who is outside?” “Where is the ball? The ball is outside”). We interact a lot, and he seems to be pretty good at guessing games. All that being said, he does seem to use the buttons more when I make the effort to use them as well.
We did hit a roadbump, at the time when all puppies turn into moody strangers who are afraid of everything. Dog teenage crisis hit us when Cookie was 6 months. Among way more upsetting changes like developping reactivity, he decided he hated buttons so I removed his sound board. After some time, he emerged from teenagehood with his adult personality, more reliable but also less forgiving. We went back from ~30 buttons to 2 and started over. I was just happy to be over the Sulking Six (dogs’ terrible two)!
Do dogs have a grammar?
My dog does. And he likes to show it off. A year ago, he would start all of his sentences with my name, or his, or both; add a verb, then an object. Why say “Dog food” when you could walk all around the soundboard to say “Lana, Cookie Want Dog food”? Nowadays he mostly skips the subject, except for emphasis, but he still likes to have a verb and an object, in that order. Sometimes he’ll throw in a adjective before a noun. But he does not say “Outside Go”, or “Snack Small”. It’s always “Go Outside”, “Small Snack”. It could be due to the location of the buttons on the board rather than a sense of grammar, but in daily life, Cookie is generally VERY rule-oriented. He is extremely conservative. Anything unusual makes him angry, annoyed, or sad. Someone is walking with a round bag instead of square? He stares. Grandma is walking backwards to exercise her knees? He cries. People are sitting in the grass where there is normally no one? He barks. He is very curious and very judgemental, and grammar makes him feel righteous. Sometimes, I get to correct his grammar.
What is the funniest thing Cookie has said?
He often makes me laugh, and I think he has his own sense of humor. Sometimes I ask him, “Oh, you made a joke?” and he’ll wag and laugh his dog laugh, silent and breathy, mouth open and squinted eyes. But that’s mostly practical jokes, like pretending to do something and doing something else, or hiding something forbidden in his mouth and staring at me until I react. But most of the time, he is serious with his words, even if I find him funny. The funniest thing he has said might be this weird accusation, where he told me he was mad that I ate his toy (I did not eat his toy).
What is the cutest thing Cookie has said?
I like when he calls himself a “Good boy”. And I enjoyed when he told me he liked the flowers I got him. But my favorite videos might be this one, where he says he is “Happy” while playing by himself, and this very old one, where he wasn’t quite as serious with his words, and seemingly made a little song.
