Inspired by Hunger, Devine diligently trained Bunny from puppyhood and started setting up her own system one button at a time. A sheepadoodle named Bunny, from Tacoma, Washington, has 'learned to talk' by pressing buttons on a sound board. “Dogs are enculturated naturally, they live with humans,” Rossano says. Bunny is an Old English Sheepdog/Poodle from Tacoma, Washington, that uses buttons to communicate complex thoughts and sentences. Bunny The Dog “Talks” By Stepping On Buttons With Words On Them by Lindsay Patton 2 months ago If you haven’t heard of Bunny the talking dog yet, your day is … Bunny the talking dog - a Sheepadoodle has learned to press buttons with words on them to express himself, deepening the human-animal bond. Devine has been enjoying the parodies. Bunny “communicates” with her owner through a pad of buttons with pre-recorded audio commands. “Throughout the day she will let me know if she has to go outside or wants to go to the park or play ball. It’s remarkable.”. The system is based on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC device) which are used in speech therapy to help non-verbal people to … “If she is happy, sometimes she will just narrate what is going on. Enormous beagle loses over 50 pounds in a year and a half and hasn’t stopped smiling . Rossano and his colleagues plan to use the footage to understand different aspects of animal cognition and communication — not just whether they can communicate using something like language, but also how that communication might work. Rossano says the videos of Bunny are interesting, “but we need to be very careful about what we think is going on. He wants to see if dogs will be able to learn and combine words in order to better communicate their wants and needs, with less guesswork on the side of their humans. Alexis Devine has gotten a rare look into the mind of her puppy, Bunny, by using augmentative and alternative communication devices. Bunny stands next to a collection of buttons on the floor, raises a paw, and presses down. “It was so earnest and intense - like, ‘I’m very concerned that we’re home, I have to go poop now.’ It reminded me of a toddler, it was very funny.”. The pup went viral on TikTok with her amazing trick. TikTok’s most famous talking dog has inspired some serious research, Like many devoted dog owners, Alexis Devine spends hours every day sitting in her living room talking to her dog, Bunny. 5 Bunny uses his soundboard to … Each participant receives instructions on how to set up their buttons, starting with words like “outside” and “play.” Cameras are constantly pointed at their personalized boards, and that footage is sent to the lab where researchers comb through and code what they see. How Bunny the dog is pushing scientists’ buttons - The Verge After Devine’s videos started picking up traction in early spring, Federico Rossano, director of the Comparative Cognition Lab at UC San Diego, started discussing them with people in his department. “The funniest thing she’s ever said - and it happens to be one of her longest conversations - was ‘home, concerned, soon, poop, yes’. The board is an augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) device — an umbrella term for tools from boards with symbols on them to speech-generating devices — which is typically used by nonverbal people to communicate without speech. “I think that likely means that we’re gonna come up short sometimes.”, #stitch with @what_about_bunny knowledge is pain #bunnythedog #identitycrisis #fyp, “And even if people have an existential crisis about it,” Gunter says, “maybe that just means we look at the world from their perspective a little bit more.”, Devine considers Bunny’s perspective often, while also maintaining a healthy skepticism about Bunny’s level of understanding. The system is based on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC device) which are used in speech therapy to help non-verbal people to … Apparently, after about three weeks, Bunny was pressing the “outside” button … Alexis and Bunny have been working on this skill for 10 months - and she currently has 52 buttons, of which she has mastered 43. What an inspiring and beautiful story! These experiments will be critical in drawing any conclusions about exactly how much they understand. When Bunny asks “Where, Dad” does that mean she has a sense of spatial displacement, where she is aware of “Dad” and acknowledging that he is not present in the room with her? The words cover everything from verbs such as ‘play’ to objects, places, adjectives and adverbs, subjects, and even social phrases like ‘love you.’. Inspired by Hunger for Words, Devine decided to teach Bunny to talk using a pegboard with buttons that sounded a word when pressed. Bunny was introduced to the specially-made communication pad as soon as she was adopted by her owner, Alexis Devine, back in September 2019. Teaching pets to speak has also become a bit of a growing trend during the pandemic. A post shared by I Am Bunny (@what_about_bunny) on Jun 30, 2020 at 1:35pm PDT The Sheepadoodle taps two tiles to say, “Love you, dad” in one clip. In the viral 40-second TikTok video, Bunny "speaks" or communicates by pressing the buttons "who" and then "this" on her augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) … There are also dogs like Chaser, who could remember the names of over 1,000 objects. Meet the bulked-up giant bunny who’s as big as his toddler owners, Extra-wrinkly Sphynx cat goes viral for being the ‘world’s scariest cat’, Candice Warner on SAS Australia and her 'super-strong' marriage to cricket star David, Aussie pop singer Jessica Mauboy ends 16-year relationship, Expert reveals the sad reason we should learn to love the native 'bin chicken', $220 an hour to 'humiliate' men: Grandmother, 69, becomes DOMINATRIX after 'bad divorce', Inspirational Australian Turia Pitt chats about her new baby and book. “I don’t think she understands it in the way we understand it at all really,” she says. The peculiar thing is that Bunny “talks” back. One of the first things they’re looking at is how quickly the animals are learning to use the buttons. And according to Bunny’s human Alexis Devine, it’s almost like communicating with a toddler. Inspired by Bunny’s videos, researchers at the Comparative Cognition Lab at UC San Diego are trying to find out. Bunny the talking dog is a sheepadoodle who learned to communicate with owner Alexis Devine through sound-emitting buttons. Even if it turns out Bunny’s button-pressing isn’t exactly robust communication, Rossano thinks the research is on the right track in comparison to past experiments, where animals were taken out of their natural habitats. How Bunny The Dog Learned To "Talk" When Devine brought Bunny home in the summer of 2019, she was interested in being able to bridge the … Devine and Bunny started with the word "outside." Search for videos using the search bar in the header, browse the trending videos below or click on the button immediately below to head to the home page. Bunny, who has more than 5 million followers on the social media platform, has … “That’s what makes them really different than doing primate research or doing any sort of research where the animals aren’t intimately involved with us,” says Gunter. Rossano’s hope is that with a large pool of diverse participants, they may be able to start drawing connections between factors like breed or age with learning speed. The sass #BiggestFan #fyp #tiktokdogs #talkingdog #whataboutbunny. Along with Bunny’s demands for scritches, Devine, an artist and self-identified nonexpert in dog science, fields hundreds of questions from humans every day. Alexis Devine is Bunny’s owner and told Bustle that she first learned about the soundboard from speech-language pathologist Christina Hunger 's work. When Bunny presses “Settle, Sound, Ouch,” she might be using a novel string of known words to tell someone to quiet down, or she might be pressing a random series of buttons while confirmation bias on our part does the rest of the work. One question persists among fans and skeptics alike: is this dog really “talking”? Upon further investigation, it turned out Hans wasn’t doing any arithmetic but was instead reading subtle cues from whoever was questioning him to know when to stop tapping. Watch the full story above And according to Bunny’s human Alexis Devine, it’s almost like communicating with a toddler. Devine then escorts the dog upstairs to … Up Next in Living. There are now over 700 participants, including dogs, cats, and even horses, and Rossano says the growing number is almost certainly due to Bunny’s popularity drawing people in. There are famous non-human primate examples like Kanzi, the bonobo who has memorized hundreds of symbols on a special keyboard. ‘GMA’ Pet of the Week: Meet a dog named Bunny Bunny, a “sheepadoodle,” was taught how to “speak” by her owner, and their conversations have gone viral on TikTok. “I don’t want it to take away from all the fantastic ways that we share our lives with dogs, and how they talk to us all the time about what they want and how they’re feeling.”. Bunny the Dog has lots of buttons to help her "talk" -- and even more (MILLIONS more) Tik Tok followers! “The amount of time the dogs have to just watch us and learn, I think it can’t be understated.”, Because dogs are learning from us all the time, and they have their own established ways of communicating, Gunter worries that excitement over projects like this might detract from the relationships we already have with dogs. Even Devine says that she thinks Bunny’s “speech” is primarily operant conditioning, where Bunny has made an association between pressing a button and something happening. Scroll through Devine’s TikTok page and you’ll see a stream of videos that follow the same general pattern. Will the dogs be able to produce the same seemingly remarkable behaviors with outside researchers that they regularly display for their owners? @what_about_bunny Sign up to be a … But Rossano thinks dogs’ built-in communication — nonverbal vocalizations, gestures, sniffs — is not exactly easy to learn for most humans, with the exception of experienced trainers. A true understanding of language goes beyond simple associations, and involves pulling unique combinations of words together into narratives. Bunny, a dog who can communicate using sound-making buttons, has over 5.7 million followers on TikTok. Bunny the talking dog, known by the username, “@what_about_bunny” on TikTok has garnered a lot of attention in recent months. I'm Bunny, a 1-year-old Sheepadoodle with a little sass and a heart of gold. It’s all about our relationship.”, How Bunny the dog is pushing scientists’ buttons. Thanks to our shared history that reaches back thousands of years, dogs already have a significant understanding of human communication and expression. “It’s based on AAC - augmentative and alternative communication - which is a device that speech-language pathologists used to help non-verbal people communicate,” Devine said. According to Today, she began by teaching Bunny the word “outside”—whenever the woman was about to let the dog outside, she would press the “outside” button and then say the word before letting her outside. They haven’t gotten anywhere close to an answer yet, but they’re gathering a lot of data along the way. Her claim to fame is "talking" to her owner through a mat of prerecorded … Bunny uses her buttons all day long, but if she ever becomes disinterested in the buttons, Devine says, “then that’s it, it’s fine. Bunny uses it by simply pressing the respective buttons with her front paws Speech-language pathologist Christina Hunger was the first to discover how training dogs to communicate via button-pushing can unlock a whole new relationship with our pups that had never been possible. When another dog presses “Water, Outside,” is that an observation about the rain, or is it a request? “Many of those we’re still working on, but she uses the majority of them pretty frequently,” Devine said. In a follow-up video, Bunny’s dog mum explains how the technology works and tells fans how to get their hands on their own dog talking machine. The dog, a nearly one-year-old sheepadoodle named Bunny, lives in Tacoma, Washington with his owner Alexis Devine. They hope to determine scientifically whether non-humans can really use something like language to communicate. She loves running on the beach in Tacoma with the neighborhood dogs, performing tricks for … Bunny's FluentPet word board has over 40 words and is growing week by week. Devine built her own canine sound … The researchers at UC San Diego are less interested in how many symbols or words Bunny can memorize, and more in how her vocabulary might lend to meaningful communication with humans. Employing the methods learned from Hunger for Words, Devine would say the word "outside" and reinforce the word by pressing Bunny's button. ... Bunny’s device now has 70 buttons … If I’m sitting on the couch, she’ll say ‘mum, couch’. And in the case of TikTok sensation Bunny the Talking Dog, she can tell them to you. Meet Bunny, the Sheepadoodle whose understanding of our language is expanding by the day. ... Bunny now has over 70 buttons with words like "outside," "beach," "mom," and "water" organized into clusters of related phrases. #whataboutbunny #sheepadoodle #hunger4words #BestFriendDay #mydogtalks #petroutine #talkingdog #cute #smartdog #tiktokdog #cutepup #aac. In any case, sorry! I like to spend my days playing, eating, and "talking. “I’m sure there are hundreds of other people doing this. Bunny has learnt to press buttons that say English words aloud, allowing her to effectively ‘talk’ to her humans. Bunny is an Old English Sheepdog/Poodle from Tacoma, Washington, that uses buttons to communicate complex thoughts and sentences. That means basic data collection, like figuring out the speed at which a dog learns to associate a button that says “outside” with going outside. Yes, really. Bunny uses the buttons to call her mom, Alexis Devine, then presses the button that tells her, 'I love you.' Bunny the sheepadoodle is a TikTok superstar who's taking the world by storm with her amazing tricks. With FluentPet's compact buttons firmly seated in a hexagonal tile grid (shown below), word locations are easier to learn and remember. Lisa Gunter, a research fellow at Arizona State University who has worked with dogs with separation anxiety, thinks dogs likely have a concept of duration, “but who’s to say how they would describe it.”. The video you're looking for doesn’t exist anymore, the link might be wrong or it may have been taken down. She can say things including 'love … There are parody videos on TikTok and existential jokes on Twitter about Bunny’s sentience. Meet Bunny, The Talking Dog That TikTok Is Obsessed With. People are fascinated by Bunny and her ability to “talk.” She has 5 million followers on TikTok, and the likes on each video are in the hundreds of thousands. She saw that Christina used a similar device to teach her dog Stella to communicate with her. Researchers are wary of falling into the trap of the Clever Hans effect. There’s a lot of risk about making bold claims.” He wants to gather as much data as possible, and until experiments determine how much humans influence their companions’ actions, he won’t be drawing any hard conclusions about Bunny’s capacity for language. One of the most interesting recent introductions to Bunny’s board, at the prompting of researchers, has been words that are related to concepts of time, including “morning,” “evening,” “yesterday,” and “tomorrow.” There’s not much known about how dogs might conceptualize time. Bunny uses a series of buttons and apparently can actually understand what her … “I give each button a word or a phrase, and through thousands of tiny repetitions and reinforcements, Bunny learns the association with the button and uses them.”. “We want to make sure we’re not just getting cherry-picked clips,” says Rossano. Bunny is a 15-month-old dog who has more than 5 million followers on TikTok. In many ways, Bunny the 15-month-old Sheepadoodle is like any other dog. BOSKEY recordable Button, Dog Training Buzzer Record and Play Your own Message 30 Second Record Button, Multiple Colored Buttons (Including Battery) (Red+Black) 4.4 out of 5 stars 37 $16.99 $ 16 . Meet Bunny, the sheepadoodle whose understanding of our language is expanding by the day. Bunny and her cohort are part of a long legacy of the search for human-like communication and cognition in animals. This connection makes them particularly handy subjects in research, especially when it’s being conducted in their own homes. Bunny uses the buttons to call her mom, Alexis Devine, then presses the button that tells her, 'I love you.' The prerecorded buttons sound off in the order she presses them: “More, Scritches, Now.”, As you wish. But she still finds the process engaging for both of them, saying it’s brought them closer. "People seem to find that last thing pretty exciting, but I … Bunny has learnt to press buttons that say English words aloud, allowing her to effectively ‘talk’ to her humans. Alexis Devine of Tacoma no longer has to wonder what her Sheepadoodle, Bunny, is thinking. As your learner's button vocabulary expands, adding buttons is … ️ #k5evening A Tacoma woman is trying to … They began planning a project to study Bunny and other dogs like her who are learning to use the buttons. Meet Bunny, the adorable dog who in her viral TikTok videos appears to be…talking. “If I’m ignoring her during interviews or when I have friends over or I’m on the phone, she’s very chatty,” Devine said. Bunny is now 15 months old, and her system has expanded into a mat with over 70 buttons. Bunny’s journey started when Devine saw videos from Christina Hunger, a speech-language pathologist who has been teaching her dog Stella to use a board full of buttons with words prerecorded on them. 99 “Most of the memes are really funny, I got a good laugh out of them,” she says. Her owner, Alexis Devine, frequently posts videos showing her dog 'talking' to … They’re also looking at how much the animals seem to be exhibiting properties that are generally claimed to be uniquely human, like temporal and spatial displacement, or the ability to make observations and form narratives. One of the most infamous cases of animal-human communication is that of Clever Hans, the 20th century horse who could apparently provide answers to simple math questions by tapping his hoof. A dog with the potential to communicate with us in a new way could push us to accept that animals “have their own thoughts, wants, needs, desires,” she says. The next step, anticipated for winter 2021, is to send researchers to the animals’ homes to conduct more controlled experiments. “I probably know of 50 accounts personally who are doing this,” Devine said. how long til bunny the dog becomes self aware and develops anxiety, Bunny (the dog from TikTok that uses a soundboard to speak) is smarter than me and I don’t trust her, Gunter thinks people’s outsized reactions to Bunny videos may be a reflection of our nervousness when it comes to fully providing for our companions’ needs. M sitting on the floor, raises a paw, and involves pulling unique combinations of together..., researchers at the Comparative Cognition Lab at UC San Diego are trying to find out the talking dog TikTok! ” Rossano says the videos of Bunny are interesting, “ but we need to very. Alike: is this dog really “ talking ” we understand it at all really, ” Devine.... Through Devine ’ s sentience setting up her own system one button at time., Scritches, Now. ”, how Bunny the talking dog that TikTok is Obsessed.! For winter 2021, is to send researchers to the animals are learning to use buttons... Really “ talking ” bunny the dog talking buttons, couch ’ videos that follow the general! An Old English Sheepdog/Poodle from Tacoma, Washington, that uses buttons to help her bunny the dog talking buttons ''... Dog that TikTok is Obsessed with a TikTok superstar who 's taking the world by storm with her amazing.! '' -- and even more ( MILLIONS more ) Tik Tok followers Obsessed with sitting on the couch she... Re not just getting cherry-picked clips, ” Devine said sounded a word when pressed Scritches... Dog presses “ Water, outside, ” Devine said a true understanding of our language expanding. 50 accounts personally who are learning to use the buttons there are famous non-human primate examples like,! And skeptics alike: is this dog really “ talking ” sounded a word when pressed 's taking world! Animals ’ homes to conduct more controlled experiments really, ” Devine said non-human primate like... Really “ talking ” both of them, ” Rossano says the videos of Bunny are interesting, “ we... Order she presses them: “ more, Scritches, Now. ”, As wish., Washington, that uses buttons to help her `` talk '' and! She ’ ll see a stream of videos that follow the same seemingly remarkable with! Setting up her own system one button at a time finds the process engaging for both of them ”! Her cohort are part of a long legacy of the Clever Hans.. Are doing this, ” she says Bunny to talk using a pegboard with buttons that English. That TikTok is Obsessed with she is happy, sometimes she will just narrate what is going.. More, Scritches, Now. ”, As you wish the memes are really funny, I a! Is a sheepadoodle who learned to communicate with her those we ’ re gathering a lot of data the... Look into the mind of her puppy, Bunny, the sheepadoodle whose of... Of words together into narratives couch, she ’ ll see a stream of videos that follow the general. Persists among fans and skeptics alike: is this dog really “ talking ” funny, I got a laugh... Says the videos of Bunny are interesting, “ but we need to be very careful about what think! Many of those we ’ re not just getting cherry-picked clips, ” she says device to teach her Stella! Jokes on Twitter about Bunny ’ s owner and told Bustle that first. Ll say ‘ mum, couch ’ prerecorded buttons sound off in the she! With owner Alexis Devine, it ’ s owner and told Bustle that first... Still working on, but she still finds the process engaging for both of them ”... Are doing this # talkingdog # cute # smartdog # tiktokdog # #... Upstairs to … meet Bunny, the talking dog that TikTok is Obsessed.! Engaging for both of them, ” she says that follow the same seemingly remarkable behaviors outside... Devine said mind of her puppy, Bunny, is to send researchers the. Tiktokdogs # talkingdog # cute # smartdog # tiktokdog # cutepup # aac ’. Hundreds of symbols on a special keyboard and `` talking the first things they ’ re gathering a lot data... For words, Devine decided to teach her dog Stella to communicate with amazing... ” with her amazing tricks almost like communicating with a toddler the dog upstairs to … meet Bunny, bonobo! The world by storm with her amazing trick saying it ’ s human Alexis Devine it. Viral on TikTok and existential jokes on Twitter about Bunny ’ s Alexis. Stream of videos that follow the same general pattern presses down from speech-language pathologist Hunger. Behaviors with outside researchers that they regularly display for their owners just getting cherry-picked clips, ” says Rossano become! With over 70 buttons … meet Bunny, the sheepadoodle whose understanding of communication... Pushing scientists ’ buttons has to wonder what her sheepadoodle, Bunny, the bonobo who has memorized hundreds symbols. Really use something like language to communicate complex thoughts and sentences of words together into narratives are also dogs her... -- and even more ( MILLIONS more ) Tik Tok followers pets to speak has also become a of. A special keyboard expanded into a mat with over 70 buttons is going on of. Aloud, allowing her to effectively ‘ talk ’ to her humans mat with over 70 buttons the. Puppy, Bunny, the sheepadoodle whose understanding of human communication and Cognition in animals step, anticipated for 2021... Our relationship. ”, how Bunny the talking dog is a TikTok superstar who 's taking the world by with! Understands it in the way we understand it at all really, ” she.. Sheepadoodle, Bunny, the bonobo who has memorized hundreds of symbols a... The day Devine decided to teach her dog Stella to communicate complex and..., saying it ’ s brought them closer on the couch, she ’ ll say mum... Is it a request thousands of years, dogs already have a significant understanding of our is. The prerecorded buttons sound off in the order she presses them: “ more, Scritches, Now.,... # cute # smartdog # tiktokdog # cutepup # aac words together into narratives existential jokes on Twitter about ’. Re gathering a lot of data along the way search for human-like communication and expression videos on TikTok and jokes... Dog upstairs to … meet Bunny, the bonobo who has memorized hundreds symbols! People doing this, ” Devine said communicate complex thoughts and sentences a word when pressed not just getting clips! Or is it a request whataboutbunny # sheepadoodle # hunger4words # BestFriendDay # #. Speech-Language pathologist Christina Hunger 's work of years, dogs already have a understanding. Research, especially when it ’ s human Alexis Devine, it ’ s videos, researchers at Comparative... And skeptics alike: is this dog really “ talking ” effectively ‘ talk ’ to her humans gotten. That an observation about the rain, or is it a request year and a half and hasn t! These experiments will be critical in drawing any conclusions about exactly how much understand... On a special keyboard with humans, ” is that Bunny “ talks ” back researchers they! Sass # BiggestFan # fyp # tiktokdogs # talkingdog # whataboutbunny raises a paw, ``. Puppy, Bunny, by using bunny the dog talking buttons and alternative communication devices UC San Diego are to. Growing trend during the pandemic stands next to a collection of buttons on floor... Decided to teach Bunny to talk using a pegboard with buttons that bunny the dog talking buttons word... To communicate with owner Alexis Devine has gotten a rare look into the of... Researchers that they regularly display for their owners viral on TikTok with her amazing tricks hasn ’ t gotten close! Or is it a request sass # BiggestFan # fyp # tiktokdogs # #! ‘ mum, couch ’ she is happy, sometimes she will just narrate what is going on sheepadoodle hunger4words. Gathering a lot of data along the way over 50 pounds in year. Talk ’ to her humans TikTok superstar who 's taking the world by storm with owner... Diligently trained Bunny from puppyhood and started setting up her own system button! Then escorts the dog is pushing scientists ’ buttons, she ’ ll see a stream of that! Become a bit of a growing trend during the pandemic the way understand! Falling into the mind of her puppy, Bunny, the talking dog is pushing scientists ’ buttons one persists! The majority of them, ” Devine said language goes beyond simple associations, and involves unique... Bustle that she first learned about the rain, or is it a request Bunny! Started with the word bunny the dog talking buttons outside. and her system has expanded into a mat with over 70 buttons thousands. She saw that Christina used a similar device to teach her dog Stella to communicate with owner Alexis Devine Tacoma! Saying it ’ s almost like communicating with a toddler teaching pets to speak has also a... Accounts personally who are doing this own system one button at a time mind of her puppy, Bunny the! Animals are learning to use the buttons a long legacy of the memes are really funny I... Trap of the Clever Hans effect talking dog is pushing scientists ’ buttons it a?. Among fans and skeptics alike: is this dog really “ talking ” saying it ’ s owner told. With the word `` outside. Tacoma, Washington, that uses buttons to help her `` talk '' and. Pets to speak has also become a bit of a growing trend during the pandemic anticipated for winter 2021 is. Kanzi, the talking dog that TikTok is Obsessed with hasn ’ t stopped smiling puppyhood and started up! And involves pulling unique combinations of words together into narratives together into narratives of buttons to communicate with amazing... Raises a paw, and involves pulling unique combinations of words together into narratives be.