Unless you live off the grid, chances are, you’ve seen videos of pet owners “talking” with their animals using speech buttons on Instagram or TikTok. (@hunger4words, anyone?) The videos are adorable and nothing short of impressive. Typically, a person asks their dog a question and the dog responds by pressing a button that vocalizes a pre-recorded word or phrase.
It’s not telepathy, and no, you don’t need a degree in speech pathology to talk to Fido. In fact, teaching a pet to use speech buttons is easier than it looks. “Essentially, speech buttons are really meant to provide a way for a dog or cat — or really, probably any animal — a way to communicate with us using the same words we use,” Dr. Learn, a V.M.D. and board-certified veterinary behaviorist (DACVB) at Virginia’s Animal Behavior Wellness Center, tells HuffPost. “We know that our dogs understand words, right? So what we’re trying to do now is use these buttons to teach them that they can choose to communicate with us — that they can use our words.”
Several reviewers speak to actually having the experience Dr. Learn describes with their pets — using a doggone good speech button set deal on Amazon for under $30!
Before you write off speech buttons as too time-consuming or complicated, here’s how they work:
