This Doggo Can Talk?

Main image via LADBible

Dear dog (especially puppy) owners, many a time when your dog barks we’re pretty sure you’ve gone “what does he/she want now?”. But this speech-language pathologist came up with a genius way to let her dog tell her exactly what it wants! Cool huh?

via GIPHY

The Catahoula/Blue Heeler mix called Stella has learned to communicate basic commands with the help of a soundboard after being trained since she was just eight weeks old! Her owner, Christina Hunger said that now her 18 months old Stella can ‘say’ 29 words and even string them in a sentence!

 Image via Instagram

We are awestruck!

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last night, right before this video was taken, I accidentally said “ball” on Stella’s device while I was actually reaching for a different word. But, Stella took this very seriously! She picked up her ball, dropped it on her device, and said “Good” (Translation: Good idea, Mom!) • I started recording right after she said “Good” and caught the rest of her thought: “Happy ball want outside!” • Like all AAC users, Stella thrives when we talk to her using her device and say words that she loves. She never needs to know it was on accident! 😉 • • • • • #hunger4words #stellathetalkingdog #slpsofinstagram #speechtherapy #AAC #ashaigers #slp #corewords #SLPeeps #slp2be #aacawarenessmonth #earlyintervention #languagedevelopment #dogsofinstagram #dogmom #doglife #dogs #animalpsychology #doglover #dogvideos #sandiegodog #catahoula #blueheeler #smartdog #dogcommunication #mydogtalks #animalcommunication #interspeciescommunication #loveanimals

A post shared by Christina Hunger, MA, CCC-SLP (@hunger4words) on Oct 30, 2019 at 10:09am PDT

“The way she uses words to communicate and the words she’s combining is really similar to a 2-year-old child”, she said in an interview.

Christina keeps her followers (or Stella’s) updated via her Instagram account! You can basically see Stella’s growth from the videos she posts.

You can watch a few here:

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I AM MIND BLOWN 🤯 Last night after coming inside, Stella said “Come eat come play.” I was pretty sure she meant that she wanted to eat dinner then play, but I asked, “Do you want to eat or play?” to clarify. • Stella licked her lips, paused, and responded, “Want come eat.” After Stella ate, she immediately dove at her toy and started playing. • AHHH! This is amazing for so many reasons! Stella told me a sequence of two things she wanted to do. Then, I asked her a question containing two options, and she answered with a short phrase confirming her original message! Stella even expanded her own phrase from “Come eat ” to “Want come eat.” The speech therapist side of me is completely amazed, and the dog mom side of me is incredibly proud. Yay, Stella!! • • • • • #hunger4words #stellathetalkingdog #proud #slpsofinstagram #speechtherapy #AAC #ashaigers #slp #corewords #SLPeeps #slp2be #aacawarenessmonth #earlyintervention #languagedevelopment #dogsofinstagram #dogmom #doglife #dogs #animalpsychology #doglover #dogvideos #sandiegodog #catahoula #blueheeler #smartdog #dogcommunication #mydogtalks #animalcommunication #interspeciescommunication #loveanimals

A post shared by Christina Hunger, MA, CCC-SLP (@hunger4words) on Oct 22, 2019 at 9:00am PDT

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a sentence I never thought I’d say: I just had a conversation with my talking dog about going to get an açaí bowl 😂 • Watch above to see how well Stella is doing with remembering what I said, taking turns talking, and responding appropriately! • • • • • #hunger4words #stellathetalkingdog #slpsofinstagram #speechtherapy #AAC #slp #corewords #SLPeeps #slp2be #aacawarenessmonth #earlyintervention #languagedevelopment #dogsofinstagram #dogmom #doglife #dogs #animalpsychology #doglover #dogvideos #sandiegodog #catahoula #blueheeler #smartdog #dogcommunication #mydogtalks #animalcommunication #interspeciescommunication #loveanimals

A post shared by Christina Hunger, MA, CCC-SLP (@hunger4words) on Oct 14, 2019 at 3:09pm PDT

 

 

 

 

View this post on Instagram

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

5 WORDS... 3 DIFFERENT THOUGHTS!! 🤯 • Last night we cut our evening beach trip a little short to come home and make dinner. Stella was very adamant that she wanted to go back to the beach. After using several different single words and two-word phrases to express this, she finally walked over to her device and said, “Water good. No eat. Play!” • (Translation: Swimming was so fun, stop making dinner and take me back to play!) • Just when I think I couldn’t be more impressed with Stella’s language skills, she goes ahead and says something even more incredible than she said the day before!!!✨✨ • • • • • #hunger4words #talkingdog #everyonedeservesavoice #speechtherapy #AAC #slp #corewords #SLPeeps #slp2be #aacawarenessmonth #earlyintervention #languagedevelopment #dogsofinstagram #dogmom #dogs #animalpsychology #doglover #dogvideosofinstagram #sandiegodog #catahoula #blueheeler #smartdog #dogcommunication #animalcommunication #interspeciescommunication #loveanimals #respectanimals #thedodo #worldanimalday #buzzfeeddogs

A post shared by Christina Hunger, MA, CCC-SLP (@hunger4words) on Oct 4, 2019 at 7:22am PDT

Her favourite words are ‘walk’ followed by ‘beach’. Hmm, we’re not surprised but what you’re about to read will leave your mouth open in amazement!

Christina said she was so surprised one day when Stella was standing by the door and whimpering. After a bit of pacing back and forth, Stella went to her artificial ‘voice box’ and said ‘Want’, ‘Jake’, ‘Come’, indicating that she wanted Christina’s partner, Jake to come home. To her surprise, Jake really came home in about 15 minutes and Stella said the word ‘Happy’!

via GIPHY

Christina hopes to expand Stella’s word use in the future to see how many more words or phrases she can master!

We wish her all the best. Excuse us while we go and figure out if our dog wants to pee or go for a walk.

Oh wait, it probably just wants food. What if it’s sleepy?

We think we need a soundboard for our doggos too!

Do you think it would work, though? Or do you think this is a good idea in the first place to teach animals to sound more like humans than themselves?

Info via LADBible