Zahava Friedman Speech Therapy
Giving kids the jump start they need!
Serving the Amherst/Northampton/Holyoke area in person, and all of Massachusetts and California online
Not too long ago I stumbled on another Speech Therapist (Christina Hunger, of Hunger for Words) who successfully taught her dog to communicate with recordable talking buttons. Given my love for both speech therapy and dogs, I promised myself that one day I would adopt a dog I would train to "talk." Today, my puppy Anzu ("Zuzu") is using her buttons to communicate! She often combines two words at a time (such as "more toy" or "potty outside"). I am excited to see how far she can go!
Assistive Augmentative Communication (AAC)
Not just for humans anymore
Meet Anzu (Zuzu)
Anzu is a German Shepherd/Mountain Cur mix who has a lot to say.
She's a playful, social, affectionate puppy who loves to learn. She started with one button; "outside." Once she was proficient at using her outside button, I added another one, then another, and so on.
Currently her communication board has 24 buttons and she uses all of them.
How do you teach a dog to talk?
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Well, it's not so different from teaching humans! The most important thing is to model the use of talking buttons frequently and in context. Over just a few months, Zuzu went from using one button, to using 24 buttons, to combining buttons to expressing meaningful "utterances," just by watching me use them.
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Here is a clip of Zuzu demonstrating her knowledge of our morning routine. First, she plays with her toys while I brush my teeth. Then, we go outside for a morning trail hike. Zuzu announced that her toys were "all done" and then let me know what was next on the agenda ("outside").
Be sure to check out our inspiration, Christina Hunger and her dog Stella at https://www.hungerforwords.com/. We are also proud to be part of an international research study following the AAC dog community at www.TheyCanTalk.org.
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What does Zuzu talk about?
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Just like human kids, Zuzu talks most about what she loves most. Her favorite things include food, 'chewys,' toys, friends, affection, and the great outdoors. Every night we have the same 'arguement' about whether she can have another 'chewy.' The video on the right is an example of how that conversation usually goes.
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Zuzu mostly makes requests, but she has also started commenting. For example, after spending the day with family and watching them drive away, she went straight to her board and said, "friend car," which I interpreted as her making an observation that her "friends" have driven away in their car.
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Zuzu has started using 2 words together to communicate, so I model 3 word sentences as much as possible to help her increase her "mean length of utterance." This is a research based strategy I use with my early language learners who are human, too. Only time will tell what her potential for language is. I intend to continue providing her with a language rich environment to find out, so stay tuned!
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