For years, viral videos of dogs using soundboard buttons to “talk” have captivated the internet. From TikTok to Instagram, these videos show dogs seemingly holding conversations with their owners.

For instance, here’s Stella using the soundboard to let her owner that it’s time for a walkie. There’s only one teeny problem: it’s raining outside, something that Stella seems to process and accept. After patiently waiting for the rain to stop, Stella uses the soundboard again, pressing “Leash” and “Yes”, signaling that it’s time to go on that walk, human.

However, many skeptics have questioned whether these dogs truly understand the words or are just responding to cues from their owners.

Researchers from the University of California San Diego and other institutions have now embarked on a new study attempting to answer this question. Their findings reveal that dogs trained with soundboard buttons can indeed comprehend specific words — but perhaps not exactly in the way you or I understand words.

The research doesn’t settle the debate but offers a fresh perspective on a phenomenon that has fascinated dog owners and scientists alike.

Understanding Words, Not Just Cues

The study involved two distinct experiments designed to observe dogs’ reactions to specific words. In the first experiment, researchers visited the homes of 30 dogs across the country. They pressed soundboard buttons with prerecorded words while the owners stayed in another room. The researchers then watched how the dogs responded over 60 seconds.

In the second experiment, 29 dog owners conducted similar trials at home, guided remotely by the research team. This time, owners either pressed the buttons themselves or said the words out loud without pressing any buttons. They, too, observed their dogs’ reactions for 60 seconds.

The findings were intriguing. Dogs were more likely to show “play-related” or “outside-related” behaviors after hearing the relevant words, regardless of whether the words came from a human or a soundboard. Even when the buttons were pressed by someone other than the owner, dogs still reacted correctly. This suggests that dogs are processing the words themselves, not just relying on body language or other cues.

However, when it came to food-related words, dogs did not show the same responsiveness, suggesting they might not associate those words with feeding outside their regular times.

Federico Rossano, who leads the Comparative Cognition Lab at UC San Diego and is featured in the Netflix documentary “Inside the Mind of a Dog,” emphasizes the significance of this research. “Our findings are important because they show that words matter to dogs, and that they respond to the words themselves, not just to associated cues,” he said.

Rossano notes that this study is just the beginning. Future research will explore how dogs use these buttons more actively, including the meaning behind sequences of button presses. “We’re just scratching the surface,” Rossano added.

The team plans to continue studying animals in their natural environments, aiming to provide a more accurate understanding of their abilities.

What Does This Mean for Dog Owners?

For dog owners, this study provides new insight into the minds of their pets. It suggests that with proper training, dogs might be capable of understanding more than we think. This research also paves the way for new communication methods between humans and dogs. Ultimately, this line of study could potentially alter how we interact with our pets.

However, these findings need to be interpreted with caution. This study does not prove that dogs can “talk” or that they are capable of understanding human language.

Dogs’ responses reflect a form of learning that differs significantly from human language comprehension. For dogs, words like “walk” or “play” are associated with specific activities, akin to a conditioned response. Dogs will accurately use symbols and buttons paired with objects and actions. But this is very different from the ability to use language in the same way humans do.

Nevertheless, experts in dog behavior have long noted that while dogs may not grasp language as humans do, they are highly attuned to human speech and can recognize familiar words without additional context.

As more pet owners experiment with button boards at home, the question remains: Are our dogs really “talking,” or are they simply showing how well they understand us? The answer may lie in how much more we have yet to learn about the depth of dog cognition and their unique ways of communicating with us. And regardless of what the science tells us, if sound boards allow you to interact with and better understand your dogs, more power to you.

The findings appeared in the journal PLOS ONE.