Meet Cache, a beautiful and brilliant Golden Retriever who lives in California with his human, who has been using AIC (augmentative interspecies communication) tools—in the form of electronic talking buttons—to teach…
        • UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev
          2·
          8 months ago

          I got no experience with those buttons, but I don’t see why a dog or cat wouldn’t be smart enough to connect the dots between pressing a button and getting treats/pets/outside time.

          • z00s@lemmy.world
            1·
            8 months ago

            Dogs aren’t smart enough. They just keep pressing buttons while monitoring the human’s reaction until they get positive reinforcement.

            Scientists trained a gorilla (Koko) to use sign language. They proved her understanding by giving verbal commands while wearing a welding mask to obscure their face and maintaining a monotone voice. Then they observed her respond to the command correctly, which indicated that she understood simple sentences (subject, verb, object).

            These dogs are pressing five different unrelated buttons at random intervals until they get a pat or a treat, and then the owners claim they wanted a treat all along because they pressed the treat button.

            Apes are provably among the smartest animals, and yet they can’t use buttons the way these dog owners pretend they can.

            In the video, the owner asks “Do you want to know where we’re going?” and the dog presses, box, food, rest, cuddles, then rest again. Explain how that’s a cogent response.

            • UndercoverUlrikHD@programming.dev
              1·
              8 months ago

              I don’t think learning that touching an object will lead to the owner letting you out to the garden or to get playtime is too complex for a dog to learn. Stringing together sentences, I don’t know. I’m not a dog researcher.