die mad about it

billi get food later?

billi want food!

billi mad.

But even if you want to think of it as an action-reward system, I feel like there are enough videos that evidence that it’s not just about that to the animals involved, which — yeah, okay, wishful thinking, BUT! Billi’s owner posted a TikTok recently where she asks Billi what she wants — a question Billi comprehends — and Billi just responds “Happy Billi”.

Also, I’m fascinated with the fact that three of the dogs who are using AAC to communicate have demonstrated an understanding of water in the abstract. Typically, a handler will model the word “water” with water in the bowl. I remember the first time I saw that Christina Hunger video where Stella accidentally broke her “beach” button — it wasn’t immediately able to be fixed, so the spot on the board remained vacant. Stella strung together the words “help water outside” after looking at the place where the “beach” button should be. Up until then, for me, it was just kind of a neat thing.

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A post shared by Christina Hunger, MA, CCC-SLP (@hunger4words) on Nov 11, 2019 at 12:47pm PST

Then Bunny displayed several uses water in the abstract. When her owner declined to take her to the beach, Bunny tried to get around the no by asking instead “please water walk”. (Can’t find this video right now though I promise I tried.)

She also responded to high tide flowing beneath their house by saying “water sound”, and later the same night when it rained, “water outside”.

There’s also Polly on TikTok, who has used “water” and “play” while outside, presumably to get some hose or pool time in. She also strung together the words “water treat,” resulting in a homemade pupsicle.

It’s just neat to me that they recognize water as water in different states (ice, the ocean, in a bowl, rain) enough to use it to indicate things they want or hear or see! I think Bunny also called a baby seal a “water hippo” at one point (because she has a button for her squeaky gray hippo toy). Like, Bunny has pretty much figured out times of day and is now trying to figure out “yesterday” in relation to “today” and “tomorrow”. How do you model “yesterday” to a dog??? She’s also self-reported injuries to her paw three times — two of those were barbed foxtails embedded between her toes that her owner didn’t know about!