
The kit arrives ready to use with batteries installed and a starter guide. The tiles can be arranged in multiple configurations and easily disassembled or added to. The buttons fit into three nonslip hexagonal tiles: one for actions, one for objects, and one for places.

"More abstract concepts such as emotions and time would be more challenging to teach," she says. Valli Parthasarathy, a board-certified veterinary behaviorist at Synergy Behavior Solutions in Portland, Oregon, recommends starting with words that can be clearly paired with something your dog regularly sees or does. The kit comes with everything you need to teach your dog, including six buttons with microphones for recording words and 67 stickers to identify the buttons visually. The battery-operated system garnered attention when Bunny, a canine learner using the buttons, began to amass hundreds of thousands of social media followers. Pros: Fully customizable, comes with tiles to keep buttons organized, starter guide and batteries includedįluent Pet's Get Started Kit was designed to foster better communication between dogs or cats and humans.
DOG SOUNDBOARD HOW TO
The Talk To The Beans training program teaches guardians and their pets how to communicate using buttons. The Mighty Paw Smart Bell 2.0 works indoors or out so your dog can communicate when they need to potty or when they want to come in.īest training program: Talk to the Beans - See at Talk to the Beans

The affordable Hunger for Words Talking Pet Starter Set was designed by the famous speech pathologist who taught her dog Stella to "talk."īest customizable: Talking Products Talking Tiles - See at AmazonĮach of the six buttons in the Talking Products Talking Tiles is fully customizable and comes with a removable transparent cover.īest light-up: Decdeal Recordable Talking Button With LED Function - See at Amazonĭecdeal LED recordable buttons play sound and light up simultaneously each time they are pressed.īest potty: Mighty Paw Smart Bell 2.0 - See at Chewy Our top picks for the best dog buttonsīest overall: Fluent Pet Get Started Kit - See at Fluent Petįluent Pet's Get Started Kit comes with six buttons and three nonslip tiles for organizing words and actions.īest budget: Hunger for Words Talking Pet Starter Set - See at Amazon Learn more about how Insider Reviews tests and researches pet products.
DOG SOUNDBOARD PLUS
For this guide, we've selected the best options, including budget, fully customizable, and light-up versions, plus the best training program to teach your dog to talk with buttons. You can get started with a beginner's set of four to six buttons. Pioneering speech therapist Christina Hunger, working with her dog Stella, discovered that these buttons can also help dogs and other animals communicate their needs and wants.īy pressing buttons onto which a word or sound has been recorded, a dog can learn to "speak" in simple phrases like "play" and "outside." Give them enough buttons and they can communicate their thoughts on almost everything. “It’s always an adventure, and we are thoroughly enjoying the ride regardless of the destination.Cognitive scientists and speech pathologists have long used pressable augmentative and alternative communication buttons - each representing an action, place, or object - to communicate with nonverbal individuals. “Bunny currently has 45 words on her board with 5 of them being new enough that we are still helping her to understand them contextually,” she added. “Bunny and I work on engagement, tricks and obedience to strengthen our bond daily, but this has added so much laughter, joy and wonder to our lives. “The sound board has been an overwhelmingly positive experience,” said Devine, who is an artist from Tacoma, Washington. WATCH: Amused Dad Films Adorable Wild Critters Playing on His Kids’ Play Set The first word that the 11-month-old pup learned to use on the sound board was “outside”-but she can now ask Devine about specific destinations thanks to buttons that play words like “beach” and “park.”īunny has even learned to talk about the family’s pet cat Spooky by pressing multiple buttons for “Play, Spooky.” He was looking for beta testers of a new device, and that is the board we are currently using with Bunny.” “We used that for several months before I connected with Leo Trottier, who is a cognitive scientist. “The first sound board that we used was one that I had made after following Christina’s guidance on her blog,” said Devine.

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In addition to Hunger being renowned for using augmentative and alternative linguistic resources to help nonverbal people communicate, she was also one of the first people to use the sound boards with dogs. Devine built her own canine sound board after being inspired by speech language pathologist Christina Hunger and her dog Stella.
