Meet Bunny the Sheepadoodle, a dog that can speak over 92 words. Yes, you read that right. This dog can talk and, rightfully so, it’s TikTok famous.
We know that dogs pick up verbal and nonverbal cues and, these help them master several tricks. “Domestication is likely to have affected dogs’ brain positions so they can interact and socialize with humans better,” said Claudia Fugazza, a scientist from the department of ethology in Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest, Hungary.
What makes Bunny so special?
We all think our dogs are special but, how many times are we right? Alexis Devine knew that Bunny would talk from the very start! The 40-year-old Tacoma-based Jewelry designer went over research and literature on canine communication, cognition, and training before his arrival. Her research paid off when she came across speech pathologist Christina Hunger who documents her dog Stella’s vocabulary on Instagram hunger4words.
“Bunny can now speak 92 words,” said Devine. The 2-year-old dog has a vocabulary that can rival a human toddler. With over 6.6 million TikTok followers and over 848,000 Instagram followers, Bunny is a social media star. Inspired by Bunny’s TikTok presence, Leo Trottier, a cognitive scientist got in touch with her to develop FluentPet.
How to get your dog to talk?
Christina Hunger is a speech-language pathologist who specializes in alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices for nonverbal children.”One wouldn’t assume a baby was speechless if he hadn’t uttered his first word by 12 months. So why should that logic be applied to those merely incapable of speech — whether that be a child who suffers from catatonia or a creature devoid of the necessary organs of speech, like a dog?” she wondered.
The 27-year-old began experimenting and used DIYed an AAC device using recordable answer buzzers. What’s more, she is also the author of a book titled ‘How Stella Learned to Talk: The Groundbreaking Story of the World’s First Talking Dog’.