gsdmixg
Citizen of Zooville
Well, to quote a previous post of mine:The buttons aren't a requirement; dogs, horses, etc can communicate without them, you just have to learn a shared language.
There have been plenty of horses who have been taught to indicate if they want a blanket put on or taken off for example.
I think the buttons are interesting, but I find it weird that so many people act like the dog can't otherwise communicate equally complex things. I've had a number of dogs who were adept at indicating that they wanted to go out and play with a particular toy, for example.
Understanding body language and communication is also prerequisite to using the buttons correctly anyways based on what I have seen on the internet. The dogs in the experiments will often use a word or a combination of words to pinpoint specific causes of their emotions.. . .even if one didn't need the buttons to know what their dog needs/wants/feels, why is it a bad thing to provide an outlet for them to communicate things much more clearly, effectively, and efficiently? Wouldn't that be better for both parties?
For example, I'd seen a video (which I doubt I could find now) where a dog displays tense, concerned and slightly fearful body language and repeatedly presses the buttons "outside" and "noise". Without those button presses you would have only known the emotion and not the cause. And inversely, if you use the buttons but can't understand their body, you only get a clue into the situation without knowing how they feel.
Sure, you might have been able to piece it together yourself if you stopped, watched and noticed said dog occasionally doing something such as peeking out the window. But giving them the ability to "verbally" communicate made it a much easier and more clear process.