TikTok’s viral ‘talking’ dogs and cats inspire a study of animal behavior

Michelle Pierce says her husky Lexi used to be a daddy’s girl—that is, until the 7-year-old rescue learned to talk.

Pierce and Lexi have a super cute and entertaining TikTok account with just less than half a million followers. Pierce adopted Lexi when she was 13 months old, and because she struggles with chronic illness, recently began looking for something to pour her energy into while stuck inside the house. She bought FluentPet’s HexTiles, which you may have seen in viral videos of dogs pressing buttons that play recorded phrases and words they use to communicate.

The buttons include words like “water” “good girl” and “rain,” which Lexi presses with her paw to communicate her desires, wants, and observations. Pierce says Lexi now has 42 words and uses around 25 on a daily basis. The next word the pair will work on is “ouch” so Lexi can vocalize when something hurts or is bothering her. Other pet owners expressed the same desire to know when their pet was hurting and say it could improve their vet care.

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“She’s one of those dogs that once dad comes home she’s all about dad,” Pierce says. “Now me and her have our own little thing, our own little conversations.”

Lexi is one of many dogs on TikTok and other social platforms who’ve gone viral. They follow in the footsteps of dogs like Bunny, who has more than 7 million TikTok followers and regularly freaks out her audience by asking questions like, “Who this?” before looking in the mirror. There’s also the original talking dog Stella, who started going viral after posting videos in 2019 and has nearly 1 million followers on Instagram. Of course, Stella had a lot of help from her human Christina Hunger, a speech-language pathologist and author of the best-selling book “How Stella Learned to Talk,” which documents her process of placing buttons on a board and teaching Stella, a rescue dog, what the phrases mean.

Although Stella and some of the other talking dogs are rescues, Abba Adams says she and her service dog Flambo were bored to tears during the pandemic and began learning words with buttons. Adams says it made sense to her that if dogs know “sit” means to sit down, they could learn other words, too. Flambo, who has more than 1 million followers on TikTok, now knows 42 words and is learning “treadmill,” “went,” and “swim.” Recently, Flambo was worried about a new roommate being loud, because Adams’ roommate is a streamer and plays competitive video games that get heated.

“[There was a] lot of yelling the whole day. She was playing Rainbow Six,” Adams says. “Flambo kept pressing “loud,” “loud,” “why.” He was so confused.”

Adams and Pierce may have exceptional dogs but they’re not the only species using buttons. Sarah Baker and her cat Justin Bieber, who has more than 250,000 followers on TikTok, also use buttons to communicate. Justin uses the same FluentPet HexTiles that Pierce, Adams and Bunny do, and Baker says he has about 30 words. Like Stella and Lexi, Justin is also a rescue, who Baker adopted when the cat was just four months old. And in a similar fashion to the dogs, Baker says the buttons have seemingly reduced Justin’s frustration. He’s less mischievous and less inclined to run around yelling because he can use his words instead.

“He’s a very smart boy,” Baker says. “I would say it’s definitely brought us closer.”

Thousands of these pet owners have signed up to participate in a study led by FluentPet, the company that manufactures HexTiles, which launched in June of 2020. Although FluentPet hasn’t paid a dime in Facebook, Google, or Amazon ads, according to founder and CEO, Leo Trottier, they’ve done around $5 million in sales in the last 12 months. Prices start at $30 for a two-button tester kit and go up to $200 for the deluxe kit that includes multiple buttons and tiles. Many of TikTok’s talking animal accounts use HexTiles, but Pierce started with different buttons glued to a wooden board, as did Stella and Hunger. There are tons of “dog buttons” listed for sale on Amazon, too.

I would say it’s definitely brought us closer.

Trottier says the study will have multiple phases and is collecting thousands of data points to determine if the phenomenon is, as Trottier calls it, “interestingly meaningful.” Although he says it’s unlikely at this point the data will point to an overenthusiastic interpretation or that the dogs aren’t actually learning words, he’s open to the possibility and says he’ll respect whatever the science says.

Trottier is working with Dr. Federico Rossano, assistant professor in cognitive science at University of California San Diego, who will assess the data and replicate the process in his own lab. Rossano says the pair are being cautious about what they’re saying and how they’re saying it, but will make all the data public and transparent and release more information soon.

There are skeptics. Dr. Clive Wynne, founding director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University, says many of the videos that go viral are cherry-picked and don’t show enough of the dog’s behavior before and after the button-pressing. He says a similar study was done as early as the 1800s, when Sir John Lubbock taught his dog to use cards he’d written words on. Wynne says that dogs can learn the names of objects but may simply be motivated by a desire to receive affection or a treat and don’t actually understand semantics.

“You stand a much better chance of teaching people to speak dog than you do to teach dogs to speak human,” Wynne says, explaining that dogs use emotional language, humans can respond to without words.

You stand a much better chance of teaching people to speak dog than you do to teach dogs to speak human

So far, Wynne has not been in contact with Trottier or Rossano.

Rossano and Trottier both acknowledge problems with animals learning to “talk” in the past. Rossano says it’s a priority to make sure that unlike previous studies, no animals are harmed or traumatized. In later phases, they’ll record the animals 24/7 to better understand the correlation between, say, a dog running to the door and pressing the “outside” button. Both want to get the science right and complete the study in a way that alleviates concern about methodology or animal treatment.

Rossano believes these pets seem to genuinely have better lives and relationships with their people. This could also shape how we talk about animal rights and consciousness in the future.

“Animals have cognitive abilities, skills and emotions that are being lost and not documented,” Rossano says. “A lot of what we do with animals is unfair and sometimes cruel. Even if we find this is not anything new about dog’s minds, these buttons are providing dogs with tools to more clearly communicate their needs and getting them fulfilled. Giving them a voice doesn’t make the dog’s life worse, but better.”

The experts behind the study might be unsure of the final outcome, but pet owners like Pierce say animals might know more than we think.

“If I have to give any advice, it would be to have fun with it. Just go in with ‘I want to better my relationship with my dog,'” Pierce says. “I’ve always thought dogs were smarter than we give them credit for.”

Abby Lee Hood is a Tennessee-based journalist who primarily covers Appalachia and is working on their debut nonfiction book “Redneck Revolution.”