Holy cannoli, I just had a realization. When breaking down and interpreting multi-button presses if you’re feeling stuck try breaking down the meaning based on your learner’s “soundboard compound words” not each individual word!

So  many learners are pairing words together to mean another word they don’t have a button for. So for instance, “hungry, chew, play” could be sequencing, or it could be meant as “hungry + chew + play” = edible chew treat. It’s not so tricky to interpret on it’s own, but when you combine it with other button presses and other “soundboard compound words” it gets a lot more complicated to interpret! 

Through my time chatting with you all I have noticed that several of the learners are using the same combinations to mean the same thing! 

Of course not all learners automatically mean the same thing when they combined buttons, but I thought it would be neat if we had sort of a dictionary or translator going of these “soundboard compound words”  our pets use. This way if we are feeling stuck interpreting we can look here for ideas. 

I’ll start!

Water + outside = pee
Hungry + play = do some training/tricks for treats
Hungry + chew  = edible treat
Hungry + chew play = nylon toy w/edible treat
Outside + home = beyond the dog gate (kitchen and basement for us)
Hungry + water = add a little water to the kibble
Hungry + ball = nylon toy w/frozen oatmeal (Scout’s version of a Kong)
Ball + water = ???? (Maybe also for frozen oatmeal toy since she might be saying ball + cold)

One of the hardest times for Scout is when I'm teaching on Zoom. She jumps on me, mouths me, barks, etc. (she's also not a fan when I'm watching videos on my phone, or working quietly at my computer). I've worked with her extensively on her behaviors while I'm on Zoom, as well as my behaviors (using headphones, going in another room to give her quiet space, etc) and she's gotten A LOT better, but the last few hours of the day she still has a rough time. I completely understand, because I'm worn out from 8 or 9 hours a day on Zoom as well! I was thinking of adding a button to help us talk about this together. (ex: mom Zoom, mom all done Zoom, Mom all done Zoom soon, etc).

I was wondering if anyone has used any similar buttons or plans to do so, and if so what term was/will be used? How did it go? I don't foresee us needing a Zoom button as much after the pandemic, so I was thinking of using the term "work", "computer", or "busy" instead. Any thoughts or suggestions?

Anyone jot down all of their learners conversations in one day? What did your learner say?! Do they have any favorite words or phrases right now? I've never done this until today, and it was quite interesting to sit down at the end of the night and look over everything she said! I capture so few of Scouts conversations on video, so I usually forget about most of the conversations we have. It's so neat to be able to go back and read them.

Scout had access to her (12) buttons for 6 hours today, and here's some of what I was able to get down. She was less chatty then usual, most likely because I added two new (blank) hexes to her board. She kept staring at the board and hovering over buttons. My guess is she was trying to reorient herself. My husband forgot to document, so all of these conversations are the ones with me and a couple with my husband that I was nearby for:

Scout, mom, dad, chew, potty, home, outside. (I had added two new blank hexes to her board last night after she went to bed, so when she woke up this morning she started testing out her buttons to assess where they all were)

Play, outside, home, home, ball, water.  (she finished playing outside with dad, now she was home, and she wanted me to get her some kibble with water in it)

Mom, Scout, Scout. (She wanted my attention, I was on my phone drinking tea at the table after breakfast)
home.
outside.
potty, potty.
mom, all done.

Dad.

home, outside.

hungry.

Potty.

Outside.

All done, dad, Scout.

Outside, home. (my husband had just gone in the basement again, still thinking this might be basement sometimes?)

outside, potty.

outside, chew, play. (play frisbee! - she likes to chew it even though we don't let her)

potty.

water.

We're looking into getting a camera so I've read all the threads on here that I could find about cameras. It seems like everyone who mentions their camera mentions a con and mentions looking for something better. Does anyone like the camera they have?

I thought it might be helpful to get a thread going with a few questions.

Earlier this morning Scout pressed "outside" and I said "outside soon". 10-15 minutes later she pressed "outside" again and I said "outside soon". 10-15 minutes later she pressed "home" "home" "outside" very intentionally. 

I'm not sure if she was trying to say "we've been home a lot, I really want to go outside now", or if she was saying "you said okay to outside twice, but we stayed home twice (she doesn't understand soon/later/now yet), can we please go outside now???". I doubt that she'd actually have the capacity to count the times, remember, and communicate about the number of times it didn't happen, but it was so interesting to observe. 

Holy guacamole. What an interesting interaction today. 

Scout has a few nylon chew toys (2 nebula star things, 2 steaks, 2 3-prong shapes, and 1 heart) that we fill with with oatmeal and freeze every week. She gets 1 each time we leave her alone in the house. 

This evening I was filling the toys with oatmeal and put them in the freezer. I let her lick the last bit of oatmeal off my finger before I washed the bowl in the sink. She clearly wanted more oatmeal (she sits beside me on the mat in the kitchen to request some food I'm cooking with because I will not give her anything until she is in a calm sit on the mat), but I had nothing left to give since I put it all in the freezer. 

That's when Scout went to her board and hit "hungry" "play", paused then hit "hungry" "water" (how she requests kibble + some water in her bowl). We assumed that hungry play meant she was asking to do tricks/training (her usual meaning for it). She had already eaten dinner  and was done with treats for the night so my husband said "all done hungry water". She then hit "potty" "play" "ball" (a frequent sequence request). We said "all done play ball. Do you want to potty outside?". Scout then thought for a second and hit "ball" "hungry", paused for a very brief second" and then "ball" "hungry" "play" "chew".

I think she was asking for one of her frozen oatmeal toys! I got her one of the smaller ones out of the freezer and gave it to her because I was so impressed with her request.

She's been using the terms "ball, hungry" and "ball, water" for weeks now, so I'm excited that we may have finally uncovered what "ball, hungry" means!!! I will continue to observe her to see if any of her other behaviors help to confirm this. I will also continue to try and figure out what the heck "ball" "water" means!

After dinner I was washing the dishes in the sink and Scout hit "mom" "play" "water"! We have never modeled using buttons for us washing the dishes, so I got a big kick out of this narration.

Now if only washing the dishes was actually play and not work!

IMG_5732.MOV 78.2 MB

***update, after observing a few other interactions, it’s very likely she was talking about her version of a Kong! (Frozen oatmeal in a nylon toy) We will continue to observe for more information!

Our pup occasionally starts getting creative and uses words on her board to mean other things if she doesn't have the proper word for them. For example she would combine "water" "outside" to mean pee before she had a potty button. She will use "hungry" "ball" to ask if she can chew on her chuckit ball. She also has been using "Play" "water" "outside" to ask to play in the snow. She will also use "Hungry" "water" to ask for water to be put in with her food.

But there is a new combo she has been using for a month or two now that I just cannot figure out for the life of me... "ball" "water". She has been using this a lot lately when I think she's asking for her food. Has anyone else had a learner use this combo??? Any thoughts on what this could mean??? Is she referring to her kibble as tiny balls? Is she trying to differentiate between eating kibble vs. chewing on a toy. Maybe she asking for something else??? She appears to be intentionally communicating something, but I can't figure it out for the life of me!

***edit*** I’ve attached a video, but in this video she combines hungry, ball, and water. Later on when I model “Scout” “hungry” she very intentionally walks over to press “ball”. When I offered her both her food and the ball she picked the food. I have no clue what she is trying to tell me!!!

Anyone else have a learner that combines two thoughts into one sentence? Our dog is high energy and we know her brain is often moving at 100 mph. She will occasionally speak in run-on like sentences (for example Mom, dad, All done, hungry, play, outside - I still haven't figured out if she is trying to say "are you done eating? can we play outside" OR "MOM, DAD, stop eating so we can go outside!!!" but it appears as if it's something along those lines). It also seems like she's offering us choices sometimes like we do to her ("Hungry, water, play, outside" - you guys can give me some lunch or we can go play outside). 

Has anyone else experienced this?