A ‘talking’ dog who can express their feelings and needs by pushing buttons has gone viral on TikTok – but users are worried she may be too intelligent.
Three-year-old, red fox Labrador Retriever, uses augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) to communicate with its owner, Tia Herrell, 52. The buttons cover everything from wanting to eat, drink, play, go to the toilet, and even help Copper express feelings, such as worry.
In a video that has gone viral on TikTok with 19 million views, Copper uses her buttons to show she is concerned moments after Tia was coughing. The clip shows Copper use a button which shouts ‘Worried’, to which Tia uses a button that says ‘Why’.
Clever Copper moves to another button and says ‘Mommy’. Tia says: “You’re worried about Mommy?’ and taps the buttons for ‘Why? Worried. Mommy.’
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Copper using her buttons, asking for food (Jam Press Vid/@thechattylab)
Copper has been called 'extremely' emotionally intelligent (Jam Press Vid/@thechattylab)Copper repeatedly clicks a button that says ‘Sound’ – and Tia immediately puts two and two together that she is concerned by her coughing. She quickly taps the button for ‘Ouch’, but assures Copper she is fine.
Tia has been teaching Copper how to communicate after reading about a speech-language pathologist using a similar method with her pet. She ordered some recordable buttons online and built the talking board.
“Copper started with buttons when she was four months old and it really helped her with potty training,” Tia, a fellow speech-language pathologist from California, US, told NeedToKnow.co.uk. “She took to it very quickly and started using the buttons the first week.
“Since then she has learned to use the buttons to request different toys, ask where family members are, ask for a treat, tell how she's feeling, tell someone if she's worried, ask to go for a ride, ask where her human sister Savannah is, and more. It's been really fun and surprising to see Copper's personality change over time.
Tia with her three-year-old 'talking' dog (Jam Press/@thechattylab)“When she was younger, she talked about her toys and playing a lot of the time. Now she talks way more about her family and how she feels. I think that Copper is very emotional and loves her family immensely.
“I would say that Copper is extremely emotionally intelligent. She' able to identify her own emotions and sometimes others’ emotions.”
More than two million people liked the video, taking to the comments section to share their thoughts – with some dubbing Copper the “Einstein of dogs” and others expressing concern over her skills.
One user commented: “It's getting too intelligent.” and another excitedly responded: “This is so wild."
Other comments included: "Ok that’s the Einstein of dogs right there lol” and “If this is not the sweetest thing.”
Someone also commended the intelligence of dogs overall and said: “The fact that dogs can understand the meaning and concept of worry is what surprises me. Their so much smarter then we realise."
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