Many dog owners will tell you that their pets communicate with them, however, what they are trying to say is still a mystery.
However, we might be a little closer as a speech-language pathologist who is also a dog parent to an 18-month-old dog, is working to find out. She’s already made some progress in discovering that her pet Stella can communicate certain things to her – such as she’s tired after playing and would like a nap, or that instead of playing she would prefer to eat, or that she would like to go outside.
26-year-old Christina Hunger has the help of an adaptive device that she devised in order to help Stella communicate not only words but her thoughts and feelings as well. When Stella – a Catahoula/Blue Heeler mix – wishes to “talk,” she steps on buttons that correspond with words Hunger has recorded and programmed into the device.
Stella is already taking to these new language skills. One day, Stella was whining at the front door and pacing back and forth. Christina assumed that she needs to go outside to the bathroom, however, once Stella went over to her device, she was able to communicate it out. She tapped on the words “Want,” “Jake,” and “Come,” before going back to stand in front of the door. When Christina’s fiancé, Jake, came home a few moments later, Stella went over and pressed the “Happy” button then rolled onto her back for belly rubs.
“I’m in constant amazement and shock,” Christina said to PEOPLE. “Every day she says something cooler than she said the day before.”
Christina, who works in San Diego with 1- and 2-year-old children – many of whom used adaptive language devices to help them communicate – began to teach Stella words when she was about 8-weeks-old. Now, the 50-pound-dog can identify about 29 words and can combine up to 5 of them in order to form a phrase or sentence.
“The way she uses words to communicate and the words she’s combining is really similar to a 2-year-old child,” says Christina, who has documented Stella’s progress on her blog called Hunger For Words, as well as on her Instagram.
She loves knowing Stella’s thoughts, and Stella seems happy to be able to communicate them as well. When Stella first learned how to communicate “walk,” she would get excited and would use the word repeatedly.
“I didn’t realize how much she was waiting to say it,” Christina said.
Another favorite word of Stella’s is “beach.”
“She loves saying ‘beach.’ She was so happy and still says it very often,” she added.
Christina plans to continue teaching Stella new words and phrases and has plans to teach other dogs how to “speak” as well.
“I think how important dogs are to their humans,” She says. “I just imagine how much deeper the bond will be.”
