Home SPORTS TikTok popular ‘talking’ dogs and cats spark interest in animal behaviour.

TikTok popular ‘talking’ dogs and cats spark interest in animal behaviour.

Michelle Pierce says her husky Lexi was a daddy’s girl until the 7-year-old rescue learned to communicate. Pierce and Lexi have a really charming and amusing TikTok account with little over 500,000 followers. Pierce adopted Lexi when she was 13 months old, and because she suffers from chronic sickness, she has recently begun seeking for something to occupy her time while she is confined to the house. She purchased FluentPet’s HexTiles, which you may have seen in viral videos of dogs pushing buttons to play recorded phrases and words that they use to communicate.

Lexi taps the buttons with her paw to transmit her demands, wants, and observations, which include phrases like “water,” “good girl,” and “rain.” Lexi now knows 42 words, according to Pierce, and she uses about 25 of them on a regular basis. The next word the couple will practise is “ouch,” so Lexi can express herself when something hurts or bothers her. Other pet owners indicated a similar wish to know when their pet was in pain, claiming that it may enhance their vet treatment.

“She’s one of those dogs who, when dad gets home, she’s all about dad,” Pierce adds. “Now me and her have our own thing, our own little thing, our own small discussions.”

Lexi is one of several canines who have gone popular on TikTok and other social media sites. They are following in the footsteps of dogs like Bunny, who has over 7 million TikTok followers and often creeps out her audience by asking questions like “Who this?” before glancing in the mirror. There’s also Stella, the original talking dog, who went famous after uploading videos on Instagram in 2019 and now has almost 1 million followers. Stella had a lot of assistance from her human, Christina Hunger, a speech-language pathologist and best-selling author of “How Stella Learned to Talk,” which recounts her process of putting buttons on a board and teaching Stella, a rescue dog, what the words mean.

Stella and the other talking dogs are all rescues. Abba Adams claims that during the epidemic, she and her assistance dog Flambo were bored to tears and began learning phrases with buttons. Adams said it made sense to her that if dogs understand the word “sit,” it implies “sit down.”
Flambo, who has over one million TikTok followers, now knows 42 words and is learning “treadmill,” “went,” and “swim.” Flambo was recently concerned about a new roommate being too noisy, because Adams’ roommate is a streamer who plays competitive video games that may become hot.
“The entire day was spent shouting. She was playing Rainbow Six: Siege “Adams explains. “Flambo continued saying, “loud,” “loud,” and “why.” He was perplexed.”

Although Adams and Pierce have amazing dogs, they are not the only species that uses buttons. Sarah Baker and her cat Justin Bieber, who has over 250,000 TikTok followers, both utilise buttons to communicate. Justin use the same FluentPet HexTiles as Pierce, Adams, and Bunny, and Baker estimates that he knows roughly 30 words. Justin, like Stella and Lexi, is a rescue that Baker acquired when the cat was just four months old. Similarly to the dogs, Baker claims that the buttons have evidently lessened Justin’s irritation. He’s less naughty and less likely to go about shrieking since he can express himself with words instead.

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