How Stella Learned to Talk: The Groundbreaking Story of the World's First Talking Dog

by Christina Hunger

When your dog is becoming more aware of your modeling, create communication opportunities within your routines When you see your dog noticing your modeling or noticing the buttons, turn your routine interactions into language-facilitating opportunities. The greatest cue we can provide is a long, silent pause to give the AAC user a chance to process what is happening and try exploring her words. When you see your dog communicate through a gesture or vocalization, stay quiet for at least ten to fifteen seconds. At the end of fifteen seconds, if your dog looks like she might be walking toward her buttons or is looking at them, continue staying quiet. If you have not seen an indication that she might try saying a word, add the next level of naturalistic cueing. Add naturalistic cues if necessary After you have already tried staying silent, you can try standing next to your dog’s buttons or pointing at them. Dogs respond to human gestural social cues as early as six weeks old! If pointing or standing near the buttons does not work, you can try tapping it with your finger or foot, not pushing it to activate it. You can also try adding an open-ended verbal prompt such as, “What do you want?” Avoid telling your dog exactly what to say or forcing your dog to push a button with their paw. This can cause prompt dependency and keep your dog from learning how to use words independently. If none of these prompts encourage your dog to try saying a word, simply model it again verbally and...