February 14, 2023 • 38 mins
Dogs are talking on social media! They hit buttons triggering prerecorded words that can inform their pet parents of their needs, their desires, their concerns, and even their opinions. But are they really communicating?
Could this just be some elaborate Internet hoax, or have we as human beings vastly underestimated the animal kingdom’s gift of gab? Think of the implications! Would you really want to know that your terrier thinks you’re an underachiever or that your shih tsu doesn’t trust your mate? And didn’t your defiled couch already send that message?
Jason and Peter spoke with some of social media’s superstar talking dogs and cats and their pet parents to try and get some answers.
And during their investigation they were presented with a whole host of surprising and astonishing animal behaviors that may just make you rethink what you decide to serve for dinner.
After listening to this episode, you’ll also be able answer the questions: What animal witnessed a murder and snitched to the police? And what armless and legless animal was able to drive a vehicle toward a visual target…Really? No really!
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:03):
Now really now really, Bill comin bienvenue. Welcome and hello
to another episode of Really No Really, the podcast that
explores things that make you go really really really really
(00:24):
really really really. I am Jason Alexander. You may know
me as an actor from stage screen television, which is
also a screen. I don't understand why they differentiate the
movie screen of TV screen. I don't understand things. That's
why I am joined by my good friend, a producer,
a writer, a long running radio personality here in Los Angeles,
Mr Peter Tilt and say Hello, good to see you,
(00:46):
Nice to see you as well. And in today's episode,
we're going to explore talking dogs really no really, because
they are all over the Internet and they are pressing
these recorded buttons and apparently expressing themselves to their owners,
but really because they're taught to use the soundboard, which
(01:08):
has these circular buttons. That these large recular buttons, they
are prerecorded words on them, so when they paw the button,
you can hear the word, and when they paw several
buttons to putting together these loosely structured sentences that may
be open to multiple interpretations if you know what I'm saying.
So We're gonna talk to the pet parents of Stella,
(01:29):
Stella the dog who kicked off this whole talking dog explosion.
And we're also going to talk to Bunny and her
own Bunny is the sheepadoodle who is immediate superstar. She
knows over ninety words and may have demonstrated self recognition
or self awareness. We're also going to find out if
cats can and will communicate the same way. And we're
(01:51):
going to meet a pirate that solved the murder. And
you're ready for this, an animal with no arms or
legs that was taught to drive. Really the big question,
oh Jay, because are we guilty of intentional ignorance where
we really don't want to know what animals were thinking
of feeling. Because if you were able to have an
actual dialogue with an animal, it would change a lot
(02:13):
of people's mind as far as their ability to look
at animals as food. So, keeping on with that in mind,
we had to find out from being a hunger tell
his mom where she got the idea to teach Stella
to start communicating. This all started out. I'm a speech
(02:34):
therapist and I worked with a lot of kids with
different disabilities who couldn't talk with verbal speech, and when
that happens, it's my job to find a different way
for them to say words. Because verbal speech isn't the
only way that we talk. It's just one form of language.
So there's all sorts of ways that we can say
words that people could potentially say words. And so when
(02:57):
I brought my dogs sell A home as a puppy,
I just saw how much she was already communicating like
any typical dog. Would you know, She's wagging her tail,
she's whining, she's barking, she's standing by the door, she's
using her eye contact to direct us towards something. And
I just kept thinking, you know, this is what kids
(03:17):
do right before they start saying words. And we know
that dogs understand words, they just don't have a way
to say them. So I wanted to give her the
opportunity to say words as well, just a different way.
And so when this started out, it was really simple.
I thought, you know, maybe she can just use a
few different buttons that say words to say things like outside,
(03:39):
she has to the bathroom, play and she wants us
to play or water if her dish is empty. But
that happened, but then it's taken off way more than that.
So now she's using words to to say our names,
to say how she's feeling, to say exactly what she
wants to tell us. When we're doing something wrong, she'll
(04:00):
tell us no, we're all done, or later. And so
they started off as just a really simple idea and
now it's this this insane relationship of my dog has
a say in what we do every single day and
she is really an equal part of our household now,
which is it really has taken off in that way.
(04:22):
But Christina, can you Instella on a quiet evening at
the dinner table and go deep and have a meaningful
conversations about important stuff like politics or science or the Kardashians.
You know, we're not having these like philosophical conversators or anything.
But what happens if she says, you know, Stella, go
out now play and you have to go. No. If
(04:45):
I know that she's been in the bathroom and she
doesn't have to go and she just wants to go
out or go to the park, but we're not able
to go or something, so I'll either say, um, like
no park or park later. If we're planning I go
into the park later. Then normally she'll ask for this
same thing in a different way, so she'll say something
like play outside, ball like a different way to or
(05:07):
come play outside. Have you ever recorded her when she's
alone in the house to see if she's communicating when
you're not there? Um, it was actually really heartbreaking. We
did record her when we left, and Stella has some
separation anxiety too, and so back thought everything was fine,
(05:28):
and we watched the video. Stella was pacing around our
apartment back and forth. She said where, and then how
old this heartbreaking noise? I've never heard her sound like before,
and just waited by the door. So the only thing
she said when we were gone was where, and sat
(05:48):
right by the door waiting for us to come back.
So that a bush heart breaking because it was it
was That was one of the moments that really got
to me and my husband of yeah, I mean we
(06:10):
felt terrible obviously when we came back and saw that
that's what she did when we were gone. Oh, it's fantastic. Wow,
that's great. More and more guilt. That's what I needed,
more guilt. Thank you by by now, thank you for
the technology, and with guilt, I have more guilt now,
all right, Great, someone gave me a puppy for Christmas.
(06:32):
And now I'm sure and I can believe because the guilt.
I can't handle the guilt. Oh my god, can you believe?
What are we doing? What are we doing? Buttons? What else?
What else? Yeah? This is this is what I feared.
That that now you know, you're you're now you're aware.
(06:54):
So what happened? You never leave the house. You always
take the dog. You're going to a Broadway show, you
take the dog? What is the what are what are
you doing? This is? This is a look at the
road we're down already. You're doing a couple of things.
Even you're paying either you're paying dog walkers or people
to come to the house for a tremendous amount of
money to keep the dog company. And then of course
the dog that pressed the button saying don't like dog walker,
(07:15):
get another person. I mean, if you're you're in hell.
Actually is lovely and he are we. So this begs
the question are we absolutely sure that this isn't some
random thing. I'm glad you're smart for bringing that up,
because the disclaiming asterisk is as nice as she is,
and she's launched this whole button pushing epidemic. Whenever this
(07:38):
kind of stuff has talked about, it's clever Hans, who's
who could do math and division and multiplication, who invertently,
inadvertently was given cues by his owner who wasn't even
aware that he was doing it. Really so, Jason, keeping
in mind, let's take this animal communication thing to the
next level and meet Bunny the sheepa doodle who actually
(08:00):
pressed buttons that said what dog is when she saw
herself in the mirror, asking the existential question about I'm
seeing me? What am I next? This whole next level stuff,
which is why Bunny has a million followers eighteen million
hits on one video, much more pompulent than you. This
is an amazing superstar, doug Um. She knows over a
(08:24):
hundred two words. According to alexis divine her pet parents.
And as I said, Alexus divine her parents. She s
thought Bunny how to speak using the Fitzgerald Key method.
Oh yes, yes, of course, the Fitzgerald Key method. The
alexis For those who may not be, you know, fully
aware of the Fitzgerald Key method, perhaps you could introduce
(08:44):
the concept to our listeners the Fitzgerald Key meth Okay, okay. So.
Edith Fitzgerald Um was a deaf woman and teacher in
the early nineteen hundreds who wanted to develop a method
by which deaf children could learn syntax and m so um. Sensibly,
the buttons are organized by sentence parts right, s vo
(09:06):
subject for objects, so that she could, in theory, move
from left to right and create a sentence. Really, how
do you get through a hundred buttons? And how do
you decide what a button says? How do you decide
to prioritize with the languages? Yeah, well, it's a lot
of getting getting to know your learner, right. Um, All
dogs are gonna be interested in different things. Um. Some
dogs are really interested in humping. Some dogs are really
(09:28):
interested in doing plants. Some dogs are really interested in
like a specific toy. So you want to get to
know them and m add words to the board that
you think they might be interested in communicating about. Do
you see what I see? Oh? Well, whoa, whoa? Excuse me?
What's with the barking? Here? What's with the barking? A
second ago she was a Rhodes scholar. Right, million jillion
followers the buttons, Now we got barking? She still she
(09:52):
she barks a lot. She still barks more than I'm
comfortable with. If you could get these animals to do,
one of the things besides sort of talking that they're doing,
is if they had one other sort of people's skill,
what would you trying? What would you want them to
be able to do? I don't probably drive me around.
I don't like anything. Right, Really, that's what you would want, Jason.
(10:14):
If you're if you had a dog and you could
get you want to just go out and talking? It
would be driving? No, what would it be? Uh? Two
things right now? I would say, make a huge living
so I could retire. Uh. And in about twenty years
from now, I would say, uh, you know, I'm infirmed.
They do everything for me. Prepare a meal, give me
(10:36):
my medication, uh called dial nine one one. You know
these are the important things. You want your dog baiting you?
Why not? Why did you go there? Don't want anybody
bathing me. It's like I guess when I'm when I'm
a hunter, rest soundly, you know what. No one wants
to bathe you. By the way, you know what dog
either invest wisely? Invest wise actually hawk so that I
(11:01):
can get a lot of money for taking it if
if she's at seven seven million TikTok follows, an actual
talking dog would blow Bunny out of the water. Bunny
would be unemployed. My luck, I'd have a dog that
would get me fine because it wouldn't be politically correct.
It would be either racist, misogynistic. Something horrible would happen
and I'd be censored right away with the dog. One
of my favorite moments with Bunny is when um Johnny
(11:24):
left to go pick up some take out in the evening,
and normally once he comes home after work, he's he's
home for the night. But but he left and she
walked over the board and looked at me and down
the buttons and said, we love you. Why went um?
So she's using like plural, she's using shared emotions, she's
asking a question, she's using past tense. It just sort
(11:45):
of blew my mind. And she did look in the mirror.
It was like one of the first cases of a
dog maybe self awareness. What did she say when she
looked at the mirror herself? Because usually dogs they say
they don't they have no self awareness and they don't
know that they're looking at themselves. What did Bunny say? Yeah?
So there were a couple of times where Um, she
looked in the mirror. She could see me, and she
could see herself, and I could see that she was
(12:06):
looking at herself and I said who this? And she
said hi, bunny or something like that, and then I
pointed to myself. I could see that she was making
eye contact with me, UM, and I said who this?
And she said yes, mom, something like that. I remember
the exact words, but it was it was pretty clear
that she had an understanding UM, based on what she
was communicating. And then there are times that I'll ask
(12:27):
her who that is and she'll say Ball. So who knows?
Is crazy? That's crazy because I look in the mirror frankly,
and I go, you have lost a lot of hair,
and I you know, that's what happens when I look
in the mirrorless. It's funny. Thank you so much for
coming on. It was a pleasure out. Hey, j what
do you think the dog started stuff in the mirror
(12:48):
and recognized the stuff? Yes, said Ball, What are we doing?
What are we doing here? What are we doing? All right?
I can't say you're wrong, but I do love your
greatest fear that your dog would talk and would say
something that get you and the dog can immediate racist
(13:09):
Where would where would the dog be picking up those notions?
And you know I saw some specific you have to
be carefully talk to. You know, it's that kind of thing.
I'm just saying, So, wow, I didn't do it. Well,
that's what I mean. The dog would go out on
the huge Howie Mandel and you know whoever on America's
(13:31):
got talent and they say, well, the whole episode tonight
is Peter Tilden's dog, and the dog would say something
completely horrible, right, and ay, they wouldn't believe the dogs
the careers are over and be exactly. They go right to, well,
he must have Yeah, I didn't tell him that, that's
what he's actually talking. Also, you know, I love that
(13:52):
she added buttons based on what she thought the dog
was interested in. My my my dog. May God bless
her and may she rest in peace. My dog went
to her grave with over a dozen kills. Sandy would
go out and kill, but she killed squirrel, she killed.
So you know, I'm afraid I'm like aiding and abetting
(14:14):
a serial killer. If I just put buttons on the
floor by the way her interests, you could put there
a bird, a squirrel, the kid next door with the
drum set. I'm already upset over this because you know
what this is. There's another opinion in the house. There's
(14:36):
somebody else weighing in. It's already this is my ass.
Look fat in this shirt. Now I got to ask
the dog, by the way, and what if the dog
is your mother? You're gonna go out in those pants?
Can you imagine under the breath commenting and remark and
that's just a dog, that's just from a dog. Thank
(14:57):
God that I only had a dug. Can you imagine
if I have cat? I mean I can't because I'm
allergic to cats. But they look opinionated. I think you're
different from dog because they're going, hey, if you're going out,
I need a couple of things. That's what it cats like.
(15:26):
So now we asked the question can a cat be
taught to use the button word system? And the answer
will go to Billy, who's a thirteen year old domestic
cat lives in Florida with her cat parent. Kendra Baker,
a veterinarian who during the COVID lockdown, was inspired by
Christina Hunger and her dog Stella, and like Bunny is
(15:49):
part of the ongoing research project called They Can Talk.
The goal is to understand if animals can communicate with
humans through these A A C devices, these button devices.
And yes, it's true this that he is mostly made
up of dogs, but about five percent of the animals
using A A C devices are now felines. Kendra Billy
has a fifty word board now. But when you began,
(16:12):
what were her first words? I mean, truly, it was
the food one. Um, you know, the first button that
we used. I would pair it every single time that
we would feed her, and I would press the button
and I would give her some food, and she very
very quickly, Billy is incredibly food motivated. She very quickly
was like, I know something that this button does, but
I'm not quite sure exactly how I do it. And
(16:34):
so that was the next stage where she was kind of,
you know, playing the drums around it and um. And
then three and a half weeks in she pressed it
for the first time and I just showered her in
food and a little the bathroom. Right now, I'm going
(16:57):
to put on the food shower and perfect. Everyone needs it.
So after that, you know, we focused more on the
concrete words, the ones that are a lot easier for
me to say, like if I press this button, you
get this thing. So we moved on to pets. Every
time I press the button, she'd get some pets, and
she's she's a very tactile cat, so she really enjoys
that a lot of cats are not. So it may
not be the most rewarding. Are there abstract words or
(17:19):
emotional words that Billy uses? I guess the first abstract
word that we landed on was mad because cat right. Um.
So she got that in about three modeling times. Um.
So there were three instances, one when I told her
she could have food later, and two where I moved
her off my lap when we were cuddling. And the
fourth time that I moved her off my lap, she
(17:40):
marked right over that mad button and she smacked it
and it was like I had given her this thing
that she had been wanting to tell me for her
entire life. And she uses that button with so much emotion. Wow.
What when did she use it? By the way, now?
What other Well, the most recent one was when she
asked me to come. So she has a come button, um,
(18:00):
which I kind of thought that I would use for her,
but it turns out she uses it for me. Um
and um. I was washing the dishes and um. She
pressed the come button and I told her I'd be
right there, and I said I'd come soon, And when
I walked over, she pressed mad, mad, and then she
pressed before where, And I basically had to explain to
my cat my actions and why I did not answer immediately.
(18:23):
So that's an interesting thing that I do now one
a nightmare. Does Billy actually understand what you answer back?
Using non button words to answer? This is a foreign
language to Billy write English? What what's going on? So
I imagine, because I've learned a couple of foreign languages
where I can sit in the conversation and understand the
gist of what's going on, but I can't participate in it.
(18:46):
So I feel like that's maybe where we're at right now,
where she potentially understands more than what she is able
to press. That being said, I'm a scientist at heart,
and I am still skeptical about the entire thing. Is there?
If you don't mind me asking, is there a significant other?
Because I always wonder about these animals you talk about, mad,
(19:06):
if this cat, if cat sees you having sex with
a significant other. You don't have a button for that.
My significant other is going to kill me for this.
But when we have sex, he says inside pets to
Billy and then walks into the bedroom. So, UM, I
don't know, you have to edit. He's gonna kill me.
(19:27):
So honestly no. To back up, my significant other is
incredibly supportive. Um, he truly believes do you have a button?
This inside? And with this demand that you yes? No.
Data is a family show. Let's let's veer from the
(19:49):
Prairian interests. Kendra, how is your relationship to Billy change?
Do you do you as a result of this? Do
you feel closer? Um? I mean she's a very social
cats so we always kind of have done things together.
But I will say that the buttons have kind of,
um deepened her interest level more than anything. So now
(20:11):
instead of just kind of like doing her own thing
while we're in the house together, she's constantly buy me
and she's always looking at what I'm doing. Now. Um,
it's it's very different behavior. Have you ever left a camera,
a video camera running when when the house is empty
to see if she's interacting with the buttons? And if so,
what does she say, yeah, she does not use them
(20:31):
when no one's in the house. Really, she uses them
if we're in another room, um, and she knows we're here.
But the motion we have motion sense in cameras and
it has never picked up her using the buttons when
she is alone these things. And I am curious. I
hate to go there with you. But you know, in
the thirteen year old cat, I wonder what the last
words of all these talking animals on the internet. Yeah,
you know, it's interesting. There's a I don't know if
(20:54):
you've seen Bastion and Bruce. Um, he's a little terrier
that uses buttons. And they have two cats where they
had two cats and one of the cats who never
used buttons, but her her last word was goodbye, and
then she died. No time that she ever used the buttons.
(21:15):
I want to blame. That's not random because other button
it has been hit. Billy's gonna say mad, and then
she's just going to piece out it's gonna be fine.
This was a dog or captain said goodbye the cat.
The cat never never used the button, never used about
your fault, your fault, it's my entire family would be
(21:40):
pressing your for your your fault, your fault. Yeah, I
blame you, so kay. Speaking of last words and how
we project and the human communication and stories getting bellished.
(22:02):
Cocoa the Gorilla who lived to Santa Cruz Mountains Preserve
for the Gorilla Foundation and new a new American sign
language and that signed over a thousand words and understand
two thousand, did a final message right before she died
about the planet Earth is going and man is stupid
and it's time hurry fixed Earth, help Earth, hurry protector Earth,
(22:22):
thank you, and then through a seven that didn't happen.
Those one of her final words. It was a p S.
A that she filmed three years before she died that
was totally edited. And I'm sure there are a lot
of banata streets of banana chifts and streets involved. So
it was it was not her final words. It became
it was. It was an urban lantern. She was doing
this edited highly edited p s. A. Wait a minute,
(22:45):
Coco the Gorilla did a public service announcement. Yeah, look,
it took a job away from the sponsor. First of all, Yes,
took a job away. Jason. I'm the I'm the face
of the blue of the flu vaccine by I don't
need a rabbit replacing me on that it's gone. I
think it was the organization that that they said, hey,
(23:08):
you know what, we need a spokesperson and went to
Coco the girlas think. I think it was like World
Peace Day. And by the way, Coco apparently he's a
really good agent. Okay, can we did your d find
out who is representing Coco? Did your guy? And by
the way, this apparent is gonna be your favorite thing.
Witness witness murder in Michigan, Glenna Dorham shot, shot her husband,
(23:34):
shoot your husband, Martin, and then shoots yourself in a suicide.
That failed. Problem was there was one witness, and that
was Bud. They're African great parents. And here's what Bud said,
and he imitated the voice during the fight, don't shoot,
and then this is what he said he saw unbelievable.
(24:01):
So what was what just happened there? What did I hear?
What was that? A fight? A fight cursing and in
the person's voice, don't eff and shoot. So meanwhile, really,
Mrs ms Durham was not guilty your first degree murder
after only one day of dry deliberation. Of course, they
(24:21):
couldn't use his testimony, because how did the birds swear
and raise your right wing? Well? Can I ask a
stupid question? She's willing to take out her husband. She
didn't think. Maybe she bird disappears. She's you know, not
(24:42):
everybody thinks of everything. It was a murder suicide. She
didn't think. What kind of a murderer is? This leaves
behind an eye, witnesses screaming all over the room. Birds
are are obviously brilliant. But I think you're gonna be
blown away by other animals. And you can play along
with the Squisite Home. Oh, here we go here, this
(25:04):
will be great, Ladies and gentlemen, no doubt, a regular
feature the highly relevant really no really quiz designed to
make me look like a moron. Oh please, don't be
so negative by yourself. Probably right, but don't be so negative.
And you can play along with the Squisite Home other
animals to do things that will have you look at
them completely different when you find out how intelligent there?
You want to play? All right? Currently, Currently, according to
(25:26):
quite a few studies, how many animals are thought to
be able to pass the miracust, which means they can
recognize themselves in the mirror to five or eight. I'm
gonna say five, eight, eight animals names free, Okay, I'm bad,
name three, I'm already eight. I don't a cat, and
orangutan okay, Asian elephants, chimpanzees, Orangutan's guerrillas, bottlenose dolphins, or
(25:52):
the whales, Eurasian magpies, which are the first non mammal species,
and and ants according to a published research. No, when
they're looking at themselves in the mirror. Did you not
say to me moments ago that one of these dogs
of the cat looked at itself in the mirror and
wand what color? But that was me one off? That
(26:13):
was a one off. That's bunny and he and Bunny
doesn't do it all the time. You're very confusing. I
think you set me up for chimpanzeese, orangutans, groas botting,
those dolphins and bunny bunnies one off. So let's move right.
People hate bats. People hate bats, but they're useful. They
can eat up to how many insects per d eight
(26:35):
hundred or a thousand. Let me tell you something. My
family took a trip in the Grand Canyon. The bats
come out every night. And you, you, you are so
grateful to them because the flies and the mosquitoes, I
think a single bat. I don't want to go for
the biggest number. I'll go for the second biggest number,
eight hundred, eight hundred insects and then thousand. How about that?
I should have gone for the biggest number, the biggest
(26:57):
one I hate. But the first two questions you have
indicated to me. Always go for the biggest number. All right,
I'm ready for the third question. Elephants have a specific
alarm call just for humans. True or false? I need
the biggest number. I need numbers. You changed it up. Yes,
(27:17):
it's true, It's true. It is right, very true. They've
been known to go that's the guy from sim A
Pig's Orgasm last thirty minutes two or false? Oh that boy,
that was such a Paul Lynn to set up for
that question A Pig's Orgasm last. But the first thing
I thought of. The first thing I thought of when
(27:37):
I came up with this is how did they time it?
And then the next thing I thought of is, so
my nephew Jake finally got a job. Last nummer, let's
send you know, Mr Rowan from Dirty Jobs, Mike, go
go figure it out. Time, Hey, pig, pig, Well, you
(27:57):
know what, they've been given such a a rural deal
everywhere else. Let's say, yes, the nature gave them. It's true,
it's true, and that's not necessarily an intelligence test. But
you know what, no pigs are considered Pigs are considered
the fourth most intelligent animal after chimp's, dolphins and elephants.
How about that? Really, isn't that that? DEEA? I know,
(28:18):
I know, I have a friend who has a train
pig at home, sleeps in the bed. The whole bit.
Dolphins used toxic pupper fish to get high true or false.
Not just dolphins. It's not just dolphins. Boy, all of
a sudden, we hit here specially pretty amazing. My, my,
my cousin Lewis, you have constantly looking up bustle pufferfish.
(28:40):
Dolphins actually get them to release the toxins as a defense.
They're deadly if they're released in high doses, but they
have an narcotic effect and are strong hallucinogenic, and they
seem to dig it. This one is one of my favorite.
Wombats poop in cubes. When they poop, it comes out
in a cube. That's not an intellient din not how
did we get into this is not intelligence. They're not
(29:02):
sitting there going you know what. You know what if
a certain way I can get a pyramid, then you
got me. The fact that any animal poops to fit
in the Young Fisher Price Toy Shapes game. It was
so stunned to me because you encoded it. Yeah, you
(29:24):
just in an animal intelligence squizz. Okay, you got you
got me? All right, all right, all right, obviously humans
aren't that smart. Alright, j question, you know what time
it is. It's time to reveal, at least to me,
the animal with no arms or legs that can drive
a car. Researchers Sasher give On isn't Israel At the
(29:50):
Being Green University where he is a professor and taught
a goldfish how to drive, he placed the tank really
really no, no, really really, it's so unstven. If you
put a fish on a robotic platform and target to
navigate to a target. Fish don't drive cars. So we
(30:14):
had to train them to understand what we want them
to do. The fish had to get accustomed to visual
target that is placed in the arena which it sees
through the walls of the water tank. The fish had
to understand that this is the target it needs to
navigate too. Every time it gets to the target, we
(30:37):
award it with a food pellet. Wow. Wow. Go ahead,
let me tell you my conclusion from telling them to
do something really insightful. Here we go. I believe conclusively
we have proven the professor Chahar Givon of Israel has
(30:58):
a lot of time on his hands. Thing is what
we have learned. It took him ten days. It took
him ten days ten days. Both fairly took both of them.
It took both of them ten days. It took a
goldfish ten days to learn how to drive the tank.
What is the lifespan of a fish? Because anecdotally from
(31:21):
in my home, it's it's about thirteen days. So for
ten days, for of his working life, this fish is
learning how to drive. On day ten, he goes, unbelievable.
I have such what's lies ahead of me now with
this ability to drive, I am gonna with the things
(31:41):
I'm gonna do. Book belly up, I mean, excuse me.
Goldfish on average lived ten to fifteen years, and according
to Adam Jones, the editor of the Goldfish Tank website,
given adequate housing and air, goldfish can live up to
(32:02):
thirty years. We can't determine animals intelligence when you think
that a goldfish can do that, can figure out how
to navigate. And by the way, rats are People hate rats,
their vermin the lowest, the lowest grade category we can do.
And yet they're clean, they're smart, they get friendships. We
use them in labs because two reasons. Number one, they're
(32:22):
really smart, and number two, you don't get a whole
lot of pushback from people. Go and save the rats
marching with signs, especially in New York. So we really
it makes me we're joking a lot, but it makes
me look at these animals really differently about how we
classify them, why we classify them, because then you got
to treat them differently. I mean, this takes us into
(32:43):
we teet it up at the beginning. It takes us
into all kinds of ethical questions about how we treat
our animals, the assumptions that we make, even our pet
animals who we love in the door and think that
we're treating right, but they are subservient to our whims
and wishes exactly different perception. Quote and brendan comedian to us,
Marley and me heartwarming movie to our dogs. It's the
(33:04):
movie taken with Liam Neeson and it's not showing up
ever or any kind. You've hit a dog for how
many years? Okay you've heard you heard your dog bark
all the time. Yeah, how smart a we can you
identify barks? Would? We asked them to figure out what
we're doing? Play the smart play on the bark, can
(33:25):
see if they're chasing us? What the dog saying? Good?
What's you're saying? Oh, that one's actually pretty simple. That
dog is it's going up, Get up, Get up. You
can hear it. Get up. I actually happen to know
from its owner was saying, please don't take me to
be neutered. To play the next one. Play the next clip.
See that that sounds a bit more like please don't
(33:47):
take me to be neutered. In fact, there's a veiled
threat behind that one that says, if you take me
to be neutered, I'm not the only one losing my
my genitals today. So that's all. We'll save time because
we have the ten clips. They're all saying please don't.
But it is the point being you live with a dog.
(34:07):
You never took the time other than looking at the
dog standy like on the door. You never discerned what
the dog's world was about. What are you saying? Often
I would actually, I would have now, this is how
crazy this is. She was a puppy right after nine
eleven happened, and I would come home. You and I
were working on our show Bob Patterson, and I'd come
(34:28):
home after a late night and I'd be in the
kitchen with her and we would talk about the world,
and we would talk about I would I would actually say, there,
how how does it seem to you? Are we gonna
be okay? Is everything gonna be okay? And uh? She
was very comforting. She also assured me that our show
would be a success and would run for nine seasons.
And she didn't know everything, you know, she's no buddy. Oddly,
(34:48):
when I'd work at your house and we'd sit at
the armor in the dining room working, when you went
to the bathroom something, Sandy would pull me aside and go, oh,
he talked, and don't shut up at night in a downer.
It's just all negative. He can't find any positive to
say about the world. I remember being in high school
and hearing about the studies where they put two plants
next to each other and they hooked up electrodes to
(35:10):
the plants so they could get the energy, you know,
whatever was coming off. And then they took one plant
and they ripped it apart, and the plant next to
it freaked out. So there's no good we there's nothing
we can do. Every time we plow a we field,
there are hundreds of What the hell did I I
(35:36):
have a right to live, Let me live. We do
have a definitive close though. We do have a proof
the dogs talk because we just didn't want to go
out and leave your hanging. No, we would never do
that to our audience. And by the way, we're not
talking about buttons. Lower forms of animals can communicate with buttons.
We have an actual talking animal, right there is Yeah,
(36:07):
he said Lord Jason and Peter. This is triumph the
insult comic dog saying no, of course dogs can't talk.
What a ridiculous notion. And thank God for that, right,
I mean, don't we have enough crappy podcast already? Whoops
said apparently not I kid. I gave Jason You're the
(36:32):
best you act, you seeing you dance, you starting TV shows,
and now you have a podcast. Is there anything you
can't fail at? Again A Keith, There it is Triumph
the Talking Dog defended, the proof of the dog and Talk.
(36:53):
Thanks to our guests, Triumph, the comic insult Dog and
the hand up Triumph if you know what I'm saying
to Controls Triumph, Robert Smigo, thank you so much. Yeah,
and of course a thanks to the woman who kicked
this whole talking dog thing on the internet off, Christina
Hunger and her dog Stella. You can find more about
how all of this happened to group at Hunger for
Words dot com or find her book How Stella Learned
(37:16):
to Talk, The groundbreaking story of the world's first Talking Dog.
And also a very big thank you to Electras Divine
and her wonderful dog Buddy. You can find them on
TikTok and YouTube at what About Bunny. A huge thank
you also to zoom law La veterinarian Kindred Baker and
her amazing cat Billy. You can find them on Instagram
and YouTube at Billy Speaks and Billy is with than
(37:36):
I B I L L I. To learn more about
the science by the way underlying all this talking, check
out that they can talk, study that they can Talk
dot org special shoutout also to comedian Neil brand and
I used one of his jokes. I gave him credit
for it, but his special is wonderful. It's called Blocks
and it's on Netflix. And to check out the clip
of scientists teaching the golds to show to drive, go
to Science Focus dot com, Backs Blast, News Back Flash,
(38:00):
Goldfish Thought to Drive. We use a clip and we
wanted to give them credit for that. And the article's
great too. And as always, a thank you to our
producers Lorie Crime and David Guggenheim a k a. David
Google I'm and thank you to our writer researchers Zach Williams.
Find out more about really No related podcast go to
Really No Really dot com or check us out on Instagram,
(38:22):
TikTok and Facebook. That Really No Really podcast and we
released new episodes every single Tuesday. Used to follow us
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever
you get your podcast
Now really now really, Bill comin bienvenue. Welcome and hello
to another episode of Really No Really, the podcast that
explores things that make you go really really really really
(00:24):
really really really. I am Jason Alexander. You may know
me as an actor from stage screen television, which is
also a screen. I don't understand why they differentiate the
movie screen of TV screen. I don't understand things. That's
why I am joined by my good friend, a producer,
a writer, a long running radio personality here in Los Angeles,
Mr Peter Tilt and say Hello, good to see you,
(00:46):
Nice to see you as well. And in today's episode,
we're going to explore talking dogs really no really, because
they are all over the Internet and they are pressing
these recorded buttons and apparently expressing themselves to their owners,
but really because they're taught to use the soundboard, which
(01:08):
has these circular buttons. That these large recular buttons, they
are prerecorded words on them, so when they paw the button,
you can hear the word, and when they paw several
buttons to putting together these loosely structured sentences that may
be open to multiple interpretations if you know what I'm saying.
So We're gonna talk to the pet parents of Stella,
(01:29):
Stella the dog who kicked off this whole talking dog explosion.
And we're also going to talk to Bunny and her
own Bunny is the sheepadoodle who is immediate superstar. She
knows over ninety words and may have demonstrated self recognition
or self awareness. We're also going to find out if
cats can and will communicate the same way. And we're
(01:51):
going to meet a pirate that solved the murder. And
you're ready for this, an animal with no arms or
legs that was taught to drive. Really the big question,
oh Jay, because are we guilty of intentional ignorance where
we really don't want to know what animals were thinking
of feeling. Because if you were able to have an
actual dialogue with an animal, it would change a lot
(02:13):
of people's mind as far as their ability to look
at animals as food. So, keeping on with that in mind,
we had to find out from being a hunger tell
his mom where she got the idea to teach Stella
to start communicating. This all started out. I'm a speech
(02:34):
therapist and I worked with a lot of kids with
different disabilities who couldn't talk with verbal speech, and when
that happens, it's my job to find a different way
for them to say words. Because verbal speech isn't the
only way that we talk. It's just one form of language.
So there's all sorts of ways that we can say
words that people could potentially say words. And so when
(02:57):
I brought my dogs sell A home as a puppy,
I just saw how much she was already communicating like
any typical dog. Would you know, She's wagging her tail,
she's whining, she's barking, she's standing by the door, she's
using her eye contact to direct us towards something. And
I just kept thinking, you know, this is what kids
(03:17):
do right before they start saying words. And we know
that dogs understand words, they just don't have a way
to say them. So I wanted to give her the
opportunity to say words as well, just a different way.
And so when this started out, it was really simple.
I thought, you know, maybe she can just use a
few different buttons that say words to say things like outside,
(03:39):
she has to the bathroom, play and she wants us
to play or water if her dish is empty. But
that happened, but then it's taken off way more than that.
So now she's using words to to say our names,
to say how she's feeling, to say exactly what she
wants to tell us. When we're doing something wrong, she'll
(04:00):
tell us no, we're all done, or later. And so
they started off as just a really simple idea and
now it's this this insane relationship of my dog has
a say in what we do every single day and
she is really an equal part of our household now,
which is it really has taken off in that way.
(04:22):
But Christina, can you Instella on a quiet evening at
the dinner table and go deep and have a meaningful
conversations about important stuff like politics or science or the Kardashians.
You know, we're not having these like philosophical conversators or anything.
But what happens if she says, you know, Stella, go
out now play and you have to go. No. If
(04:45):
I know that she's been in the bathroom and she
doesn't have to go and she just wants to go
out or go to the park, but we're not able
to go or something, so I'll either say, um, like
no park or park later. If we're planning I go
into the park later. Then normally she'll ask for this
same thing in a different way, so she'll say something
like play outside, ball like a different way to or
(05:07):
come play outside. Have you ever recorded her when she's
alone in the house to see if she's communicating when
you're not there? Um, it was actually really heartbreaking. We
did record her when we left, and Stella has some
separation anxiety too, and so back thought everything was fine,
(05:28):
and we watched the video. Stella was pacing around our
apartment back and forth. She said where, and then how
old this heartbreaking noise? I've never heard her sound like before,
and just waited by the door. So the only thing
she said when we were gone was where, and sat
(05:48):
right by the door waiting for us to come back.
So that a bush heart breaking because it was it
was That was one of the moments that really got
to me and my husband of yeah, I mean we
(06:10):
felt terrible obviously when we came back and saw that
that's what she did when we were gone. Oh, it's fantastic. Wow,
that's great. More and more guilt. That's what I needed,
more guilt. Thank you by by now, thank you for
the technology, and with guilt, I have more guilt now,
all right, Great, someone gave me a puppy for Christmas.
(06:32):
And now I'm sure and I can believe because the guilt.
I can't handle the guilt. Oh my god, can you believe?
What are we doing? What are we doing? Buttons? What else?
What else? Yeah? This is this is what I feared.
That that now you know, you're you're now you're aware.
(06:54):
So what happened? You never leave the house. You always
take the dog. You're going to a Broadway show, you
take the dog? What is the what are what are
you doing? This is? This is a look at the
road we're down already. You're doing a couple of things.
Even you're paying either you're paying dog walkers or people
to come to the house for a tremendous amount of
money to keep the dog company. And then of course
the dog that pressed the button saying don't like dog walker,
(07:15):
get another person. I mean, if you're you're in hell.
Actually is lovely and he are we. So this begs
the question are we absolutely sure that this isn't some
random thing. I'm glad you're smart for bringing that up,
because the disclaiming asterisk is as nice as she is,
and she's launched this whole button pushing epidemic. Whenever this
(07:38):
kind of stuff has talked about, it's clever Hans, who's
who could do math and division and multiplication, who invertently,
inadvertently was given cues by his owner who wasn't even
aware that he was doing it. Really so, Jason, keeping
in mind, let's take this animal communication thing to the
next level and meet Bunny the sheepa doodle who actually
(08:00):
pressed buttons that said what dog is when she saw
herself in the mirror, asking the existential question about I'm
seeing me? What am I next? This whole next level stuff,
which is why Bunny has a million followers eighteen million
hits on one video, much more pompulent than you. This
is an amazing superstar, doug Um. She knows over a
(08:24):
hundred two words. According to alexis divine her pet parents.
And as I said, Alexus divine her parents. She s
thought Bunny how to speak using the Fitzgerald Key method.
Oh yes, yes, of course, the Fitzgerald Key method. The
alexis For those who may not be, you know, fully
aware of the Fitzgerald Key method, perhaps you could introduce
(08:44):
the concept to our listeners the Fitzgerald Key meth Okay, okay. So.
Edith Fitzgerald Um was a deaf woman and teacher in
the early nineteen hundreds who wanted to develop a method
by which deaf children could learn syntax and m so um. Sensibly,
the buttons are organized by sentence parts right, s vo
(09:06):
subject for objects, so that she could, in theory, move
from left to right and create a sentence. Really, how
do you get through a hundred buttons? And how do
you decide what a button says? How do you decide
to prioritize with the languages? Yeah, well, it's a lot
of getting getting to know your learner, right. Um, All
dogs are gonna be interested in different things. Um. Some
dogs are really interested in humping. Some dogs are really
(09:28):
interested in doing plants. Some dogs are really interested in
like a specific toy. So you want to get to
know them and m add words to the board that
you think they might be interested in communicating about. Do
you see what I see? Oh? Well, whoa, whoa? Excuse me?
What's with the barking? Here? What's with the barking? A
second ago she was a Rhodes scholar. Right, million jillion
followers the buttons, Now we got barking? She still she
(09:52):
she barks a lot. She still barks more than I'm
comfortable with. If you could get these animals to do,
one of the things besides sort of talking that they're doing,
is if they had one other sort of people's skill,
what would you trying? What would you want them to
be able to do? I don't probably drive me around.
I don't like anything. Right, Really, that's what you would want, Jason.
(10:14):
If you're if you had a dog and you could
get you want to just go out and talking? It
would be driving? No, what would it be? Uh? Two
things right now? I would say, make a huge living
so I could retire. Uh. And in about twenty years
from now, I would say, uh, you know, I'm infirmed.
They do everything for me. Prepare a meal, give me
(10:36):
my medication, uh called dial nine one one. You know
these are the important things. You want your dog baiting you?
Why not? Why did you go there? Don't want anybody
bathing me. It's like I guess when I'm when I'm
a hunter, rest soundly, you know what. No one wants
to bathe you. By the way, you know what dog
either invest wisely? Invest wise actually hawk so that I
(11:01):
can get a lot of money for taking it if
if she's at seven seven million TikTok follows, an actual
talking dog would blow Bunny out of the water. Bunny
would be unemployed. My luck, I'd have a dog that
would get me fine because it wouldn't be politically correct.
It would be either racist, misogynistic. Something horrible would happen
and I'd be censored right away with the dog. One
of my favorite moments with Bunny is when um Johnny
(11:24):
left to go pick up some take out in the evening,
and normally once he comes home after work, he's he's
home for the night. But but he left and she
walked over the board and looked at me and down
the buttons and said, we love you. Why went um?
So she's using like plural, she's using shared emotions, she's
asking a question, she's using past tense. It just sort
(11:45):
of blew my mind. And she did look in the mirror.
It was like one of the first cases of a
dog maybe self awareness. What did she say when she
looked at the mirror herself? Because usually dogs they say
they don't they have no self awareness and they don't
know that they're looking at themselves. What did Bunny say? Yeah?
So there were a couple of times where Um, she
looked in the mirror. She could see me, and she
could see herself, and I could see that she was
(12:06):
looking at herself and I said who this? And she
said hi, bunny or something like that, and then I
pointed to myself. I could see that she was making
eye contact with me, UM, and I said who this?
And she said yes, mom, something like that. I remember
the exact words, but it was it was pretty clear
that she had an understanding UM, based on what she
was communicating. And then there are times that I'll ask
(12:27):
her who that is and she'll say Ball. So who knows?
Is crazy? That's crazy because I look in the mirror frankly,
and I go, you have lost a lot of hair,
and I you know, that's what happens when I look
in the mirrorless. It's funny. Thank you so much for
coming on. It was a pleasure out. Hey, j what
do you think the dog started stuff in the mirror
(12:48):
and recognized the stuff? Yes, said Ball, What are we doing?
What are we doing here? What are we doing? All right?
I can't say you're wrong, but I do love your
greatest fear that your dog would talk and would say
something that get you and the dog can immediate racist
(13:09):
Where would where would the dog be picking up those notions?
And you know I saw some specific you have to
be carefully talk to. You know, it's that kind of thing.
I'm just saying, So, wow, I didn't do it. Well,
that's what I mean. The dog would go out on
the huge Howie Mandel and you know whoever on America's
(13:31):
got talent and they say, well, the whole episode tonight
is Peter Tilden's dog, and the dog would say something
completely horrible, right, and ay, they wouldn't believe the dogs
the careers are over and be exactly. They go right to, well,
he must have Yeah, I didn't tell him that, that's
what he's actually talking. Also, you know, I love that
(13:52):
she added buttons based on what she thought the dog
was interested in. My my my dog. May God bless
her and may she rest in peace. My dog went
to her grave with over a dozen kills. Sandy would
go out and kill, but she killed squirrel, she killed.
So you know, I'm afraid I'm like aiding and abetting
(14:14):
a serial killer. If I just put buttons on the
floor by the way her interests, you could put there
a bird, a squirrel, the kid next door with the
drum set. I'm already upset over this because you know
what this is. There's another opinion in the house. There's
(14:36):
somebody else weighing in. It's already this is my ass.
Look fat in this shirt. Now I got to ask
the dog, by the way, and what if the dog
is your mother? You're gonna go out in those pants?
Can you imagine under the breath commenting and remark and
that's just a dog, that's just from a dog. Thank
(14:57):
God that I only had a dug. Can you imagine
if I have cat? I mean I can't because I'm
allergic to cats. But they look opinionated. I think you're
different from dog because they're going, hey, if you're going out,
I need a couple of things. That's what it cats like.
(15:26):
So now we asked the question can a cat be
taught to use the button word system? And the answer
will go to Billy, who's a thirteen year old domestic
cat lives in Florida with her cat parent. Kendra Baker,
a veterinarian who during the COVID lockdown, was inspired by
Christina Hunger and her dog Stella, and like Bunny is
(15:49):
part of the ongoing research project called They Can Talk.
The goal is to understand if animals can communicate with
humans through these A A C devices, these button devices.
And yes, it's true this that he is mostly made
up of dogs, but about five percent of the animals
using A A C devices are now felines. Kendra Billy
has a fifty word board now. But when you began,
(16:12):
what were her first words? I mean, truly, it was
the food one. Um, you know, the first button that
we used. I would pair it every single time that
we would feed her, and I would press the button
and I would give her some food, and she very
very quickly, Billy is incredibly food motivated. She very quickly
was like, I know something that this button does, but
I'm not quite sure exactly how I do it. And
(16:34):
so that was the next stage where she was kind of,
you know, playing the drums around it and um. And
then three and a half weeks in she pressed it
for the first time and I just showered her in
food and a little the bathroom. Right now, I'm going
(16:57):
to put on the food shower and perfect. Everyone needs it.
So after that, you know, we focused more on the
concrete words, the ones that are a lot easier for
me to say, like if I press this button, you
get this thing. So we moved on to pets. Every
time I press the button, she'd get some pets, and
she's she's a very tactile cat, so she really enjoys
that a lot of cats are not. So it may
not be the most rewarding. Are there abstract words or
(17:19):
emotional words that Billy uses? I guess the first abstract
word that we landed on was mad because cat right. Um.
So she got that in about three modeling times. Um.
So there were three instances, one when I told her
she could have food later, and two where I moved
her off my lap when we were cuddling. And the
fourth time that I moved her off my lap, she
(17:40):
marked right over that mad button and she smacked it
and it was like I had given her this thing
that she had been wanting to tell me for her
entire life. And she uses that button with so much emotion. Wow.
What when did she use it? By the way, now?
What other Well, the most recent one was when she
asked me to come. So she has a come button, um,
(18:00):
which I kind of thought that I would use for her,
but it turns out she uses it for me. Um
and um. I was washing the dishes and um. She
pressed the come button and I told her I'd be
right there, and I said I'd come soon, And when
I walked over, she pressed mad, mad, and then she
pressed before where, And I basically had to explain to
my cat my actions and why I did not answer immediately.
(18:23):
So that's an interesting thing that I do now one
a nightmare. Does Billy actually understand what you answer back?
Using non button words to answer? This is a foreign
language to Billy write English? What what's going on? So
I imagine, because I've learned a couple of foreign languages
where I can sit in the conversation and understand the
gist of what's going on, but I can't participate in it.
(18:46):
So I feel like that's maybe where we're at right now,
where she potentially understands more than what she is able
to press. That being said, I'm a scientist at heart,
and I am still skeptical about the entire thing. Is there?
If you don't mind me asking, is there a significant other?
Because I always wonder about these animals you talk about, mad,
(19:06):
if this cat, if cat sees you having sex with
a significant other. You don't have a button for that.
My significant other is going to kill me for this.
But when we have sex, he says inside pets to
Billy and then walks into the bedroom. So, UM, I
don't know, you have to edit. He's gonna kill me.
(19:27):
So honestly no. To back up, my significant other is
incredibly supportive. Um, he truly believes do you have a button?
This inside? And with this demand that you yes? No.
Data is a family show. Let's let's veer from the
(19:49):
Prairian interests. Kendra, how is your relationship to Billy change?
Do you do you as a result of this? Do
you feel closer? Um? I mean she's a very social
cats so we always kind of have done things together.
But I will say that the buttons have kind of,
um deepened her interest level more than anything. So now
(20:11):
instead of just kind of like doing her own thing
while we're in the house together, she's constantly buy me
and she's always looking at what I'm doing. Now. Um,
it's it's very different behavior. Have you ever left a camera,
a video camera running when when the house is empty
to see if she's interacting with the buttons? And if so,
what does she say, yeah, she does not use them
(20:31):
when no one's in the house. Really, she uses them
if we're in another room, um, and she knows we're here.
But the motion we have motion sense in cameras and
it has never picked up her using the buttons when
she is alone these things. And I am curious. I
hate to go there with you. But you know, in
the thirteen year old cat, I wonder what the last
words of all these talking animals on the internet. Yeah,
you know, it's interesting. There's a I don't know if
(20:54):
you've seen Bastion and Bruce. Um, he's a little terrier
that uses buttons. And they have two cats where they
had two cats and one of the cats who never
used buttons, but her her last word was goodbye, and
then she died. No time that she ever used the buttons.
(21:15):
I want to blame. That's not random because other button
it has been hit. Billy's gonna say mad, and then
she's just going to piece out it's gonna be fine.
This was a dog or captain said goodbye the cat.
The cat never never used the button, never used about
your fault, your fault, it's my entire family would be
(21:40):
pressing your for your your fault, your fault. Yeah, I
blame you, so kay. Speaking of last words and how
we project and the human communication and stories getting bellished.
(22:02):
Cocoa the Gorilla who lived to Santa Cruz Mountains Preserve
for the Gorilla Foundation and new a new American sign
language and that signed over a thousand words and understand
two thousand, did a final message right before she died
about the planet Earth is going and man is stupid
and it's time hurry fixed Earth, help Earth, hurry protector Earth,
(22:22):
thank you, and then through a seven that didn't happen.
Those one of her final words. It was a p S.
A that she filmed three years before she died that
was totally edited. And I'm sure there are a lot
of banata streets of banana chifts and streets involved. So
it was it was not her final words. It became
it was. It was an urban lantern. She was doing
this edited highly edited p s. A. Wait a minute,
(22:45):
Coco the Gorilla did a public service announcement. Yeah, look,
it took a job away from the sponsor. First of all, Yes,
took a job away. Jason. I'm the I'm the face
of the blue of the flu vaccine by I don't
need a rabbit replacing me on that it's gone. I
think it was the organization that that they said, hey,
(23:08):
you know what, we need a spokesperson and went to
Coco the girlas think. I think it was like World
Peace Day. And by the way, Coco apparently he's a
really good agent. Okay, can we did your d find
out who is representing Coco? Did your guy? And by
the way, this apparent is gonna be your favorite thing.
Witness witness murder in Michigan, Glenna Dorham shot, shot her husband,
(23:34):
shoot your husband, Martin, and then shoots yourself in a suicide.
That failed. Problem was there was one witness, and that
was Bud. They're African great parents. And here's what Bud said,
and he imitated the voice during the fight, don't shoot,
and then this is what he said he saw unbelievable.
(24:01):
So what was what just happened there? What did I hear?
What was that? A fight? A fight cursing and in
the person's voice, don't eff and shoot. So meanwhile, really,
Mrs ms Durham was not guilty your first degree murder
after only one day of dry deliberation. Of course, they
(24:21):
couldn't use his testimony, because how did the birds swear
and raise your right wing? Well? Can I ask a
stupid question? She's willing to take out her husband. She
didn't think. Maybe she bird disappears. She's you know, not
(24:42):
everybody thinks of everything. It was a murder suicide. She
didn't think. What kind of a murderer is? This leaves
behind an eye, witnesses screaming all over the room. Birds
are are obviously brilliant. But I think you're gonna be
blown away by other animals. And you can play along
with the Squisite Home. Oh, here we go here, this
(25:04):
will be great, Ladies and gentlemen, no doubt, a regular
feature the highly relevant really no really quiz designed to
make me look like a moron. Oh please, don't be
so negative by yourself. Probably right, but don't be so negative.
And you can play along with the Squisite Home other
animals to do things that will have you look at
them completely different when you find out how intelligent there?
You want to play? All right? Currently, Currently, according to
(25:26):
quite a few studies, how many animals are thought to
be able to pass the miracust, which means they can
recognize themselves in the mirror to five or eight. I'm
gonna say five, eight, eight animals names free, Okay, I'm bad,
name three, I'm already eight. I don't a cat, and
orangutan okay, Asian elephants, chimpanzees, Orangutan's guerrillas, bottlenose dolphins, or
(25:52):
the whales, Eurasian magpies, which are the first non mammal species,
and and ants according to a published research. No, when
they're looking at themselves in the mirror. Did you not
say to me moments ago that one of these dogs
of the cat looked at itself in the mirror and
wand what color? But that was me one off? That
(26:13):
was a one off. That's bunny and he and Bunny
doesn't do it all the time. You're very confusing. I
think you set me up for chimpanzeese, orangutans, groas botting,
those dolphins and bunny bunnies one off. So let's move right.
People hate bats. People hate bats, but they're useful. They
can eat up to how many insects per d eight
(26:35):
hundred or a thousand. Let me tell you something. My
family took a trip in the Grand Canyon. The bats
come out every night. And you, you, you are so
grateful to them because the flies and the mosquitoes, I
think a single bat. I don't want to go for
the biggest number. I'll go for the second biggest number,
eight hundred, eight hundred insects and then thousand. How about that?
I should have gone for the biggest number, the biggest
(26:57):
one I hate. But the first two questions you have
indicated to me. Always go for the biggest number. All right,
I'm ready for the third question. Elephants have a specific
alarm call just for humans. True or false? I need
the biggest number. I need numbers. You changed it up. Yes,
(27:17):
it's true, It's true. It is right, very true. They've
been known to go that's the guy from sim A
Pig's Orgasm last thirty minutes two or false? Oh that boy,
that was such a Paul Lynn to set up for
that question A Pig's Orgasm last. But the first thing
I thought of. The first thing I thought of when
(27:37):
I came up with this is how did they time it?
And then the next thing I thought of is, so
my nephew Jake finally got a job. Last nummer, let's
send you know, Mr Rowan from Dirty Jobs, Mike, go
go figure it out. Time, Hey, pig, pig, Well, you
(27:57):
know what, they've been given such a a rural deal
everywhere else. Let's say, yes, the nature gave them. It's true,
it's true, and that's not necessarily an intelligence test. But
you know what, no pigs are considered Pigs are considered
the fourth most intelligent animal after chimp's, dolphins and elephants.
How about that? Really, isn't that that? DEEA? I know,
(28:18):
I know, I have a friend who has a train
pig at home, sleeps in the bed. The whole bit.
Dolphins used toxic pupper fish to get high true or false.
Not just dolphins. It's not just dolphins. Boy, all of
a sudden, we hit here specially pretty amazing. My, my,
my cousin Lewis, you have constantly looking up bustle pufferfish.
(28:40):
Dolphins actually get them to release the toxins as a defense.
They're deadly if they're released in high doses, but they
have an narcotic effect and are strong hallucinogenic, and they
seem to dig it. This one is one of my favorite.
Wombats poop in cubes. When they poop, it comes out
in a cube. That's not an intellient din not how
did we get into this is not intelligence. They're not
(29:02):
sitting there going you know what. You know what if
a certain way I can get a pyramid, then you
got me. The fact that any animal poops to fit
in the Young Fisher Price Toy Shapes game. It was
so stunned to me because you encoded it. Yeah, you
(29:24):
just in an animal intelligence squizz. Okay, you got you
got me? All right, all right, all right, obviously humans
aren't that smart. Alright, j question, you know what time
it is. It's time to reveal, at least to me,
the animal with no arms or legs that can drive
a car. Researchers Sasher give On isn't Israel At the
(29:50):
Being Green University where he is a professor and taught
a goldfish how to drive, he placed the tank really
really no, no, really really, it's so unstven. If you
put a fish on a robotic platform and target to
navigate to a target. Fish don't drive cars. So we
(30:14):
had to train them to understand what we want them
to do. The fish had to get accustomed to visual
target that is placed in the arena which it sees
through the walls of the water tank. The fish had
to understand that this is the target it needs to
navigate too. Every time it gets to the target, we
(30:37):
award it with a food pellet. Wow. Wow. Go ahead,
let me tell you my conclusion from telling them to
do something really insightful. Here we go. I believe conclusively
we have proven the professor Chahar Givon of Israel has
(30:58):
a lot of time on his hands. Thing is what
we have learned. It took him ten days. It took
him ten days ten days. Both fairly took both of them.
It took both of them ten days. It took a
goldfish ten days to learn how to drive the tank.
What is the lifespan of a fish? Because anecdotally from
(31:21):
in my home, it's it's about thirteen days. So for
ten days, for of his working life, this fish is
learning how to drive. On day ten, he goes, unbelievable.
I have such what's lies ahead of me now with
this ability to drive, I am gonna with the things
(31:41):
I'm gonna do. Book belly up, I mean, excuse me.
Goldfish on average lived ten to fifteen years, and according
to Adam Jones, the editor of the Goldfish Tank website,
given adequate housing and air, goldfish can live up to
(32:02):
thirty years. We can't determine animals intelligence when you think
that a goldfish can do that, can figure out how
to navigate. And by the way, rats are People hate rats,
their vermin the lowest, the lowest grade category we can do.
And yet they're clean, they're smart, they get friendships. We
use them in labs because two reasons. Number one, they're
(32:22):
really smart, and number two, you don't get a whole
lot of pushback from people. Go and save the rats
marching with signs, especially in New York. So we really
it makes me we're joking a lot, but it makes
me look at these animals really differently about how we
classify them, why we classify them, because then you got
to treat them differently. I mean, this takes us into
(32:43):
we teet it up at the beginning. It takes us
into all kinds of ethical questions about how we treat
our animals, the assumptions that we make, even our pet
animals who we love in the door and think that
we're treating right, but they are subservient to our whims
and wishes exactly different perception. Quote and brendan comedian to us,
Marley and me heartwarming movie to our dogs. It's the
(33:04):
movie taken with Liam Neeson and it's not showing up
ever or any kind. You've hit a dog for how
many years? Okay you've heard you heard your dog bark
all the time. Yeah, how smart a we can you
identify barks? Would? We asked them to figure out what
we're doing? Play the smart play on the bark, can
(33:25):
see if they're chasing us? What the dog saying? Good?
What's you're saying? Oh, that one's actually pretty simple. That
dog is it's going up, Get up, Get up. You
can hear it. Get up. I actually happen to know
from its owner was saying, please don't take me to
be neutered. To play the next one. Play the next clip.
See that that sounds a bit more like please don't
(33:47):
take me to be neutered. In fact, there's a veiled
threat behind that one that says, if you take me
to be neutered, I'm not the only one losing my
my genitals today. So that's all. We'll save time because
we have the ten clips. They're all saying please don't.
But it is the point being you live with a dog.
(34:07):
You never took the time other than looking at the
dog standy like on the door. You never discerned what
the dog's world was about. What are you saying? Often
I would actually, I would have now, this is how
crazy this is. She was a puppy right after nine
eleven happened, and I would come home. You and I
were working on our show Bob Patterson, and I'd come
(34:28):
home after a late night and I'd be in the
kitchen with her and we would talk about the world,
and we would talk about I would I would actually say, there,
how how does it seem to you? Are we gonna
be okay? Is everything gonna be okay? And uh? She
was very comforting. She also assured me that our show
would be a success and would run for nine seasons.
And she didn't know everything, you know, she's no buddy. Oddly,
(34:48):
when I'd work at your house and we'd sit at
the armor in the dining room working, when you went
to the bathroom something, Sandy would pull me aside and go, oh,
he talked, and don't shut up at night in a downer.
It's just all negative. He can't find any positive to
say about the world. I remember being in high school
and hearing about the studies where they put two plants
next to each other and they hooked up electrodes to
(35:10):
the plants so they could get the energy, you know,
whatever was coming off. And then they took one plant
and they ripped it apart, and the plant next to
it freaked out. So there's no good we there's nothing
we can do. Every time we plow a we field,
there are hundreds of What the hell did I I
(35:36):
have a right to live, Let me live. We do
have a definitive close though. We do have a proof
the dogs talk because we just didn't want to go
out and leave your hanging. No, we would never do
that to our audience. And by the way, we're not
talking about buttons. Lower forms of animals can communicate with buttons.
We have an actual talking animal, right there is Yeah,
(36:07):
he said Lord Jason and Peter. This is triumph the
insult comic dog saying no, of course dogs can't talk.
What a ridiculous notion. And thank God for that, right,
I mean, don't we have enough crappy podcast already? Whoops
said apparently not I kid. I gave Jason You're the
(36:32):
best you act, you seeing you dance, you starting TV shows,
and now you have a podcast. Is there anything you
can't fail at? Again A Keith, There it is Triumph
the Talking Dog defended, the proof of the dog and Talk.
(36:53):
Thanks to our guests, Triumph, the comic insult Dog and
the hand up Triumph if you know what I'm saying
to Controls Triumph, Robert Smigo, thank you so much. Yeah,
and of course a thanks to the woman who kicked
this whole talking dog thing on the internet off, Christina
Hunger and her dog Stella. You can find more about
how all of this happened to group at Hunger for
Words dot com or find her book How Stella Learned
(37:16):
to Talk, The groundbreaking story of the world's first Talking Dog.
And also a very big thank you to Electras Divine
and her wonderful dog Buddy. You can find them on
TikTok and YouTube at what About Bunny. A huge thank
you also to zoom law La veterinarian Kindred Baker and
her amazing cat Billy. You can find them on Instagram
and YouTube at Billy Speaks and Billy is with than
(37:36):
I B I L L I. To learn more about
the science by the way underlying all this talking, check
out that they can talk, study that they can Talk
dot org special shoutout also to comedian Neil brand and
I used one of his jokes. I gave him credit
for it, but his special is wonderful. It's called Blocks
and it's on Netflix. And to check out the clip
of scientists teaching the golds to show to drive, go
to Science Focus dot com, Backs Blast, News Back Flash,
(38:00):
Goldfish Thought to Drive. We use a clip and we
wanted to give them credit for that. And the article's
great too. And as always, a thank you to our
producers Lorie Crime and David Guggenheim a k a. David
Google I'm and thank you to our writer researchers Zach Williams.
Find out more about really No related podcast go to
Really No Really dot com or check us out on Instagram,
(38:22):
TikTok and Facebook. That Really No Really podcast and we
released new episodes every single Tuesday. Used to follow us
on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever
you get your podcast
Hosts And Creators
Peter Tilden
Jason Alexander
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