Are Dogs Systems Thinkers, Too?

Dogs are our best friends, but we can't talk to them... we have no common language. But, what if you could use the simple rules of DSRP to teach your dog to communicate with you? This blog and the remarkable videos included illustrates how this is possible when we use the underlying stuctures of systems thinking.

Watch the video of Stella below. 

Stella knows 29 words and is able to communicate with her owner when she needs, feels, or thinks something. How is this possible? Her owner made associations between the Distinct things Stella is interested in (eat, outside, ball) and the word recorded into the button. With training and time, Stella built the Relationships between what she was thinking and which button to press. In other words, she made Distinctions between the different buttons and subsequent words they communicated to her owner. 

In the above clip, Stella made interconnections between words to form a short sentence: "Stella want play outside." She communicated clearly what she wanted, and the shared language allowed her owner to give it to her. The Systems rule shows Stella the distinct parts, and the Relationship rule provides the connections between the words in order for her to form a coherent sentence. 

Remarkably, the dogs and the owners utilized the DSRP rules in this relatively new process that allows for communication between different species. And, quite possibly this can bring us even closer to "man's best friend." Shared language, built on the underlying structure of our thinking (DSRP) can bring us something that is seemingly fantastical -- a talking dog?!