Giving Rizz Words

My toy poodle, Rizz, was anxious when we first got him at two months old; he is now a year old. It was understandable, as he was new to our home and its many occupants. Thank you to all my friends who provided thoughtful ideas about how to help him with his anxiety. I’ve had many pets through the years, and I always developed an intuitive bond with them that helped me figure out what they needed or were trying to communicate. Except with Rizz. The other two dogs seemed confused by him. Normally, new pets integrate smoothly into the household, but Rizz was difficult. He bonded quickly with the humans, but the other dogs took longer to accept him.

I paid attention, trying to figure out how and why Rizz was different. He barked at all the other pets. He rarely barked at anyone outside the home, it was all focused on his family, like he wanted to communicate with us. Unfortunately, his only words were bark and growl. He was enthusiastic with these words, but the barking could drive me up a wall, particularly in a small room. Not only did it hurt my ears, but I could feel him projecting energy with his barks. It isn’t common for him to bark once the lights are out at night. But if he barked when my eyes were closed before I fell asleep, I could see the energy of his barks. Like lightning in the distance, it was a flash of light behind my eyelids. He was pushing energy with his voice but not getting the desired results. Frustrated, he would try harder and bark more.

I was finally convinced that Rizz needed words. If he needed to communicate, then this was the easiest way. My friends thought that my intuition should be enough, but even if I intuited everything he wanted to say, that still didn’t help him with his desire to communicate. If I did all the work, it deprived Rizz of the joy of expressing himself. 

My husband and I invested in Fluent Pet’s Connect products,* which provided us with a foam base and some buttons that played my recorded words when pressed. The words played through a small Bluetooth speaker and displayed on my cell phone. Having them on my phone was especially helpful if there were competing sounds like music or talking or if I was too far away to hear the words clearly. We placed two sets of identical buttons, one upstairs by my home office and one downstairs by the kitchen. Initially, Rizz saw no value in the buttons, so I taught him how to push a blank button to get a treat. He quickly learned to push the button with his paw.

Then, we started Rizz’s education with his first words. I stopped giving treats for pushing the button. Instead, pushing the button that corresponded to a word would bring him the word’s action. Teaching him “potty” and “outside” would help us with his potty training, while “puzzle,” “chew,” “play,” “walk,” “tug,” “lick mat,” and “ball” were for things I hoped he’d be motivated to request. During our normal daily life, I had already taught Rizz the meaning of the words when I spoke them, associating them with the actions or objects, so all he had to learn was how the buttons were there for him to tell me the words. Just to show him, I hit the “potty” and “outside” buttons every time I took him out to the backyard. Similarly, I’d hit “walk” before we took a walk and “ball” when we played fetch. He quickly learned that pressing the button resulted in hearing my spoken word, which brought the associated action.

One day, I went out the front door to retrieve a package from the porch. Rizz pressed the “outside” button to narrate my activity, and I knew that he definitely understood the word and that outside was not just the backyard; it was everywhere out of the house. He was learning! After almost five months, Rizz has a 37-word vocabulary, so far. He can put together three- and four-word sentences and tell me his feelings. His stress has gone way down, and his potty training has improved a lot, especially when the weather isn’t too cold. He is barking less, too, thank goodness.

Alexis Devine said in a recent lecture that “agency reduces distress intolerance.” So, she focuses on a dog’s ability to make decisions for his life to reduce his anxiety. I agree that Rizz’s ability to make decisions has improved his anxiety, and he enjoys reporting what’s happening. But judging by the number of times he tells me his emotional state, I think all communication is helping, not just the words that bring him what he wants. His buttons for “happy,” “mad,” “concerned,” and “love you” are pressed often enough that I know Rizz enjoys telling me how he feels, not just asking for what he wants. He has Big Feelings!

My older dogs, Garnet and River, had no interest in the buttons. After many years together, we know each other well and we intuitively understood each other. Their needs are met, and they didn’t seem to need buttons to communicate. River initially hit a few buttons which demonstrated that she accurately understood the concept of using them to communicate but otherwise did not engage.  Garnet is almost completely deaf and blind; I couldn’t imagine how to teach the buttons to her. And yet, after weeks of randomly walking all over the buttons, she taught them to herself and began using the buttons to tell me her emotions! River has used the buttons most often for her emotions, too. I’ll tell you about my insights into their previously secret emotions in my later posts. They also have Big Feelings!

*I am not compensated by Fluent Pet for trying or discussing their product. I just wanted to provide an honest discussion of our experience with them.