My Dogs Have Big Feelings

In my last post, I promised to tell you about our dogs’ secret emotional lives, revealed through their use of talking buttons. River was the first to feel the need to share her feelings, and sweetly enough, her feelings were about our older dog, Garnet.

Garnet’s estimated age is around 16 or 17 years old. We were told she was a miniature schnauzer/Affenpinscher mix, which means that she needs to be groomed regularly or her fur mats. Garnet had a rough life before reaching our house, and she does not trust people outside the family easily; getting her groomed was difficult until we found the perfect mobile groomer.  Last year, her trusted groomer retired and moved out of state. At this age, we didn’t want to put Garnet through the stress of getting to know another stranger, so my husband took up her grooming duties.

On a Sunday afternoon a couple of months ago, my husband set up the grooming table in his home office and started trimming Garnet’s coat. There were some mats, and he was going to have to take it a little short. He secured the dog gate behind him so the other dogs wouldn’t jump at the table. With his back to the dog gate and Garnet in front of him, River and Rizz couldn’t really see Garnet, but they could somehow feel her nervousness. Their attention to the grooming became more intense the longer it went on. Finally, River got pretty anxious and hit the “concerned” button. I tried to reassure her, but she was not having it. When my husband began working to trim the hair between Garnet’s paw pads, River pressed the “mad” button! She was convinced that Garnet was being mistreated, and she was letting us know all about it. In response, my husband quickly ended Garnet’s grooming session; he’d deal with any remaining issues later.  He released Garnet to run around, and River and Rizz sniffed her to assure themselves that she was okay. The tension in the house dissipated. I honestly thought that this was the cutest use of buttons. We knew that River was anxiously waiting, but we wouldn’t have known how deeply upset she was without the buttons. The paw trimming might have gone on a bit longer without the reminder that senior dogs need shorter sessions.

Due to her age, Garnet is very hard of hearing and has significant visual impairments. I didn’t even try to teach her the talking buttons because I thought it would be too stressful for both of us. When we put down the button boards, she was constantly walking on the buttons, hitting them randomly as she walked through. It was not a big deal, and we let her do what she wanted. Eventually, though, I’d hear her press just one or two buttons at a time, and a couple of times, they seemed contextually appropriate. I shook my head and thought that even a blind squirrel gets a nut now and then; it must be a coincidence.

One day I was eating at my desk in my home office while I worked. Rizz asked for a bit of my baked chicken. I gave him a bite and continued focusing on a work document. Garnet got up, walked over to the dog buttons, and pressed “mad.” She then walked over to me and gave me “the look” that every mother (even a mother dog) knows how to give when someone is misbehaving. Ah, yes. I apologized and quickly gave bites of chicken to Garnet and River; I had been too focused on the document and not focused enough on what was fair. I was corrected. That’s when I realized she was learning their placements as she walked on the buttons and heard my recorded voice give their meanings. She had watched Rizz use them and learned their purpose. And watch out – she was ready to use the buttons too! She told me how she felt, and I responded with love, just as she expected and deserved. This is how buttons deepen our companion-animal relationships.

Garnet will still walk over the board and hit things randomly, but I also look and listen for meaning. I review her presses on our button cameras to see if the presses look deliberate or just random walking. I pay attention when her presses obviously or contextually appear deliberate. I am so proud of her for wanting to talk to us!