1 week Ago
HILTON HEAD ISLAND — Flounder the cat can be a bit of a diva. If the 3-year-old Bengal feels a visitor is overstaying their welcome, she'll march over to a soundboard of buttons that sits on her living room floor and announce "stranger" "all done" "home." There are more than 80 buttons for her to choose from.
Each provide a word or phrase. There's the "Ugh" button, which gets a lot of use when Flounder is frustrated. There's the "play" button that's pushed when she wants attention.
And there's the "friend" button, reserved for a select few who find themselves in Flounder's good graces. Flounder's owner, Nina Leipold, introduced the cat to soundboard buttons as an enrichment activity in 2023. Bengals are typically high energy and for weeks after Leipold brought her home Founder was a "little ball of energy" running around the house meowing at the top of her lungs.
1 escaped monkey returned to Lowcountry research facility, 42 still play at large "I thought I'd try (the buttons) and just see what happens," Leipold said. "Then she started actually using them, like, properly, to talk. I wasn't expecting any of that.
" Through her button pushing, Flounder is not only communicating. She's also contributing to science. In June 2024, Leipold enrolled in a study through the University of California San Diego that explores augmentative interspecies communication.
It's a method domesticated animals use to communicate by pushing buttons that produce words. For the study, Flounder's soundboard is connected to an app that tracks when and how she uses the buttons. Flounder4 Flounder and Leipold are among thousands of animals and their owners across the world who have participated in the program.
The project is conducted through the Comparative Cognition Lab at UCSD, which published a paper on the study in August. Initial findings from the study show that dogs trained to use soundboards are not only trained to respond to their owner's body language or presence, but are processing words. Hilton Head man awarded $150,000 to flood-proof his home.
But he still can't access the money. "This study addresses public skepticism about whether dogs truly understand what the buttons mean," scientist Federico Rossano told UC San Diego Today . "Our findings are important because they show that words matter to dogs, and that they respond to the words themselves, not just to associated cues.
" These results weren't surprising to Leipold, who witnessed Flounder quickly adapt to new buttons and learn to form basic sentences. For example, during a recent rain storm Flounder went in and out of the bathroom, trying to get Leipold's attention as she worked at her desk in the living room. Leipold didn't know it at the time, but the bathroom ceiling was leaking.
Flounder pushed the button "bathroom" "rain" "help." Then, there were the back and forth negotiations for attention and toys. Flounder would push "play" while Leipold was working from home.
Leipold would reply "We will play later. Mom work now." Founder would respond, "play now.
" "When I started getting in arguments with her I realized she's really starting to get this," Leipold said with a laugh. Leipold taught Flounder how to use the button through a method called modeling. Leipold would press a button, speak the word out loud, then physically model what was being said.
For example, she would press "play," say "play" out loud, then get a toy out and play. For "outside" Leipold would repeat the process. Push the button, say the word, then take Flounder outside.
The kitten recognizes the buttons based on their location on the soundboard. The process isn't flawless. Leipold realized Flounder associates the word "stranger" with new.
When she wants a new enrichment activity she pushes "stranger" "puzzle." Hanging up the fin: On Hilton Head Island, a mermaid prepares to retire It took Flounder about two weeks to start pressing the buttons unprompted. She learned more advanced concepts like emotions within a few months.
The Comparative Cognition Lab believes soundboards have the potential to be a powerful tool through which dogs, cats, and other domestic animals might be able to communicate their needs, wants, and internal states to their owners. Leipold believes the soundboards could help new owners better understand their pets, leading to less rehoming or returns to shelter. She also hopes to see soundboard use among animals in captivity, allowing mammals like dolphins to communicate social or enrichment issues.
Flounder, a 3-year-old Bengal cat, with her owner, Nina Leipold, in their home on Hilton Head Island. The Pennsylvania native previously worked as a mammal trainer but didn't stay in the industry for long, shifting gears to educate the public on the effects of dolphin captivity and conservation through her business, Mermaid of Hilton Head. "I would like to see people have better bonds with their pets in general, which would mean less re-homing," Leipold said.
"I would like to see animals be able to advocate for themselves." In the meantime, Flounder is a prime example of a cat who can advocate for herself. "We had people over one day, and we were eating dinner at the table and she asked for a puzzle," Leipold said.
"I ignored her because we're having a conversation with guests." Flounder went straight to her soundboard and declared "rude.".
