Introduction
Have you ever thought about teaching your dog to watch the news? Well, it turns out that dogs can learn to watch television just like humans do. In fact, one linguist has gone a step further and taught her dog to watch CNN.
The Linguist and Her Dog
The linguist in question is Christina Hunger, who is based in San Diego, California. She is the proud owner of a two-year-old Catahoula/Blue Heeler mix named Stella. Christina is fascinated by language and is a speech pathologist by profession. She has always been interested in how dogs communicate with humans and decided to try and teach Stella to use a special device that would allow her to communicate with Christina more effectively.
The Special Device
The device that Christina used is called a "talking board". It consists of several buttons that each have a different word or phrase written on them. When Stella wants to communicate something, she steps on the button that corresponds to the word she wants to say. For example, if she is hungry, she steps on the button that says "eat".
Teaching Stella to Watch CNN
After successfully teaching Stella to use the talking board, Christina decided to try and teach her to watch CNN. She started by showing her videos of the news channel and repeating the word "CNN" each time she showed her a video. After a few weeks, Stella started to show an interest in watching the news on her own. She would sit in front of the television and watch CNN for several minutes at a time.
Stella's Favorite News Stories
Stella has now become quite the news junkie and has her favorite news stories. She particularly enjoys stories about weather and natural disasters. When these types of stories come on, she becomes very focused and watches intently.
What This Means for Dogs
Christina's work with Stella has shown that dogs are capable of much more than we give them credit for. They are intelligent and can learn to do things that we might not have thought possible. By teaching dogs to use talking boards and watch television, we can improve our communication with them and give them a more enriched life.
Conclusion
The story of Christina and Stella is an inspiring one. It shows that with patience and dedication, we can teach dogs to do amazing things. Who knows, maybe one day we will have dogs watching the news alongside us on the couch.