True story when me and Malcolm went to share a joint after a long day at Further Confusion. This fella comes up in a very specific kind of fursuit and I just couldn't say no to their request.
(traditional inks with just a little color touchup)
Sorry y’all the entire Clever Hans wiki article should be basic required reading at this point.
The “Clever Hans” effect, also understood as animals performing tasks because their handler/owner subtly and often unknowingly cues them that they’ll get a positive response is well documented. Hell, it’s been observed in drug sniffing dogs where the dogs will give false positives based on the dog’s observance of the handler’s body language. Scientifically that’s very interesting.
Dogs using buttons are not “speaking” they are using what they know will get them a desired response. Dogs do speak, to us and each other, in their own form of communication (body language mostly). We as humans are adept at being able to learn to read this just as dogs can read OUR body language (body language we often don’t know we are communicating btw). That’s neat as heck.