nova can dogs talk

Dogs can’t “talk” in human language, but they absolutely can communicate a lot using sounds, body language, and even speech buttons—and that’s exactly what the recent NOVA special “Can Dogs Talk?” explores.

What “talking” means for dogs

When people say “talking dogs,” they usually mean one of two things:

• Dogs using speech buttons that play words like “outside,” “play,” or “food.”

• Dogs “talking” through barks, growls, whines, posture, and tail movements.

In both cases, it’s real communication, but not language in the human sense.

The NOVA “Can Dogs Talk?” angle

The NOVA program “Can Dogs Talk?” looks at:

• Dog owners who claim their pets use word buttons to share thoughts and feelings.

• Scientists analyzing millions of button presses from homes around the world to see if there are real patterns or just trained habits.

• The big question: are dogs understanding words, or just associating specific sounds with specific outcomes (like “this noise = we go outside”)?

The show treats it as an open scientific question, not as proof that dogs use language like people.

What science says so far

Research on dog communication suggests:

• Dogs are great at reading humans —gestures, gaze, tone of voice, and routines—because they evolved alongside us.

• They can associate many spoken words with actions or objects (like “walk,” “ball,” “sit”), but they struggle with subtle sound differences such as “sit” vs “set.”

• There is no evidence that dogs grasp grammar or can build complex, novel sentences the way humans do.

So, a dog may consistently press a “walk” button when it wants a walk, but that doesn’t mean it understands “walk” as an abstract word in a sentence—it just knows “this sound = walk happens.”

Do dogs “talk” to each other?

Between themselves, dogs communicate with:

• Vocalizations (barks, growls, yips, whines).

• Body language (tail position, ear position, posture, facial expressions).

• Scent (marking, sniffing), which carries a surprising amount of social information.

In that sense, yes—dogs “talk” to each other, just not with words and sentences.

Where things stand now

To tie it to your topic phrase “nova can dogs talk” and the “latest news” angle:

• NOVA and other science outlets are treating talking-button dogs as fascinating but unproven examples of language-like behavior.

• Recent reviews of the science conclude that spoken language in dogs is unlikely , but their existing communication skills with humans are already remarkable and worth understanding on their own terms.

TL;DR: Dogs can’t talk like humans, but they can communicate surprisingly well—with their bodies, their voices, and sometimes with word buttons that give us a new window into what they want.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.