- They say every dog has its day.
Well, Catahoula and Blue Heeler mix Stella is having her moment now, and she was nice enough to bring her owner, Christina Hunger, along for the ride.
It all started a few years ago when Hunger, who graduated from NIU with a master’s in speech pathology and works as pediatric speech pathologist for Early Intervention in San Diego, decided to follow her curiosity about animal communications and how Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) might be able to help humans understand what animals are thinking.
“I really didn’t know this is where speech therapy was taking me until I got Stella,” Hunger says.
“At that same time, I was working with toddlers and children who use communication devices to talk, and I would see Stella whining or barking or going to the door to show us she needed to go outside. Every time I saw her understanding the words we were saying, I just couldn’t stop thinking about how she needed a way to communicate with us. I knew that, if she can understand language, she should absolutely be able to use language.”
For those who are not familiar with the term, AAC is everything we use to communicate that is not verbal speech, and we all use it every day. A roll of the eyes, different facial expressions, typing on a keyboard—that is all AAC—and animals can also benefit from these types of communications.
Inspired by animal psychologists who came before her, like Dr. Penny Patterson who famously taught Koko the gorilla to speak through American Sign Language, Hunger set out to design a case study that would not only allow Stella to learn to speak but would also provide quantified data about how dogs, in particular, can learn to use language to express their thoughts and feelings.
Hunger used recordable buttons that Stella can paw to hear certain words, and she chose words she wanted to teach her dog and recorded each word into a different button. She started by having all the buttons in different, appropriate locations in her house. So, the “outside” button was by the door, the “eat” button was by her food, etc. Stella was able to paw the button to hear the word aloud. To Hunger’s surprise, very quickly, Stella started making her own word combinations and walking across the room to combine words. That is when Hunger decided to group the buttons on a common board for Stella, making the buttons appear as much like a human communication device as possible.
“Stella has memorized and anticipates the location of where each button is,” Hunger explained.
This is a skill that humans often develop, called motor planning. For instance, when we are typing on a keyboard, we just know where the keys are. Stella knows where the different buttons are from so much practice, and this helps her to group words together easily and get her point across.”
More than two years later, Hunger and Stella’s experiment has expanded in some pretty impressive ways. Stella’s vocabulary continues to grow, more than doubling from two years ago, as she now uses 48 different words and creates phrases or short sentences that are up to five words long.
This incredible progress has made Stella a star!
“After my work went viral in 2019, I had interest from different literary agents and publishers,” Hunger said. “I started working with a literary agent, created and submitted an official book proposal, then went out to New York City to meet with several different publishers to find the right fit. It was such an exciting time!”
These meetings resulted in Hunger’s instant New York Times Best-Selling book, How Stella Learned to Talk: The Groundbreaking Story of the World’s First Talking Dog, which was published in May 2021 by William Morrow.
“To me, how this all happened was equally as important as the fact that Stella was using words,” Hunger said.
“I wanted a way to share this story in its entirety, help others view Stella’s milestones through my lens as a speech therapist, and draw connections between what I was observing with Stella and in my work with children. I also wanted to be able to teach other pet owners how to teach their own dogs to talk. Writing a book seemed like the best way to accomplish all of this!”
Nearly two years after receiving her first media attention, life has changed for Hunger and her sly dog. But appearances on “Good Morning America,” CNN, and CBS News, as well as being the subject of countless major news articles in publications like The Washington Post and People magazine has not gone to Stella’s head. Her priorities are still the same—food, walks, cuddles and meeting new people.
“It has been incredibly surreal and exciting! Stella loves getting recognized when we’re out and about because that means she gets to meet new friends!” Hunger said. “It has also taken a lot of personal growth over the past couple of years to be comfortable doing all these interviews and putting myself out there.”
For Hunger, it has been just as fulfilling to see her work be recognized as it has been to watch other dog owners get excited about trying to communicate better with their pets.
“Dog owners are thrilled to be able to learn how I did this with Stella and how they can teach their own dogs,” she said. “But I also think people are really surprised when they read my book because they’re expecting a manual or guide. I included dozens of tips and strategies, but it’s actually so much more than that. It’s a memoir of this journey and discovery process. The reader can see what I saw in Stella from my perspective as a speech therapist and witness both Stella’s and my growth along the way.”
Hunger hopes that her book inspires thought-provoking ideas and discussions about how we communicate, animals’ language potential, and what can happen when we, as humans, try something new.
“I hope my book brings more understanding and acceptance of different types of communication, like using Augmentative and Alternative Communication AAC,” she said. “It would be so wonderful for the human populations who use AAC if the general public understood it as their voice, respected it, and knew how to teach and interact with communication devices.”
Originally from Aurora, Illinois, Hunger also earned a B.A. in psychology from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio, in 2015. She chose NIU for her graduate studies because it felt so much like home, and the speech-language-pathology program had a reputation for being extremely hands-on. Its Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic offers students a practicum and research site that enhances their education while providing speech-language pathology and audiology services to the local community.
“When I visited NIU Speech-Language-Hearing Clinic for the admitted students’ day, I was just blown away by everything there,” Hunger remembers. “My first and most prominent clinical supervisor was Clinical Assistant Professor Michelle O’Loughlin, and she fostered my creativity, encouraged me to think outside the box, and helped me discover who I am as a speech therapist and as a person. Looking back, I think those are the most valuable lessons a teacher could ever give to a student.”
Hunger goes on to add that, during her time at NIU, the University culture really upheld the pillars of curiosity and creativity. Learning and teaching language does not always rely on or produce black-and-white information, and Hunger’s professors encouraged their students to keep asking questions. This mentality has, no doubt, shaped her animal communications research.
So, what is next for her and Stella? She looks forward to teaching her dog even more new tricks.
“I still think we are just getting started! My vision is growing each step of the way,” she said. “My career has changed from helping individual children and families to educating about communication, AAC, and speech therapy on a large scale. It’s a really special opportunity to help the masses understand these concepts.”
When Hunger steps back and considers humans’ relationship with animals in society, she cannot help but think that it would be drastically different if we could understand what they felt and thought. Through her work, she hopes to be a part of a new movement toward animal rights someday.
Follow Hunger and Stella’s progress on her blog, Hunger for Words
You must be logged in to post a comment.