username + ID: Zailune + 103475
your favorite animal: Dogs!
neat fact about them: Dogs are much smarter than people often give them credit for. They can memorize words and phrases, but they have also been shown to retain an understanding of those words and phrases/strings of words, and the capability to combine different sorts of words in their own self-expression. They don't learn the same way humans do, so their potential is often not as apparent.
If you haven't heard: There's a dog named "Bunny" who had a viral social media presence because her human taught her some basic levels of communications with a sound board (buttons that, when pressed, 'say' a word). There's a ton of vids showing her success with the sound board - and there have been other instances of sound board teaching that are worth looking into just because they're so fascinating. I believe the process got its start with a speech therapist who took the leap into experimenting with it and it's been growing since.
In case anyone would like to read about it, there's a
New York Times article that covers a lot. It's a good place to start IMO
edit:
There's a block thing on the article linked above, so here's a
New York Post alternative (both discuss Christina Hunger, a speech therapist who started a lot of the buzz + has a unique perspective about it all)

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Heya, it's Zail - feel free to message me about anything! I'm online pretty frequently.
I may be a bit of a weirdo but I mean well ยฏ\_(ใ)_/ยฏ
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Female ~ she/her | art hobbyist | dogs are life
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Lots of love to my fellow aspiring artists, friends and others.
Lots of love for those struggling, too. You're not alone.