Can you teach your dog to speak?

Bunny and Stella are stars — just two of the many social media dogs who seem to talk.

Using floor sound button kits, owners can train their dogs to tell them what they want with words. The dogs select talking buttons on floor mats to say they want to play, eat or go out.

Stella the dog in San Diego taps Stella, Stella, Stella, Walk, OK. And then Stella walks to the door and scratches. That seems pretty obvious.

The question is whether the dog actually connected the sound to the meaning of words. A behavior (hitting the play button) has a result (she goes for a walk). Researchers in Neuroscience News points out that rats can be taught to hit the right lever for rewards.

Dog soundboards are an idea that flips the script on dog ownership. Whereas in the past, owners were supposed to learn dog language, these dogs are supposed to learn human language.

It is weirdly compelling. Not only do the dogs seem to say what they want, they also seem to ask existential questions.

“Dog. What dog?” taps out Bunny, a sheepadoodle owned by artist Alexis Devine of Tacoma, Wash. Devine takes this to mean that the Bunny wants to know the very nature of dogs, maybe in comparison to humans. But it is also possible that Bunny is pressing buttons to get a reaction.

Whatever the truth may be, these talking dog videos reveal the immense amount of time people put into their button projects. Some dogs look a little tense with the demands to press buttons.

Other dogs look bored. Some look confident.

No authoritative scientific studies have verified whether dogs understand language, and it’s impossible to know if they even want to learn more. They’ve been around humans for 30,000 years, after all. They already know a thing or two.