Active Listening w/ Alexis Devine

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Finding A New Way To “Speak” To Each Other

About The Episode

Alexis Devine had been wanting a dog for a long time, but she was waiting for the right time. She felt it was a big decision, similar to being prepared to have children in a way, and did not take the responsibility lightly. Eventually, Alexis and her husband decided it was time. In search of a sheepadoodle, there was a young puppy named Bunny who she met at just four weeks old. A month later, she came into their home.

Around this time, Alexis had discovered the work of popular speech pathologist Christina Hunger, who taught her dog Stella to “speak” using pre-recorded buttons, Alexis was inspired to do the same. She wanted to see what level of communication they could reach together and set out to research all she could find about the subject.

From the very first day Bunny first entered the home, Alexis began slowly implementing speech buttons into their routine – such as one button with the word “outside” by her back door that Alexis would press before they went outside to reinforce the meaning. Eventually, Bunny “smashed” the button on her own to ask to go outside. From there on, Alexis was hooked on the magic. If Bunny could “speak” one word, who says she couldn’t learn 100? 

Now, a couple of years later, Bunny is up to over 100 words, working off a large soundboard in their living room. Since Bunny took to them quite quickly, Alexis wanted to begin to tailor the buttons to topics that Bunny was interested in. Therefore words such as “bird,” “mom,” “dad” and her friends’ names were incorporated onto the board – on top of original choices like “play,” “come,” and “love you.”

About six months into Bunny’s training, Alexis was approached by Leo Trottier, the CEO and Founder of CleverPet about being a beta tester for a new canine-specific Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) Device called FluentPet. The device is composed of multiple boards or “HexTiles,” that are linked together and organized by a Fitzgerald Key. The pre-recorded buttons are compartmentalized by sentence subjects, verbs, objects, places, descriptors, and social words to make learning more efficient. Since implementing the device, it has only increased their ability to communicate. 

Through Bunny’s ongoing communication journey, Alexis found that their relationship has greatly strengthened. In the process, she realized how much dogs teach us about how we can improve our own communication and trust-building as humans. Dogs don’t need buttons to communicate their wants, needs, or feelings; instead, we are simply in touch with their unique and innate way of communication. If we can be so accepting of their process, then we should also be able to be more empathetic listeners and speakers with one another. They remind us to slow down and truly hear each other out. 

Since Bunny is such a sensitive dog, Alexis has to be in tune with Bunny’s emotions in an effort to set healthy boundaries with other dogs or humans who wish to interact with her. In doing so, Alexis has learned about the vitality of being more vocal about her own boundaries. In the same way that we validate the human experience, communicating with Bunny has instilled in Alexis the idea that we must validate our dogs’ experience and give them the autonomy to pursue that experience in a way that is true to them. It truly is magical to communicate with your dog, but the lessons we can take from them are even more special.

About The Guest - Alexis Devine

Alexis Devine is an artist and jewelry designer located in Tacoma, Washington. She gained a large social media presence after one of her TikTok videos of her dog, Bunny, went viral in 2020 for the unusual ability to “speak” through buttons. Since then, Alexis has used her new platform to share about the importance of being a compassionate listener and communicator, to our animals, ourselves, and to other humans in hopes of establishing a more understanding world.

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