When speech-language pathologist Christina Hunger brought home Stella, she noticed the similarities in training her puppy with her work helping children who had problems communicating. So instead of being satisfied when Stella went to the door and whined to go out, Christina bought programmable buttons and set them up with words for Stella to use. And use them, she does. Stella not only learned how to use a variety of words appropriately, but can combine them into short, meaningful phrases. As a dog lover, I loved this book. Stella's antics and intellegence will bring a smile to your face. And you'll probably be looking online for those Recordable Answer Buttons and wondering what you could teach your dog to say. They appear to be widely available and quite affordable. Yes, I already looked.