PAWtactile Language

TALKING WITH OUR PAWS! As part of our effort to learn more about our deafblind Yakoo and his deaf companion Nuka, we’ve come across a lot of exciting and fun information about new and improved technologies that enable deafblind humans to communicate and interact with each other. A remarkable coincidence, really, given that it has been almost exactly one hundred years since the literary character Dr. Dolittle enticed us all into fantasizing about how much better the world would be if we could really talk with and to the animals we love.

With this in mind, we began studying the ways and means that deafblind humans use to share information. What we’ve learned is that their older systems of braille and American Sign Language have begun to give way to more complicated, layered methods that are less visually oriented and more touch and tap centered. These advancements have come together into what is now referred to as proactive touching, or their PROtactile language.

We’ve come to learn that a similar model works for us and our dogs as well. Only we call our new system DOGtor Yakoo’s PAWtactile language. While this invention relies heavily on touch and tapping signals and gestures, how we present them and how our dog Yakoo reacts to them makes us believe he better understands what is happening around him. And hopefully, can tell us what he thinks about what we want, need, and expect from him.

We are in the process of writing a fun introductory book tentatively called PICK ME, which seeks to share how we came to find and accept into our lives the dog now known as DOGtor Yakoo. He was born through a breeding accident as a double merle dog, causing him to be blind and deaf. He is also beautiful because the same merle genes that resulted in his damaged senses, dressed him in a most striking coat with wonderful black and gray markings.

PICK ME will share about how the human PROtactile language grew out of efforts to refine American Sign Language (ASL), which is highly visually grounded. Obviously, blindness is different from deafness and it has long been recognized that ASL relied too much on visual clues and not enough on touching in ways that did more than spell words, phrases, or symbols.

What’s now known as the PROtactile language began coming together a few years ago and is now generally thought of as being a better level of communication. Interpreters who sign ASL can use PROtactile techniques to use one hand to spell use the alphabet and agreed-upon phrases, while their other hand might, for example, passes along different sets of information about what is happening in the room where the conversation is taking place. This makes the PROtactile language much more complete than ASL on its own.

For human interpreters for deafblind dogs, our new and innovative PAWtactile approach follows a similar format. It strives to allow our dogs, Yakoo and Nuka, to essentially understand what we want and then to speak back to us about what they understand and what they “think” about all that is happening around them.

Rather than us just giving our dogs commands, we can use the more intensive PAWtactile methods to help Yakoo and Nuka share with us what’s happening in their world as they do as directed and then share with us what it is they are aware of.

On this page, we will eventually offer links to video clips and short discussions about all that PAWtactile is and what it promises. It’s a new concept and is expected to change in many ways for all people and all dogs who seek to speak to each other. This means understanding what PAWtactile is and what it requires means watching carefully and appreciating what is taking place between humans and animals – the very fun interaction that Dr. Dolittle’s companion Polynesia the Parrot promised was actually happening.