We introduced buttons to our household about 2 months ago. We started target training one of our cats (the food-motivated one who does puzzles) about a month ago. I do target training probably 4-5x a week.

We tried the cup trick from Justin Bieber the Cat, and 2/3 of the time puts his paw on top of the cup. The other 1/3 he paws around it. With the button itself, he puts his paw on it approximately 1/3 time, especially after reviewing the cup method. He tends to swipe at the button instead of pressing it.

He has only successfully pressed down fully on the button (on purpose) three times. I’ve tried the trick where you try to get them to reach for the treat with their head to help them shift their weight, but he doesn’t get it and stays where he is. We use hard treats because that’s all his tummy can handle.

A few times per training session he puts his paw down on non-button parts of the hextile. Does that mean he doesn’t understand what he’s pressing?

Any tips on how to get him to actually press? He still needs to work more on recognizing the other buttons, but I figured it was important to get a handle on the target training (we model the food button about 3x per day though).

Hi everybody! My 3y M cat is deaf. He communicates using very loud scream meows. Could he learn to press buttons to help him communicate and cut down on the screameowing?

We haven’t started with buttons yet. We ask our dog, “do you want to go pee?” and “do you want to go poo?” Sometimes my husband asks her if she “wants to go outside?” And then we praise her: “good pee!” or “good poo!”

My question is should we make a button for each? Like a separate ‘pee’ and ‘poo’ button? Should we switch to saying ‘outside’?

She’s a 2yo rat terrier/GSD/pitbull mix and is 26lbs of sweet snuggly psycho.

TLDR: The cat is using two buttons for the two things he loves the most. What button should I add next?

The full story: I have two male cats, brothers, five years old. One of them is super vocal, and probably too smart for his own good. I can often decipher what he wants, based on the meow or his actions, but I knew he would take to the buttons. I know he needs to be able to tell me what he’s trying to say.

The first button that I tried to train with was “door” because both cats love sitting at the open back door (there’s a screen door too so they stay inside). Pretty quickly they both knew it meant when I pushed the button. They would both run to the back door, knowing I was going to open it. After about six months, I gave up trying to get them to push the button themselves.

I know you’re not supposed to use treats for the first button, but the one cat is also treat obsessed. I went with it anyway. It took him about two months to learn to push the button. Success!

It’s also worth noting that I have given up, for the time being, on the other cat pushing the buttons. He knows how and doesn’t seem interested. I figure he will push it when he feels like it. I’m not too worried since I got these because of the more vocal cat.

After a few weeks of consistent use of the treats button, I re-introduced the door button. As soon as I pushed the button for the door, they both ran to the back door, so I know they remember what it means. Over the first week or two of having both buttons down, he realized that they have different meanings. He has continued to only push the treats button for the following two weeks or so.

Today I was working on something at my desk and he was really trying to get my attention, walking around me and meowing persistently. It wasn’t a meow asking for treats. I know that ask well. I actually thought it was for the back door, but I wasn’t sure. Finally, he went over to the buttons and very specifically pushed the button for the door. I was so excited. I opened the door and he went to his little spot and calmed down.

I am so excited that it really feels like he now understands what these buttons are all about and that it’s a way to communicate with me beyond getting a treat.

So here’s my dilemma - what button do I introduce next? The two other things that he loves is getting brushed and this one specific toy that requires me to play with him. I will probably use one of those. We don’t use specific words for those actions though. Will that matter? (Of course I’ll make up a word for the toy.) How long should I wait to add a third button? Any other suggestions?

Thanks in advance!

He has no problem expressing his annoyance in general with swipes and bites (when someone is singing, coughing, walking in front past him, etc.) But the buttons seem to particularly aggravate him. I’ve been modeling them for months. I think he understands a few of them (will come from the other room for “food” or rub against me when I press “pets”, goes by the door when I press “outside”), but when I attempt more intentional target training, he gets frustrated and swipes/bites every time I press the button or prompt him to press it. He does this when I’m targeting it with or without treats. Using FluentPet buttons.

Any ideas or advice?

I’m wondering if those of you who’ve done this for a while think it could help me with a dog who’s mysteriously afraid of or triggered by certain things. Would it be possible, if she learned enough words, for us essentially to have a conversation so that she could understand she’s not in danger? She is a one year old shepherd mix.

We’ve tried all sorts of other training, including getting a trainer to our home but for some things she just seems unable to absorb that she’s not in danger.

For instance getting in the car. She’ll hop in just fine but will tremble initially and is obviously very afraid. She calms down after a few minutes - most of the time. But I would love for her to understand that we will never go anywhere scary (I assume she had a scary experience before she came to me but I’m not sure).

She also is triggered to run at and bark at strangers on our farm, which is not the best when they’re potential customers. She’s not aggressive, just loud and she scares some people. And I would love to be able to tell her in a way that would get through her stubborn little head that she’s safe, they’re not a threat, she doesn’t need to try to run them off.

What do experienced folk here think. Could it help? Is it expecting too much nuance of language between species?

I hope to budget for a button starter set and so far my cats understand a lot of pet sign language and seem to often get the gist of what I'm saying. Are there any lesson plans to suggest how to start a course and optimally help them communicate?

The audiobook of How Stella Learned To Talk has a voice that is so robotic I can’t even focus on the actual content of the book. 🥲

I just ordered buttons; they’re arriving Tuesday. My boyfriend and I are going on a road trip to see the eclipse and now’s a perfect time to listen to resources on how to get started. Any suggestions?

Thanks!

I have two dogs. Heidi is five and Tux is four.

I’ve had Heidi for four years. She’s a Pitt/pointer mix from a shelter and she’s very bright. She knows quite a few tricks and can solve any puzzle I give her. Plus, she seems to always be trying to communicate. I’ve had to learn to read her body language and guess what she wants. Usually I say “show me” and she’ll take me to what she wants. I think she MIGHT be able to do buttons.

We just got Tux. He’s a Pitt. He’s been living with us for a month and he’s still learning how to sit. The buttons would probably not be for him, bless his heart.

But could Heidi learn buttons?

I am curious. I have an 8 yo poodle mix. Food motivated. Could I teach him to press a button when he needs to go potty? Right now he just stands by the door when he wants out. Do the buttons help?

My dog is a 2 year old cairn terrier/chihuaha/probably lots of other things. We adopted her a year ago. When I researched cairn terriers, I learned that they’re known to be high energy, inattentive and hard to train, which proved true right away.

With the help of professionals (lol) she learned basic commands like “sit,” “down,” “jump” and “outside.” She’s still good with all of them and very treat-motivated.

My kids (10 and 6) have seen the videos of dogs using buttons and have asked me several times if we can train her. I’m open to the idea, but feel like it will be a futile exercise in frustration. I don’t want to get discouraged and give up.

Thoughts? Has anyone trained a particularly inattentive dog?

What has been your experience travelling with or without buttons? Specifically without.. does your pet get annoyed they can't communicate? If you bring just a few buttons will they still know what to press? Will they look for the others?

For shorter trips like to a families house for the day, do you bring any buttons?

I’m considering it for my two cats, one of whom is very precocious and communicative (part Siamese). I’m afraid he will never shut up, just like in real life. :-)

I have multiple cats. One is a rockstar on the buttons and needs no encouragement. His sister, however, wasn't pressing, but was curious and excited about the buttons. To help her, I started hovering her over the "food" button at breakfast, and she caught on. She reaches for the button and stretches out her little toes to press it. (NB: I know we aren't supposed to force presses; this is not forcing her, just hovering her.) The funny thing is, she waits for me to hover her, instead of pressing the button on her own. Has anyone else tried hovering their cat? What is your experience?

I currently have 9 buttons down for my dog but she only regularly uses the 4 more fun buttons - play, scratches, toy and sometimes outside. (We have a dog door so she doesn’t really need outside a lot)

I feel like the rest are for me lol. Like all done, later, settle. She has pressed these experimentally once or twice but doesn’t use them. Can I keep adding more buttons now, for example names, or do you wait until they are using the others more?

Also my other dog has never pressed a button. She’s interested and watches me model but I don’t feel like she thinks she needs to press buttons as she can communicate well enough without them. Do I keep adding hoping it will spark her interest more?

There are about 6-8 areas to hike where I live. Each area has various trails. I’m not sure if I should teach my puppy just the name of the general hiking areas and just use 6-8 buttons (and have each button correspond to 1-3 different trails), or teach him the name of each individual trail and wind up with 15 or more buttons. Will he be capable of understanding that 1 button can mean an area with 3 different trails? Or should I just do a 1:1 ratio of button to trail?

Our standard poodle just turned 1 and he has 13 words and 5 human names. He uses play, eat and potty a decent amount but sometimes uses play potty or eat potty and were trying to figure out why.. I'm wondering if he is connecting potty with outside? Or that my dad gives him a treat when he goes potty? It's just a weird one we haven't figured out yet. I've been suggesting we make an outside button to differentiate outside and potty. Idk, any suggestions??? We know he knows what they all mean separately but when he combines them it's putting us to the test. How can we make it easier for him?

Stumbled on this article while I was reading my science blogs - pet communication enhancement devices are really going mainstream!

https://phys.org/news/2024-03-parrots-playing-tablet-games.html

After reading this article, I realized that their may be room for AI and tablets to provide services to animals, like providing "company" and "conversation" if a parrot or other animal is lonely, for example.

Any other ideas to integrate tablets or buttons and AI to provide services for animals?

Has anyone ever heard of anyone training a monitor lizard to use buttons? Monitor lizards are among the smartest reptiles and I am interested in trying to teach a lizard I work with but am curious if anyone else has tried. A google search didn’t get me too far.

I notice when we’re in a room without buttons and my dog wants something, she will start stepping on random items in the room LOL. She wanted outside just now and stepped on a water bottle

I found a 4 pack of buttons at goodwill shortly after I got my cats. I used them consistently, modeling several things (treat, all done, open window, food) but neither of my cats ever attempted to press them. I considered trying to teach them to press the “treat” button by training them with treats, but never did. I stopped using the buttons about a year ago.

I still talked to them in “button speak” though. They know their names, snack (dry food), can (canned food), treat, water, bug, balcony, open window, no, all done, soon, now, last one (like the last treat they get or the last time I throw a toy), play, getcha (we play and I “chase” them lol), sleep, hallway, run, and working (when I wfm and can’t play). Probably a few more words that I can’t think of. They consistently react accordingly when I use their “words” even when chaining some together ex “all done balcony soon”. Using “last one” before treats is SO HELPFUL. I’ll give them their last treat and they just walk off and do their own thing without asking for more.

Both of my cats are super social, which gives me lots of opportunities to communicate and train them.

Just wanted to share my experience if anyone’s cats or dogs just won’t use the buttons!

I've always been interested in teaching my cat to use buttons the problem is this cat loves food more than anything else on this earth. She also always loves food and will always take more. She will make herself sick and keep eating. Food is her life. I know a lot of people start with a food button. Problem is if my cat discovers she can press a button for food, it will never stop. I can't use any sort of food to train her to use buttons unless I just want food screamed at me all day and she already spends half the day screaming at me for food.

Two years ago we got out first dog, and she learned the buttons really well, by 6 months old she was using "outside" and "food" consistently. Last year I got a second puppy, and we did the same thing with modelling the button every time we do the action such as when they go out. The button mat is out in the corridor so I even added a second "outside" next to the door so he'd have an easier time making the connection. But he's now 10 months and has never used any buttons. He knows what it means, he comes over to wait by the door when we press it, but he just won't use it by himself. It almost looks like he waits for the older dog to ask, then they go out together. They do almost everything together, and when she asks they both go out. How do I help the puppy understand he can ask too?

My cat keeps using the ouch button incorrectly but I can’t figure out what he thinks it means.

I’ve tried showing him what it means when he scratches or bites me. Sometimes when he runs into things while playing I’ll say it.

But he uses it all the time. He’ll stand there and yell at me for a minute and then press it.

Anyone have any ideas?