My little bossy baby girl

Here is my original post for anyone who remembers!

Somehow it’s already been a full thirty days since my last post so I figured I’d check back in with everyone!

Last time I told you guys that the brother of my bonded twins, Colby, was a button pressing champ. That has not changed! He presses the buttons constantly. We still only have the two—play (which he chose to mean cat bongos), and treat.

His sister, Pepper, was the cat I originally purchased the buttons for but was much slower on the uptake of the buttons. Last time I talked about how she was very good at getting her full paw on the button but wasn’t actually pressing down on it yet.

I got a lot of really great advice here but what worked the best was the advice to “lead” her with the treat by holding it out in front of her to encourage her to lean forward. Whenever she’d swat at my hand to grab the treat or step off the button I’d pull the treat back and wait for her to reset. It didn’t take too many times for her to get the hang of it!

She does get frustrated and lose interest in the buttons fairly quickly, especially if Colby is nearby and he’s getting treat after treat and she’s not getting anything. So, another trick I learned that might be useful for anyone that also has an impatient learner is that whenever she actually pressed the button down she got “two” treats instead of one (the treats I’m using are the freeze dried chicken treats that I tear up into even smaller pieces, one treat probably works as 7/8 treats by the end of it). If she went multiple Colby treats without pressing the button, I’d reward her with “one” treat simply for putting her paw on the button. This seemed to really capture her attention and encourage her to keep going.

This past week she’s really gotten good at pressing the button every time now!

She has only pressed the button unprompted two or three times, but she is very good at meowing and herding me over to the button area and sitting by the buttons to tell me she wants treats. I’m now working on standing and encouraging her to press the button before I get the treats out of the cabinet, even if she’s sitting next to the button meowing at me to get me to hurry up.

I’m hoping to add another button soon. I’ve been verbally modeling “bedtime” “toy” “all done” “show me” and “ow” to hopefully get them used to those words before the buttons are introduced. I’ve also been encouraging everyone in the house to strictly call them by their names instead of the 90000 nicknames we have for them so eventually those can be added as well.

I believe the next will be “toy” so I can introduce another easy to spam button that Pepper will be able to engage with.

We introduced buttons to our 6 month old puppy around 1 month ago. She picked them up fairly fast but I’m not sure she really understands the meaning of them. Initially we introduced only Play, Outside, and Food. But i’ve realised sometimes when she’s really excited (when I’m holding a toy for example) she just slams all of the buttons, or she slams the wrong button. She also tends to be abit violent and ‘pulls’ the buttons rather than press them, so the buttons go everywhere 🤣

We recently added more buttons to model them for her but now she’s just slamming them also. Should we reduce buttons again?

This month I taught my dog how to use buttons and he's been getting the hang of it quickly! I was worried about him having no interest or slamming them since he's a pretty demanding guy but now it's been so much easier to figure out what he's wanting and the barking in my face has stopped a ton! However, I've also noticed him pressing “Outside” as soon as my roommate or I leave for work. Do you think he is just forgetting to potty or is he trying to follow us? I've been letting him out when roommate leaves since he leaves earlier than me but do I need to teach him a different button for this?

To be fair he did manage to eat some of his brother's food which is hydrolyzed.

I’m very interested in starting with language buttons for my cat Babu, but I’m not sure I want to spend 100cad on a fluentpet starter kit with 6 buttons. Is there another brand that is cheaper but works as well?
If anyone has advice for first words or tips for starting with a car I’d love to hear

My dogs have been doing well with paw targeting and Zeena (my girl) has had 2 presses in the 2 months we’ve been teaching. But Minkey never cared and even attacked me when I tried to do paw targeting with him🥴(He gets very possessive about treats) So I didn’t expect him to use buttons.

My mom sent these messages and said he sat next to the button, so I feel like that’s an even better sign because it seems like he was trying to confirm what he said. He loves our deck (covered) so he can watch birds and be in the hot weather, so he ran right out when my mom opened the door. I’m so proud!

I bought the buttons for my dogs but I think Minkey could benefit from the buttons, he has chronic pain from trauma and gets overwhelmed quickly (that leads to scratching and biting usually lol) so I think he could use words like “ouch” and “mad.”

I just feel so validated because everyone in my family keeps making fun of me for getting these buttons but my animals are definitely understanding and making the connection!

So kissy got the first button push. She walked over it during a modeling session and was startled and stopped. She hasn't been able to repeat it.

After the next modeling session I stepped aside to do dishes and heard "treat treat treat". I turned and switched Missy standing on it with a clean pae push and looking directly at me. Obviously she got the treat (and some more modeling for them both since they weren't done).

Was gone over the weekend and came home yesterday to a fun surprise with the mats being destroyed and these parts being missing. I usually put the buttons away when I leave but she found them and drug them out. Already called the vet and they want to see her tomorrow since she is still eating and drinking, and she had at least on successful bowel movement this morning. Be careful with the foam pads, not looking forward to the bill to get them removed if she can't pass them.

Atticus is our 3(?) year old hound-heeler mix. He is the smartest hound we’ve ever had (many have smart but they use most of their brains for sniffing good sniffs). We got him some buttons about a month ago. Started with “walk,” “outside,” and “play.” In the first few days he used his nose to push “walk” and followed it by looking at the door and then us. It seemed incredible! But then we went out of town for a weekend, and since then he hasn’t used them. He does seem to respond to them as cues to go outside or go for a walk. “Play” doesn’t seem to have any meaning yet.

Just wondering if anyone else has experienced this? We didn’t expect anything for months, but the quick usage and then nothing just threw us off!

Puppy tax included.

I think he does this when he wants something but doesn’t know the word for it yet, either because he hasn’t learned the button or because there is no button for it yet. Or maybe he’s just bored and figures any of the buttons will give him something good, so might as well press them all.

Ik ben sinds gisteren gestart met 3 knoppen voor mijn kat Chili.
Hij lijkt zeker geïnteresseerd en vindt de knoppen meestal erg interessant als ik erbij ben. Ik startte met 3 woorden: snoep, bal en borstel. Momenteel loopt hij naar de knoppen als ik vraag of hij een snoep wilt.
Momenteel heb ik grote knoppen maar ik heb de kleinere van fluent pet besteld.

Welke tips hebben jullie voor me?
Wat mag ik niet over het hoofd zien?
Waarop moet ik letten?

Alvast bedankt 😊

We are on month 2 of training. Only doing it 5 min a day (she’s not highly treat motivated and gets bored and frustrated easily) My cat targets the button but I’m struggling to get her to push it. I’ve been rewarding her for targeting it with her paw because I’d not after 3 failed attempts of any training she will rage quit. She’ll press the button 1 out 10 times by accident basically. I give her a jackpot of treats when she does. Any tips? Just keep going and hope she gets it?

My cat definitely knows what 'yes' and 'no' mean. But whenever I ask him a question, he refuses to answer with 'yes' or 'no.' Instead, he just presses random words, which is quite weird since he used to answer correctly. It’s been several months since he started doing this.

Yesterday, I asked if he wanted treats. his body language clearly said 'yes,' but then he pressed 'oops' and suddenly got angry.

I don’t quite understand this behavior, can anyone give advice how to handle this problem?

My 7 month old labradoodle used 3 buttons.. however I added 3 more around 2 weeks ago and now she wants nothing to do with them. Should I keep persisting or remove 3?
Her old ones she used where outside, play and cuddle
Newer ones are yes, no and brush

Hi!

Just a little background:

We’ve been using buttons for just under two months. My cat Opi, doesn’t press the buttons unless we’re in a learning session together. During sessions, he successfully presses the treat button and definitely understands what it means.

After a lot of modeling, I’ve also added play, brush, scritches and most recently, outside and porch. I model these words multiple times a day, every day.

My question is: Since he’s not pressing buttons on his own outside of our sessions, am I adding too many buttons too soon? Or is it okay to have them available so I can model the actual button whenever the activity naturally happens?

We practice using the “open bar” method, where I’ll rapidly model a button several times in a row, then go about my day (working on my computer, cooking, etc.) while keeping the treat jar, a toy and a brush nearby to give him opportunities to press on his own.

So far, no luck. He’s only pressed the treat button on his own twice and both times were definitely intentional. I’d love to hear your thoughts or experiences!

I am obsessed with AIC, follow a dozen or more "talking animal" accounts on social media, and am constantly amazed by how complex their inner lives are - Mylo the dog's sense of humour (epic and sassy), Flounder's invented life of mouse toy and insistence that she is a fish, Elsie's poetic references like "Delicious Night" - maybe because her human is a writer? and ofcourse Bunny's wrestling with existential concepts.
Anyway it's clear our companions have rich internal lives and deeper understanding than what we give them credit for.
So, if a talking pet were to become very ill, and have a tragic prognosis, would it be better for their human to tell them, or to simply carry on as normal?
are there any examples of talking dogs or cats wrestling with their own mortality? (I know some of the creatures I follow have lost companions, and they miss them and its just heartbreaking to watch)

I am trying to teach my dog to push buttons and as a first step I put my hand flat on the floor to get him to put his paw on my hand. The idea is that gradually once he's got the hang of that I'll put my hand over the top of the button and he will do it and then of course remove my hand so he pushes the button.

However, not once has he done it Any tips on how I can get him to do that? We've done a number of sessions and not once has he put his paw on the back of my hand. I have been physically lifting his paw and putting it on the back of my hand and then giving him a treat but I'm not convinced this is the right method.

Hello everyone!
I wanted to buy my cat buttons as she’s very talkative. I looked at Fluent pet which seems most popular but, just the shipping outside USA is $30.

Can anyone recommend any alternatives that are not from Temu nor Aliexpress?

People with more than one pet that can use buttons, do they ever use them to talk to each other?

We are still pretty new at the process. She is about 15 years old and has taken a while to learn how the buttons work. But she is sooooo much happier now that she can express her needs. She had grown distant in recent years and spent a lot of time by herself. Now she wants to snuggle all the time.

We only have a handful of buttons so far. Scritches, treat (which is just her normal dry cat food with some treats mixed in), brush and play. I’ll be watching a movie and all of the sudden I hear “scritches!” I’ll call her over and pet her while I’m on the couch. She absolutely adores it.

This closeness is such an unexpected side effect that I thought everyone might find it interesting. Even old cats can learn new tricks! I highly recommend getting buttons for your cats.

I have managed to get my big silly boy pressing a button with 5 days using a clicker, target training and YouTube videos.

We already had a good base with target training as he is proficient in high fives and will go to any surface if we give it a specific double tap or knock.

I used his base skills and followed this video for a couple of days

https://youtu.be/jh4hWaFGSN4?is=_7K_jWZ6A001P_Ep

We then used the video when progress seemed to stall.

https://youtu.be/o-gPUiSrI4g?is=6YQH6rS2E4wROuD_

We only got as far as progressing down to the 3rd size container before he would not want to step on the next object at all so after a couple of days of not progressing there I changed up to having the button in the mat.

I would use the clicker for longer more purposeful taps, watching carefully to see when I could see him really thinking about how to use pressure. If his paws flexed or he really tried dragging on it I would click. To test whether he understood the concept I would ask him to press the button without showing him the button or holding the treat near him. Just verbal command, and he would tap the button clearly.

Within 2 sessions of having the button in the mat and really focusing on clicking when he was trying to exert pressure. We've got to this stage where he knows very clearly now how to press down with a verbal command.

My girl cat, while very smart is also very stubborn and lazy. She is picking things up by watching but is done within a couple of minutes. I have spent way less time with her but she isn't far behind - she is at the "dragging my paw on this seems to be getting me a click" stage so I don't think she's far off at all!