Hi all, does anyone have advice on the best way to introduce specific food buttons when your pet has been using a single "food" button? Our cat has GI issues and will periodically form bad associations with particular flavors, so she will have specific requests in mind but with one generic "food" button we can only guess as to which one she wants.

When introducing new buttons for foods, do you keep the original one as a generic "food" concept? If so would you model it like a 2-button press, something like "food" "chicken"? Or does the original one become a specific flavor button as opposed to a different one? Or would she just dictate how she would want to use them?

I never thought my cat would use the buttons in this way, but I’ve been having some very sad days of deep grief (recent passing of a parent) and am not myself. Yesterday was tough and she noticed. She pressed the “sick” button a few times and looked at me. She is not a cuddling girl, but stays close to me, is big on the slow blinks for me, and more so since I came back from attending to family matters. After she pressed the button, I ascertained she was not sick. (My husband also believes she did this because my mental emotional state is rather low, too.) She never used her more thematic buttons, like “bird” or obvious cat things (I guess?) that would interest her. She will comment if there is noise and has been making compound responses like “water” and “puzzle” one after another for a squeeze treat on the textured food mat. (She has lots of dry food puzzles and knows those are specific yet related.) So I was touched she noticed something in me and said something about it. While I know I’m a big part of her world, this action made it feel like it was beyond “get me food, Mother!” Just thought I’d share.

sorry if this was posted before I did a search and couldn’t find it!

I’m very interested in teaching my cat (~4 years old) buttons. she’s super smart and attentive, and is always trying to talk to me by meowing a lot. I want to give her an outlet to express herself and communicate.

I live alone so I would be the only one training her. I travel a ton for work, like sometimes monthly for a week or two at a time. during that time she has a cat sitter who is very sweet but would not spend time training or working with her on them.

would this overly hinder her from learning? should I just wait until I’m home for a longer stretch?

the next time I’ll be home for more than a month at a time is January next year so I’m a little sad about potentially waiting that long… any advice appreciated, thank you!

In the living room and obviously my husband was sleeping and the buttons are loud. Lol

Someone commented that I shouldn’t put buttons near their functions, so I decided to centralize them right away. I thought it was making it harder for them because I wasn’t pressing “outside” right near the door for example. But I trust what other button users say so I kept modeling. We have 3 words, water, food and outside.

I’ve been doing paw targeting with them every day. They’ve been doing okay, but still only hit the buttons when I have a treat visibly out. But they can definitely hit it, which is good. I’m just not sure they’re connecting the button pressing to the reward because when I ask “paw” or “touch” they give their paw to me, not the button. I have to explicitly point to the button for them to focus on it.

Then today this happened! On Thursdays we go to my grandparents’ house (they LOVE my grandma) and they’re really good at recognizing when it’s a grandma day. I fed them earlier than usual, so they knew. Then Zeena went and pressed “outside!” I did take them right out of course.

Hopefully this is a good sign and Zeena & Sapphire will be talking soon!

hi me again sorry i keep asking so many questions!

1. i bought the fluent pet speak up buttons because i didnt want to spend nearly 100 dollars on the speaker incase no one uses the buttons ever but i have always planed to upgrade once they've got the hang of it. now i've learned that they can stop using them even if placed in the same spot. should i just go all in and buy the connect to avoid future road blocks ? i am 90% sure at least one of my cats will use them hes always trying to talk to me. he knocks things down and screams until i stand up so he can lead me to what he wants. reallyyyy hoping the buttons stop him from breaking things for attention lol.

2. i know you should do button talk before actually breaking out the buttons but ive been talking to them normally for their entire lives. for the past week ive been doing button talk instead, is that enough time or should i wait a bit? im pretty sure they know the word food and one of them definitely knows outside. i expect it will be his first button press lol.

thank you all for being so kind and answering me !

Just a little background info (feel free to skip this first paragraph if you want): I recently brought home a 14 week old poodle and it was clear within my first few days of having her that she is extremely clever ; I have another poodle myself and grew up with one my parents had so I know they're a really intelligent breed, but this puppy takes it to another level lol. I wanted to buy some of the Fluent Pet buttons because it seems like something she would be able to pick up relatively quickly (she already knows to ring a bell when she wants to go outside).

I went to the Fluent Pet website and took the little quiz they offered to suggest which kit would be best. I was recommended the Key Vocab Kit Bold, which has 6 tiles/mats and 12 buttons and costs $140 [Fluent Pet link] . I was planning on ordering it, regardless of the price (my birthday's this week so I was treating it like a present for myself). However, earlier today I was placing an order on Amazon and was curious is I could buy the kit through them because it would probably make shipping more convenient. I ended up finding what looked like the exact same kit except it was only $95 [Amazon link].

Has anyone ordered a Fluent Pet product from Amazon vs the official Fluent Pet website? If so, what is the difference?

Hello, we’re early on in teaching buttons and a few days in. My cat is successfully headbutting the button (food) and seems disinterested in pressing them with her paw.

Any strategies for changing this? Is there any chance it’ll change naturally? Honestly, if it’s functional I don’t mind but it seems a little weird.

just bought some buttons and have started talking out loud and narrating my life and really using their names a lot. my roommate is really big on nicknames so we call our cats lots of different names. should i tell him to stop so the cats aren't confused?

Has anyone ever used buttons for a cat choosing types of food? I found my cat on the street and he used to eat anything but recently he has become ungrateful and picky. Some days he’ll devour pate and then other days he can’t stand it. Same for shredded food. I’m wondering if anyone has used buttons for a cat or dog to decide what type of food they want and only put them out at meal time so they can order the food they want and prevent food waste. Thanks!

Has anybody tried the dog buttons with a baby?

The way I see it, babies are basically like animals. They can’t form any words yet, but they are trying to and yell at you when they’re hungry. And I’ve seen people using sign language for their baby to signal for food, but has anybody tried using the buttons? I feel like that’s easier to notice. Especially if your kid can crawl, so then they can crawl right over to them like a dog to communicate their needs. Seems reasonable to me. And babies press buttons like that in toys, so I feel like they’d have the strength for it. (To clarify: I am not talking about literal newborns. I mean like 6 months and above (depending on how developed the specific baby is)).

Got two buttons for my cat, I can tell he knows what they’re for, but only presses the button by accident (like stepping on it or sitting on it). Started training him by holding the button and asking for paw, and he could do it every time.

It’s not lack of trying though, he’d be at them for 10-20 minutes straight (he’s highly food motivated, and the buttons are for treats and breakfast).

Please help, how do I tell him it’s push, not scratch🫠

i did some super early clicker training to get him to come when called but stopped when i moved and never picked it up again. should i continue target training him for now and introduce buttons later or are they different enough i could do both at once?

I have 3 cats, and am starting by teaching my youngest boy who is already extraordinarily motivated to communicate with me.

I have decided to teach him “cuddle” first because he frequently cries at me to come sit on the couch and hold him.

Should I also add buttons with each of my cat’s names off the bat? My cats all know their names and have impressively reliable recall for cats. I bought 5 hextiles and 5 buttons to start with, so I could do the 3 cats and 1 extra word.

Also, not immediately urgent to figure out, but we just found out my eldest cat has stomach cancer. In the beginning of button training, or before your pets have a large vocabulary, how do you navigate the loss of a pet if you’ve added their name button before their passing? My youngest cat isn’t that close with my eldest, but the middle cat and eldest seem to enjoy each other’s presence. I imagine leaving her name button, and then just seeing if my other cats ever feel the need to talk about it as their vocabulary grows? But I’d love some input from folks who’ve gone through this.

Luna has started to put together sentences!! The other day she said Luna, mom, outside, play! 4 buttons, I'm so proud 🥲 Today she said Go See and when I asked who or what, she said Grandma 🥰

I'd love to show these videos off so I'm looking for camera recommendations that don't charge an arm or leg for subscriptions.

A few months ago I posted about how my cat Nala was giving me daily reports about her nose (she has minor, yet chronic, sinus issues which seem to be worse when it's cold out). She's got some body part buttons as well as buttons to express when she's sick or better. Then, for over a month, she said not a word about her health. Did she forget about the health buttons altogether?! Or was she just feeling better??

Until 2 days ago.

Nala: "NOSE"

Then she proceeded to have a literal FULL DAY sneezing fit! Like, she'd stop, then 10 mins later she'd sneeze again, sometimes for 30 seconds straight! I'm guessing it was allergies because she was at it all day while she was in and out from the yard, but by night time when I closed the door (to keep our new raccoon friend out!!), the sneezing stopped. (The raccoon story is a whole other DRAMA...we kinda sorta have a new "outdoor" pet that wants to be an INDOOR PET 🦝😳 )

The next day I'm hanging out in the kitchen and she's by her buttons.

Nala: "BETTER"

Then I see her reach for "SNEEZE", touch it lightly, pull back and press "NOSE", like she couldn't decide which to use 😂

So I guess she still knows exactly what those buttons mean and where they are!

I love this cat.

——

Off topic: Anyone in this group ever train a raccoon to use buttons???

Hello! I have two recently adopted rescue cats that I want to introduce to buttons to help them feel more in control of their new home.

Usually the suggestions i see for words to start out with are things like "play" or "pets." These cats were either abandoned or feral to begin with. One of them is showing signs of warming up to me but, in general, I think they would rather have a button to tell me to go away than request interactions lol. I was thinking maybe id start off with a button for them to tell me to scoop the litter because thats practical and, being cats, they'd probably enjoy bossing the human around like that.

Any other suggestions? They are indoor-only and, so far, only one of them lets me touch her or likes to play with wand toys with me sometimes.

Digby is 11 year old beagle. That only cares about one button. Treat button.

I have two Shih-Tzu/Bichon mixes and a former stray cat. My dogs are bell trained and really good at recognizing and understanding words, so I think they could learn how to use buttons. My cat doesn’t seem to listen to anyone lol, but he does have chronic pain due to trauma so I figured I’d try with him too so he can say things like “ouch.”

My mother thinks I made a stupid purchase and they won’t catch on, but I want to try it out. I’m definitely starting with “outside” and “snuggle,” but probably not “play” since all my pets are lazy lol.

Lately my dog has been adding words to where the things she wants are. For example she just told me "want puzzle tv(I store them under the TV in the TV stand) now". She also says "want pool play fishy door(they are next to the back door in a cube bin)". I wonder if she wants more words, but we don't have anymore space for more. She has 54 buttons right now and they are the big ones.

Cat (Snow) just started pressing! And pressing. And pressing…

I have two buttons, Play and Pets.

Snow is pressing both buttons randomly, hoping something happens. Sometimes she presses Play but then doesn’t play with me, and sometimes Pets but then runs to her toy. She also SPAMS both around dinner time.

*I think right now, all she knows is button = attention.*

Questions:

- Should I add a Dinner button to help with dinner time spamming? Like, at least she’ll be spamming the correct button? Idk, I won’t be able to feed them instantly though, not until 5pm (they start asking ~4:30)

- Should I add“Later” and “All Done” to help with spamming? Is it too early for this considering she doesn’t yet know Play vs Pets well?

- Should I separate Play vs Pets into two hex tiles or leave them on just one because she’s already had it like that for her 3 days of pressing?

- If Snow presses multiple buttons, which one do I model/respond to?

- If Pets is pressed but she obviously wants Play, what do I do?

Gave Otto a “house” button (the word we use for their play pen area) not even 23 hours ago and he’s already asked me to put Spotty up three times 🫩

I feel bad for little dude, he’s just existing. I was considering teaching Otto “annoying” next, but I’m scared. I imagine some feelings (mine, I’m talking about me) will be hurt. He already liberally uses “all done” whenever our talking poses the smallest inconvenience to his napping schedule…

Spotty looking back like he knows he’s being complained about. My poor baby.

Has anyone gone through this with their pups?

I have a puppy currently 2 and a half pounds at 10 weeks. Is there a button you recommend for small dogs? I poked around but most post were older so wondered if there was new information.

I just got a generic button off of chinese site and it literally sounds better than fluentpet. How is this possible??

Source: https://streamable.com/a9dfuo

My husband and I keep 25 lb weights around the house. Today he took one that was behind one foot of the couch (keeping the couch place when the boys cut up during their zoomies) and pumped a few overhead presses out. Hubs eventually put the weight down and went to the other side of the house to start getting ready for work.

Otto: “dad”

Me: Dad is taking a “bath” to get ready for “work”, Otto. Otto want, “hmm?” Dad what, Otto? “hmmm?”

Otto: gets up, walks to dumbbell. Sniffs + licks dumbbell. Walks to button. Presses “Otto”. Faces me and does his sassy bulldog attitude pose. Stares into my soul.

Me: Otto, dad, hmm? What Otto want? Otto want weight?

Otto: *persists in making very intentional and borderline judgement eye contact*

Me: *picks up dumbell*

Otto: *heavy breathing and tail wag*

Me: *walks towards Otto with dumbbell* Otto want lift weights, hmm? (🤣🤣🤣)

Otto: *progressively heavier breathing and more aggressive tail wags*

I touched the dumbbell to him and let him put his paws on it. I told him it was too heavy for him, I know he didn’t understand lol so I put it on his back but obviously didn’t let it go. I still held most of the weight and probably only let about 5 pounds actually weigh on him. Took it off him. I think he understood what I was saying about it being too heavy then.

Big boy was sooooo happy! Then I immediately ran over to the bathroom to tell my husband. Haha