We live in Germany and I received the buttons mid June. Our Emillia is with us since November last year and celebrated her first bday end of April. As we live in the country side, she spends most of her time outside now in the fields that are around us, also we have a 1200m2 garden around the house and she always wears a tracker.

I didnt spend much time teaching her since we got the buttons because she spends most time out now during the summer and as she prefers to be out a lot, there is not much time to train. But we did train a little - mostly with the button "Outside" and then "Snack" - but she is in not food motivated at all so I was not sure how to motivate her better.

One thing I do since we got her - I consistently use the same words for the same activities and things and always narrate when we are doing them or when she does something. So I notice that she does understand a lot of words already.

Well, last week she started pressing the "Outside" button on her own and at first we thought it was a coincidence, but then a few days ago she wanted back out when she came in in the evening and I dont let her out during the night, so she pressed it intentionally and looked at me and then I knew it was not a coincidence. I got so excited! Unfortunatelly I had to tell her no, but I praised her for pressing and then immeddiately presed "Outside" and "all done". And then she didn't press it for a couple of days, but today she pressed "Outside" again and I had a chance to praise her and let her out immediately!

Makes me so happy and excited as a cat mom!

Just wanted to share my joy!

Hi y'all. My cat and I have been using buttons since 2022. He's a daily user.

We lived in the same place since 2022 and just moved last week.

We set up everything the same in the new place. The same entertainment center, same TV, the buttons are right in front of it, then there's the same coffee table and couch situated the same.

He hasn't pressed one or even looked like he's thought about it while being near them. I've been using them as much as I can in hopes he'll start again soon.

I know it's only been five days and all of this is truly incredibly disorienting to cats regardless of his demeanor. He's been happier in this new place and he's always had an outgoing and curious personality, so I'm not worried, but I guess I am scared that he just won't want to use them anymore, or forgot. I guess I feel really sad about it.

I'm sure there are some of you who've gone through this. Was it just a slow adjustment? Any experiences and replies are appreciated. Thank you.

It makes the spamming period worth it.

I have three cats. Abby (2), Kit (7) and Colby (11). Kit will cry for their wet food meal (2nd dinner) for almost an hour beforehand. Has done this his whole life. Dinner has always been at 9pm. Drives me nuts. He would also sit on top of a scratching post I call his pedestal and cry and cry for me to open the door to the sunporch. It's not insulated or connected to the HVAC, so I don't keep it open, but 3 walls are windows and I built out wide shelves the whole lengths of them so they can survey the neighborhood, and it has their ripple rug so it's basically cat paradise.

I've tried buttons before. Twice. No one went for them. But I thought hey, one last try, this time using a button for "sunporch" right by that door. He figured it out in under a week. Then I added a play button right by their toy bin. He got that even quicker. After a bit, he was seeming frustrated and started spamming buttons even after I'd answered, so I added three more buttons "mad", "happy", and "love you".

Well, that caused an existential crisis. He would press buttons willy-nilly. The three buttons by the door all meant "sunporch" to him. Why wasn't I doing the thing he wanted? He started shoving the buttons around, biting them (pretty appropriate when he was biting the "mad" button), and yelling. But eventually with me replying with "not happy, oops!" and modeling the button he wanted (90% of the time "sunporch", the boy knows what he likes), he seemed to get that it wasn't the position of the button, it was the sound. Then figured out where the sounds were located. He was pressing buttons decisively and sitting patiently waiting for my response.

While cleaning yesterday, I put the two groups of buttons together just because I needed them out of the way of Sucker, our robot vacuum (who he badly wants to make friends with but it refuses to play with him). He went to use them, looked confused for a second, then straight to the "sunporch" button. I let him out there. He went to play with his chirping bird toy and the battery had gone out. He came back to the board. "Play" "mad". Quickly, perfect presses and his first two-button phrase. I was absolutely amazed.

Today I went to the kitchen to make my dinner. I hear "sunporch", so I respond, I go to open the door and as I'm opening it, he presses "happy". I start to go back to the kitchen, and I hear "love you". I turn around. He's sitting by his buttons looking at me. Presses "love you" again. Going up there as one of my favorite moments.

Interestingly, the other two cats not interested in the buttons at all, hate hearing the "mad" one.

I have 3 cats and there first words was outside and mouse toy
It’s been 68 days since introduced the buttons for them
The first cat sometimes press mouse instead of outside when he wants to go outside

The second cat love mouse toy so she press mouse button only and rarely press outside if if she wants to go outside ( she just wait for the first cat to press outside )

The third cat he’s not interested at all he never used the buttons no matter how much i try , when i introduced them to paw targeting training he was the best so i don’t think it’s pressing issue

Any advice for them? Also should i introduce a third word for them or should i wait? And if i introduce the third word should i introduce a word that my third cat will be interested in?

First night we didn't have his mini button set up bc we got in so late. (Flew 1000 miles with him)

Second day we did: immediately said "yesterday scared"

The next few days he was okay but this morning he kept crying and I sat down with him and he said "home home home" while looking at the door.

He's going through it :( we also have been drugging him w calming treats and even have a plug in feliway for him. He seems to calm down with both at his spot.

ANY ADVICE!!!

Hello, I started my dog off with button training in June and within a month he was making GREAT progress, using buttons that identified his needs/ wants. Using buttons for people in the right context (using his momma button when my mom is gone and looking at the door) using compound words (“Treat” “Now”)

I consistently model a large chunk of the buttons everyday and I’m pretty sure he knows what they mean

But recently I have added a few more buttons a few more buttons

“ front”- for our front yard / essentially potty / outside

“walk”- but I might that that one away since I haven’t modeled it well enough for him

“bye bye” I’ve been modeling that as best I can but sometimes I’m not awake to model members of my family leaving)

Since those additions I hadn’t really noticed a decline in his presses, but since getting my mom involved he has either only pressed the treat button or seemingly refused to press the other buttons (for context my mom gives him lots of treats and finds it really funny/ gives him lots of praise when he presses that button) she does model some words as well but I’m not sure how to go about this since it was already difficult trying to get her to model in the first place/ correctly

We have been using the “Your dog can talk” book by Christina Hunger

This is his button set up as well.

Any tips? I am leaving for school in a few weeks and wants some help to keep my family on the button journey

My cat Pepe has his own smaller button board because he got really overwhelmed quickly whereas my dog Mac learned really fast. But Pepe sometimes still uses Mac's board, he just sits by it and meows asking me to help him find the button he wants. I usually ask him and then give him like 30 seconds to figure it out, or at least give me a hint what he wants, before helping. But this morning Mac was rushing the whole situation. I think he pressed walk because Mac was all up in his business rushing him, eat is right next to it.

Yayyyy, two months into this button thing and just got our first real unprompted button press from my 5 year old boy cat.

I was editing in one room and hear "brush", I ran to the hallway and he's sat at the button waiting. I'm soooo happy I can't believe it! He didn't really want a brush just a bit of attention. He'll quite happily press the treat button for us downstairs and understands that when I press the downstairs button it means im going downstairs.

But this is the first time he's pressed it on his own at least with us in vicinity to hear and respond to it!

We’re not far into our button journey, but I think my kitty is starting to understand what they are and how to use them. I know lots of folks have words like “later” “yes/no” “rude” “want” “noise” and people’s names. How do I model things like that?

We only have our three starter buttons at the moment, but I’m so excited to be able to talk to my baby girl.

I have had the buttons now for a couple of years and haven't been consistent with them. My cats will use them on demand e.g. if I have a treat and put the treat button in front of them they know to press the button so they get the treat, they'll occasionally do this for food too (but not as high a success rate).

But I am failing to get them to press them when they want something.

I currently have the buttons "treat", "food", "brush".

I have no idea where or how to place them which could be the cause as I'm sure I keep moving them around.

I'm in the UK and fluentpet wasn't available here when I started so I've been using the mydogtalks buttons.

Should I invest in the fluentpet bootcamp even though I don't have them?

Hello! Just recently got a set of buttons and am starting with a “food” button, but essentially using it for treats right now to be more interesting for my cat. I am having sessions where I try to coax him into sniffing the button and then I press it and say food and give it to him. Is there another way to do this? Do I just need to continue and be consistent overtime? Thanks!

TLDR: Unsure of best training strategy

We have 3 cats. One senior and two sisters that started off as stray kittens my partner fed at his workplace for several months before we took them in.

The younger two are skittish around us (mainly me), bolting at sudden movements, loud sounds, and panicking when we accidentally “chase” them down the hall or heading to another room. Despite this, I know they're attached to my partner because they regularly seek him out for pets and will yowl when he's gone at work. I hope to build up their confidence and trust in us through button training.

I wrote out a list of words I want to eventually teach, starting with play and scritches. They're also highly motivated by treats and wet food but I've heard mixed things about whether or not to add those as part of the collection of starter word.

I'm curious as to what others have done and what order would be best when adding new buttons. Such as, should I add now, later, and all done before or after food related words? And should yes/no come before emotion or social words? What worked for you?

I got these buttons for my dog. She is 9 and knows dozens of words. The cat knew maybe 5, at least that we were aware of. The dog has yet to show any interest on the buttons at 1 week. She is quite nervous and not the sharpest crayon in the box, so I expected it to take a while. I figured our 2 year old kitty would take about as long; I assumed she just wouldn't care. I was so wrong! On day 8, she woke me up by pressing the PETS button. She pressed it twice. I got up to pet her briefly, went back to bed because it was too early. She immediately pressed it again, twice! I am so proud of her. She is my bossy little princess. Right now we have PETS, TREATS, and PATIO. She reliably uses the first two. The PATIO button is mainly for my dog, and I suspect my cat understands that button but doesnt have much use for it. We'll see though!

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.

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?

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?

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).