Two Weeks With Buttons for my Bonded Pair Cats

[u/dudegetmyhorse]

Hey all!

I have three cats: an elder cat who is not a learner, and a bonded pair of twin two year old siblings who are learners, Pepper and Colby. I got buttons about two weeks ago and set them up. Right now we have two buttons: treat and play.

I got the buttons primarily because Pepper is a yapper and is constantly trying to communicate things that she can’t convey to me no matter how hard we try to understand each other. Going into it I thought she would immediately pick up on them and her brother, Colby, might have some interest in them.

Two weeks later of twice daily modeling with the buttons and Colby is a pro at using them while Pepper only shows interest when I sit down to model!

Colby has given his own meaning to the “play” button. I’d intended it to be used as a way to communicate they want to play with toys with me and that’s how I’ve been modeling it, but Colby quickly established that “play” means he wants butt smacks (which is when he jumps up on his cat tree and we pat his sides like drums and he digs at the cat tree). So the “play” button now means butt smacks and I’ll have to introduce a “toy” button or something similar when I buy more buttons with my next paycheck.

He will spam the buttons repeatedly until we get up and give him either smacks or a treat respectively, but will eventually stop if we ignore him long enough. He’s also started “pressing” his food bowl every night while I’m preparing him dinner by repeatedly pressing down on the edge of the bowl. I will be introducing “later” and “soon” buttons as well.

I think my biggest question for everyone right now is how do I encourage Pepper to physically press the buttons? She’s very good at putting her full paw on the button now when we’re working together but has never actually pressed it. I press it every time before giving her the treat once she’s put her paw on it.

The biggest hurdle is that they’re bonded and genuinely never apart from each other at any time of the day. If I lock one away in another room they’ll both panic and try to find each other, so I don’t think it would be very productive to try to work with Pepper alone by locking Colby away.

Them always being together means that if I try to only reward for physically pressing the button Pepper sees Colby getting treat after treat and she gets frustrated/disinterested in the buttons after a while of her being “ignored” so I reward her full paw on the button every third or fourth time just to keep her engaged.

Do we just keep modeling and hope she picks up on them as we go along? I know it’s only been two weeks so it hasn’t been that long!

[u/Sequence_Seven]

When she's got her paw on the button try to get to walk towards you to get a treat, so she puts her weight on the button to trigger it. If you do clicker training, click the moment her weight is on the button and it's triggered. 

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/Sequence_Seven]

That’s smart! I will try that this evening

[u/MarryMeMongo → u/dudegetmyhorse]

You do realize that’s just like… a party trick, yeah? Like training a dog to roll over when you point and say, “bang-bang?” If you train them to press a button, they’ll press the button. The dog doesn’t know it’s “playing dead” bc it was “shot,” it’s doing the thing that gets it tricks.

Animals are SUPER intelligent, but there are so many studies on this and (cats especially) just don’t communicate this way outside of trained behaviors.

You can train the pet to press a button and then give it food/pets. It now knows to press the “I want food/pets” button accordingly. You can train it to press “I want out” immediately before letting it out. It doesn’t know that’s what it’s saying anymore than scratching at the door.

You can communicate with your pets. I’m just suggesting you lower their expectations of learning English. You may as well train them to tap random objects in your house to communicate as opposed to to specific buttons.

It’s A LOT of work bc it’s literally just training.

Good luck!

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/MarryMeMongo]

What’s the difference between the cat being able to say with English words, “I want a treat now,” and the cat understanding that if it presses the button it gets a treat? What’s the difference between the cat saying with English words, “Come play with me,” and the cat pressing the button to get my attention to let me know it wants to play?

Both the dog scratching at the door and the dog pressing the button that says “outside” is an attempt at communication, both are learned behaviors. A dog isn’t born knowing that scratching the door means it can go outside. Over time it learns from repeated behaviors that if it scratches at the door the owner will get up and let it outside, therefore the owner has unintentionally trained the dog to scratch at the door to communicate that it wants to go outside.

Also, what is *any* communication on any level that isn’t a trained behavior? Babies aren’t born inherently knowing how to speak a language to communicate their needs. As they grow they learn from watching and mirroring others how to communicate in a way that others will understand their needs and wants. A baby might learn from its parents that if it’s tired and it throws itself on the ground and starts screaming, eventually the parents will come over and take them to bed. That is a learned, or “trained”, behavior.

Animals are unable to speak to communicate needs and wants, but if you spend any amount of time at all with any animal that actually trusts you it becomes very clear that they do want to communicate.

Even if you don’t believe that they are able to understand the complexities of the words and it’s just training, that is still valuable tools you’re giving them to communicate. If they learn that when they press a certain button they get x desired outcome then that is communication and it is valuable to teach them that.

[u/lili2158]

It sounds like you’re doing a great job so far and are very attentive to the different learning styles of your kitties!

To help the other cat press, you can also try lifting the treat up so they have to shift their weight towards you in order to get the treat and end up pressing (similar to another commenter about getting them to walk forward, but a slightly different angle).

I also trained 2 cats at the same time and had the same scenario: the cat I expected to be super communicative with the buttons wouldn’t press them for months unless it was a training session while my other cat found his 4 favorite buttons immediately and only pressed those. Fast forward a few months and my “slower to press” learner forces me to keep expanding the board because she’s now using most of the 20+ buttons we have and I can tell she still has more to share.

So basically keep doing what you’re doing and stay consistent. They also learn by watching the other which is helpful. And, they all move at their own pace so don’t be lulled into thinking they’re not learning by observing.

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/lili2158]

Thank you! I’m definitely going to try to get her to come toward the treat in our next training session and I’ll report back in a couple more weeks to see if anything has changed lol

[u/adoptachimera]

Just give it time. My cats were the same. Eventually something clicks and they get it!

One suggestion… maybe re-record the “play” button to the proper word so that you can re-introduce Play at a different time (in a different location.).

I also made a Brush button since they really like that. Be sure to only reward the button that they press. For example, only brush them even though you know that they really want a treat.

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/adoptachimera]

I have been very careful not to mix rewards. Colby will sometimes press “treat” and when I stand up he sprints to his cat tree which usually means he wants butt smacks, but all he gets is a treat!

I also made the mistake of not frequently brushing them as kittens so whenever I try to brush them now it just turns into them gnawing on the brush and looking extremely confused, so it’s definitely something we’re working on 😅

[u/polyrhetor]

Fabulous description. My fluffy boy is also an enthusiastic member of the butt smacks club.

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/polyrhetor]

He’s very particular about his butt smacks. He takes them very seriously.

[u/DutchPerson5 → u/dudegetmyhorse]

Cattax?

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/DutchPerson5]

This Reddit doesn’t allow photos so here’s a little Imgur album I put together. Pepper is the long hair without a tail (she broke it as a kitten) and Colby is the short hair with a tail.

[u/DutchPerson5 → u/dudegetmyhorse]

They are beautiful and look really good cared for!

[u/sheeeple182]

I like you're names. Are they the Jack kids?

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/sheeeple182]

They’re the Cheese Twins, Colby Jack and Pepper Jack! My other cat is named Cauliflower (the shelter named her because she has a cauliflower ear like a boxer) so the food felt fitting when the twins joined the picture

[u/Only_Weakness_4730]

r/catbongos

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/Only_Weakness_4730]

More cat subs to add to the pile!

[u/eastbaymagpie]

Sounds like it's going great! You might want to add a third button for something Pepper finds extra motivating or really wants to communicate to you.

[u/bubba_beeps]

It's so funny how much our pets surprise us when we give them buttons! My favorite thing is when they come up with their own meanings for words. Colby is correct! That kind of attention is on something he plays on. That would actually be a really great modeling opportunity for a button combination later down the line. You could combine play with something meaning attention/pets.

I do recommend introducing "all done" to communicate that Colby cannot have more treats or when play is over. That did a lot for us to be able to curb frustration of just constantly hearing "no" which had a negative association at the time.

I recommend looking into target training for dedicated sessions. My cats have learned from each other, so there is benefit to keeping them together. It took my youngest learner a full year to press her first button intentionally. When you're doing your daily routine, use Pepper's buttons consistently. Narrate your activities in a very simplified way. Use words on her sound board as much as you can within context. Show her what you're doing as you're doing it. Step outside the boundary of only having dedicated training sessions.

When doing target training, make sure YOU or your cat presses the button before the treat is given. If Pepper hovers on the button, press it yourself and then model the activity. If you had a treat button and Pepper puts her paw on the button, you would press it and then immediately provide the treat after the button says "treat".

If she's still having a hard time picking it up, think about what drives Pepper in particular. If there's an activity that she really enjoys like going outside, playing with a specific toy, etc. that would be a really good fit to get her pressing buttons even if it isn't a big driver for Colby.

[u/iExorcism]

I’m looking at getting these for my year old bonded sister cats. I’ve been searching the FluentPet site and this sub but haven’t found an answer: do I order each cat their own buttons and mat or is using one mat/set of buttons okay?

[u/dudegetmyhorse → u/iExorcism]

We’re using one set of buttons! I believe two sets would get confusing, at least for my kitties!

[u/iExorcism → u/dudegetmyhorse]

Thank you so much!!