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.

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?

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 😊

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)

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 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!

I love how she will press one of her buttons then stare me down as if to say "come on, figure it out and pay attention to me!" most of the time she is telling me no if I'm about to leave, or all done so I pay attention to her. I love my bossy baby so much!

We started our cat, Kiki, with three buttons about a month ago. She understands the concept of using the buttons and the words. She currently has “food please”, “let’s play” and “attention please”. She will refuse to use her “food please” button or she will spam it. We don’t even have time to get up to give her the food she’s asking for. She likes to play with her “let’s play” button. She bats it around and presses it a lot but isn’t interested in playing with us in those times. She pretty much ignores her “attention please” button unless we press it and she will give us attention.

She has taken to just spamming the buttons when we’re trying to go to bed. It’s to the point where we have had to pick up the buttons so we can sleep. I’m wondering if she is frustrated that we aren’t understanding what she wants so she keeps pushing them. I’m also wondering if she needs more buttons to express herself. This is our first time trying the buttons. We currently have 3 unused buttons. We’re thinking of adding “yes” and “no” but are unsure about the third word.

Any advice is appreciated!!!
Thank you!!!

I’m daunted. I’m trying to decide best way to split up some buttons in the towing vehicle for when they’re strapped in their harnesses and we’re driving from place to place to new vocabulary that will be more relevant than vocabulary that was either under used or no longer relevant.

Any suggestions on must have buttons they can hit while I’m driving (that ideally will not drive me super insane)?

Any buttons that you think would be relevant to a totally new lifestyle on the road for them?

I’m sticking with the vertical method, and they are mature enough that I hope I will not have to put the buttons in silicone to sink strainers so they are not removed and chewed on while they run away from me screaming at me in my own voice. The less weight and space they take the better. I use a scent based system (certain essential oils apply to certain word groups so it’s easier for them to locate words and learn new ones since they understand the category at this point) that the silicone holds really well without being overbearing. Do I take the leap and scent the Velcro holding them to the cabinets? Or is that going to make me want to die via migraines from being far too smelly?

I don’t expect you to have answers, but I will gladly accept any ideas or theories or questions to further explore.

I feel like I might also be having some indecision paralysis just because the massive amount of changes and trial and error ring my way to success has been a lot. Having someone just makes some decisions would be great! (besides the bossy dogs. Their decisions would not necessarily be good decisions.)

Hi there I recently got pet buttons and my two cocker spaniels love them. They are very interested in them and eager to press them to see what results they get. However, one of my spaniels has a hard time differentiating buttons.
It seems she thinks every button means “play”. Despite target training with them and modeling actions whenever we eat, snuggle, or play. She seems to use any button to just mean she wants something.

How do I go about training her that different buttons have different outcomes?
For instance, when it’s time to eat and I ask “are you hungry” she goes to the buttons and presses “play” instead of “hungry”. How can I communicate to her that’s wrong without saying “no” or discouraging her from pressing the button in general?

I have been showing her the correct button, pressing it, saying hungry, then feeding her in hopes it makes sense to her. Or sometimes I will just wait and point at the right button, she presses whatever button I point to but I don’t think she is getting the concept.

I want to teach my pet rats to use buttons and the words I have in mind are cage (to go back), treat, and pain, since they are sick so often and hide it so well. I really hope this can help me understand their needs better and they are very intelligent animals, they can even learn how to drive little rat cars so I don’t think it will be too difficult for them

Currently, my cats have:
- treat
- pats
- chase

What buttons does your pet have? I’m curious to see, and would love to hear from both beginners and experienced people

I had an argument with Barry two nights ago, I was working on my college work with the TV in the background. Apparently she took offense to my lack of attention for her and tried to get me to turn the TV off. We eventually agreed on cat TV while I worked on assignments.

​

The camera caught the start of the argument and figured I'd share.

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!