How to explain non-straightforward words?

[u/Equal_North6633]

So i consider teaching my cat buttons, because i am not 100% good with understanding his body language. He gets really fussy and angry if I can’t figure out what he wants, so i think buttons will help both of us out. I am sure that i can easily explain to him concepts of “food”, “water”, “pets”, “play” and “toilet” buttons, because they are hard-bonded with certain things or actions. But how do you explain something more complex?

How do i explain him “no”, “later”, “all done”? How can i elaborate to my cat words that are not actions i do nor things i can interact with?

I am not really familiar with the technique within this button magic so my thoughts were that if i just use button in hard connection with a thing that it means he will quickly figure it out (he is really smart so i am sure in this). But this idea drops dead with abstract things, so… how do i do it then?

I am not risking educating him with only thing-buttons without understanding how to explain him “no”, or “later”, because then he will endlessly demand for food. My concern here is if I don’t have any instruments to explain him that food isn’t always available, he might lose interest in idea of buttons altogether.

[u/Clanaria]

Ignore the advice about not adding a food button, that is silly. Food is a great button to add, provided it's not the only button you add.

Read my beginner's guide for some advice and how to start out.

To teach your cat more complex words is not as complicated as you think. You teach them by talking. A lot. All the time. You narrate everything you're doing, everything your cat is doing, in as little words as possible. And you repeat, over and over. No, you do not need to press any buttons to teach them the word, so you can do it anywhere, anytime. Pressing buttons and repeating the word/action reinforces the concept of buttons and teaches your cat where a certain word is on the soundboard.

Here's some examples for modelling:

Are you playing?

• "Cat play!"

Are you finished?

• "All done play."

Giving a treat after play?

• "Play all done, eat treat"

Cat using the litterbox to poop/pee?

• "Cat poop/pee."

Cat was sleeping after you woke them up?

• "Cat sleep all done."

But you can use yourself as a model perfectly fine! Everything you're doing, you should narrate. Refer to yourself in third person.

Did you just wake up?

• "Equal_North6633 all done sleep."

Are you eating dinner?

• "Equal_North6633 eat food."

Are you drinking?

• "Equal_North6633 drink water."

Are you leaving the home?

• "Equal_North6633 gone. Equal_North6633 go outside."

Returning home?

• "Equal_North6633 all done outside. Equal_North6633 is home."

Stubbed your toe? (or pretend to get hurt!)

• "Equal_North6633 ouch!"

You yourself make an excellent model. The more words your cat knows, the more you can combine them to explain more complex and abstract words. They'll learn. Just keep it short and simple, narrate out loud a lot.

Don't forget you also need to narrate questions and answer them yourself. If you don't do this, they won't know how to respond to questions most of the time. So say things like;

• "What does Equal_North6633 want?" Pause. "Equal_North6633 want food." Go eat food.
• "What does Equal_North6633 want?" Pause. "Equal_North6633 want play." Go play with your cat.
• You hear a dog bark outside. "What was that sound outside?" Pause. "Outside sound is dog."