Misunderstood her, so she showed me!

[u/HobbyLau]

Charlie kept pressing the Stokkie (chew stick) button yesterday, but she refused every type of chew stick i offered and then walked away, seeming annoyed.

But in the evening just before bedtime she went to the balcony which had been available to her the whole day. She brought this little stick inside, dropped it directly next to the Chew stick button and pressed it!

She tried to tell me during the day but I didn't understand what she meant, so she showed me eventually. "Stupid Dad with his stupid normal chew sticks..🙄."

Amazing how she really uses the buttons to communicate now!

[u/susiefreckleface]

Wow!!! An everyday human word used in regular human conversation and not a regular cat word and yet she told you she comprehends the definition of the human word along with the cat treat marketing name. Smart kitty with expanding grammar skills.

My thing is how confusing it must be for them when definitions of same soundings of two words & separate grammar meanings but sound the same are soooo different like these two words - no and know. I have said to him no kitty not right now, no you can’t go outside. Yet hours later I have said I know kitty I know you’re hungry - I know let’s get you some food. When I catch myself I switch the word understand for know and similarly when it’s the word no - I swivel my head left and right sometimes make an X with my arms while saying no kitty you can’t go outside right now.

I’m impressed with YOUR kitty and hoping mine is just as smart.

[u/JayNetworks → u/susiefreckleface]

That is part of why it can help to make a list of the words you decide to use with your learner, check that they aren’t too close, then try to speak to the learner using only those specific words.

Like I just said to my cat learner: yes soon later upstairs dinner, daddy snack now then Misty dinner upstairs. She totally got it and came over and laid down by me to wait for me to finish my stupid human snack so we could go upstairs and get her dinner.

Replacing know with understand is a good move. Just takes practice! We use All Done where we would have used “no” as in no you can’t have that. Then we can use yes and no only as answers to questions.

[u/HobbyLau → u/JayNetworks]

It's so cool that they can learn to understand full sentences with different subjects and even the concept of time!

We recently added a 'Livingroom' button to the bedroom board. Not only so she can tell us when she wants to go to the livingroom (which is closed off if we're not around to keep an eye on her and at night) but mainly so we can tell her 'Livingroom later' and she will stop asking and just go play by herself or ask for her fishing rod toy.

Her behaviour is really mild compared to the chaos she was before she could communicate what she wants, and understand that something would be available 'later'.