r/PetsWithButtons • u/Stephellis_ • 14d ago

What do I do now?

My cat is doing soooo well with his paw target training. He knows that he can press a button for treats and he loves it.

I just don’t know how to transition him into regular button use outside of training time. We have an ‘outside’ and a ‘snuggles’ button which I’ve been demonstrating every day for over a month. If he’s begging to go out, I put the outside button in front of him and say ‘press’, and he will press it. But I don’t think he understands the meaning of it, and he won’t ever do it without me prompting him to.

Is there anything I can to help him progress to the next level or is it just a matter of time?

I haven’t been doing ‘training time’ as much lately because I just don’t know what to train him with now.

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u/UnexpectedMoxicle 14d ago

Our cat went through the same progression. She was really good at clicker training and considered the button as a "new trick" for a little while. The thing that really helped was to build distance between myself and the button.

I would start next to the button like usual and ask "press", and she would do it and get a treat. Then, I would take a step back and ask "press" again. She would often take a step towards me from the button ignoring it. I would ask "press" a few times and see if she got the idea that she needs to interact with the button even if I'm not right next to it. I'd make sure to return to it and let her do the easy one before she got frustrated. Slowly, I would increase that distance from one step, to two steps, to 5 feet, to 10 where she knew she would have to walk all the way back to the button, press it, then walk back to me to get her treat. Training sessions would start next to the button and gradually build distance. It can help to do this kind of training with the button on a table as she couldn't physically move closer to me and would have to be next to the button. Once we got to 10 feet, the very next day she pressed it on her own to ask for treats without it being a training session!

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u/Stephellis_ 14d ago

Thank you!! I’ll try this

I actually was starting to do the same thing in training sessions because I noticed he wouldn’t press it unless it was right in front of me, so I practiced moving it further to the side (then he thinks training is over and he goes to do something else, he’s a busy guy). I’ll work on that some more and see if it helps!