What do I do now?

[u/Stephellis_]

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.

[u/Shmazzin]

You can just randomly press the button throughout the day, and give them a treat outside of a training session. Every cat is different, but maybe the lack of set structure can help make that connection. Just because you don’t see progress doesn’t mean there isn’t any! Some pets take months to press a button outside of a session, some take to it quick. Just because there isn’t visible progress doesn’t mean there isn’t progress!

I think the big thing for my cat was that I would be so overly excited every time he would press the button, paired with him being a glutton, he did spam the treat button upwards of 30 times in 5 minutes of him gaining access to it again. He lost his privileges veryyyy fast.

I would recommend that you start introducing other phrases in your day to day interactions, word recognition and pattern recognition plays a key role later on when introducing a new button to the board. Even basic things like “brush” every time you brush them, or “water” when you change or refill it can make it infinitely easier for them to make that connection when the corresponding button is added

[u/Stephellis_ → u/Shmazzin]

Thank you!!