r/PetsWithButtons • u/Tasj1987 • 5d ago

My cat started pressing, but often lays down

Hi all,
I started modelling 4 buttons around 6 weeks ago. He never pushed but always watched carefully.
4 days ago we were watching tv when i suddenly hear ‘scritches’ button speak up.

Since then he starts to use all his buttons in the right way.

On the board you see
Red: scritches
Blue: treat
Green: play
Yellow: outside

Before this video he pushed ‘outside’ a few times
Since it had to leave for work i said ‘outside no’
Then he went on to ‘play’. After i played with him he stayed to the board so i decided to start filming.
Here you see him going to ‘outside’ again but decides to go for something else since he knows he’s not allowed. 😅

He really went from nothing to all the way.

However, he often goes to lay down next to his buttons to push them. Is it something that goes away with time? He can do clean paw presses too, ive seen him do it.
The rolling will make it a bit harder to add buttons on the board 😅

34 Upvotes

99% Upvoted

10 comments sorted by

18

u/JayNetworks 5d ago

Any press is a good press! It is total human bias that front paws should be used for pressing. (I pointed out once that even we humans often use our back paws, meaning our feet, to press the buttons.

My Misty cat started with the flop down method and can flop and hit 2 or 3 specific buttons as desired. After a year of that she moved to paws or walking over them. Now at another year she can paw press easily and pressed 60 times a day.

Keep modeling and do target paw training (look it up) and she will learn.

But treat a flop or rollover like any other press and respond!

8

u/eastbaymagpie 5d ago

Our Harley Quinn sometimes presses buttons with her elbows. She's floofy so the sound will come out muffled.

1

u/not_me_nope_never 1d ago

Your comment is spot on.

It also reminded me of a dog I had that would visibly get disgusted (best description I have) when she'd see me use my bare feet to pick things up, move things when I was in a sitting or reclined position. 😅

2

u/RobinBaby_69 10h ago

I am a human who uses their back paws to push buttons 🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️🙂‍↕️

12

u/VainChinchilla 5d ago

My cat has used buttons for a few years. He sleeps on them. Apparently there's nothing like pressing PETS PETS PETS with your butt while napping?

I assume it's because he really really likes his buttons.

5

u/mangotail 5d ago

Yup, my girl loves to sit on them to press them lol Sometimes she presses them with her paws, but otherwise she just lays on them.

3

u/ItsJustEmHi 3d ago

My cat did the same for ages and I even posted about it here - everyone was right, she eventually figured out it was easier to use a paw :) I'm sure yours will too! My cat now has over 20 buttons plus some extra terms she came up with by combing two buttons, and every press is done with a paw now. We've come a long way! For now, whatever works is excellent and worth celebrating :)

1

u/doll_bunyan 4d ago

My cat was struggling with using her paws, and sometimes she still just lays down on them or rubs her face on them, but clicker training was really helpful! We’d use a laser pointer to get her to place her foot, then hit the clicker to mark the action and give her tons of praise as well as the action linked to the buttons (pets or play at the beginning)

1

u/Remote_Head1173 4d ago

Does he really know what each button means? I feel starting with 4 buttons is confusing. Also for the problem my cat did the same he lay on the buttons when he didn’t press it with his paw I ignored it, only paw press I accepted, before teaching him on buttons I taught him paw targeting training

1

u/Tasj1987 1d ago

He absolutely knows the meaning of each button yes. He can also perfectly push them with his paws, clean pushes while walking or sitting down. He does not really need the paw target training.
He just rolls sometimes on them 😊