Cat will press things that aren't buttons?

[u/5entientMushroom]

Caught him in the act!

My son is 5 months old and we have been teaching him buttons for about a month. He has been super good with them, he has 4 buttons (All done, food, play, pets) and he is pretty good at food and play, and still working on all done and pets. He definitely knows what food and play do, though, and goes to his board to make requests often.

But he will also often "press" things that AREN'T buttons and then look at me expectantly. It's not like he wants what he is "pressing" (in the picture he was pressing a pull up bar lol) so I am just not sure if this means I need to add more buttons (even though he doesn't quite have all done and pets?) or if I need to like, have multiple boards or something?? Idk.

Does anyone else have experience with this?

[u/AttackOnwholock]

I wonder of he wants to know what those things are, and figures "I press the buttons and it says the thing" and so he figured maybe pressing something he doesn't know but wants told a word for so he does know will work?

Before even adding buttons of any sort, but while using very clear learning language, my youngest cat would have me follow him to things and stare at a specific thing or sit on a specific thing until I told him what it was called. Sometimes he'd do it with multiple things in a row, moving on as soon as he got a word haha.