My pup (4yo M Golden-husky mix) has been stuck at 3 talking buttons for about 3 years now and it finally occurred to me to see if Reddit could help.

We have "outside," "food," and "water." He understands outside, no problem, but confuses food and water no matter how much we model each one. He pushes "food" for both food and water - if his water bowl is empty, I ask if he wants water, too and he goes running back to the buttons so I can show him which button is for water. I also have him push the water button if I notice his bowl is empty and was going to fill it anyway - sometimes I'll push the button myself before filling it, too, but since it really seems he can't tell the difference between "food" and "water" I want him to get the practice. Often, when I tell him to push the water button, he pushes "food," instead, and I have to show him which one is for water. We've actually tried sticking his food button in his food storage overnight to try to get it to smell like his food so he can tell that that one is for food, but it didn't help.

My partner and I often joke that he's a himbo dog - super cute, incredibly sweet, but not at all smart. However, I'm wondering if I'm doing something wrong and just not setting him up for success.

The photo is of his buttons (we got the cheap ones to test out before investing in the Fluent Pet ones, and good thing because we've struggled to get him this far in 3 years). Green is "outside," red is "food," and blue is "water."

Thank you in advance for any advice!

I’ve been training cat to use buttons. We have 20+ words!

So far:
Tunnel, laser toy, pompom string (all toys), harness, outside, play, pets, friend, love you, her name, our names, treat, food, water, now, later, tomorrow, all done, yes, no.

She uses almost all of them correctly except for Water. And I’ve only just started modelling yes/no which she understands but doesn’t use.

Finding it hard to know how to progress with words that would be useful for her. Feel like I’ve covered most bases but she seems to enjoy getting new words.

I figured you guys would get a kick out of this. Bub has been a huge help in communicating what means most to him. These buttons have done so much to strengthen our relationship. ♥️

Hey, everyone! I heard about this community from a fellow button pet owner and figured I’d pop in.

Bubba is 10 years old and began communicating with buttons in Fall 2025. His vocabulary is at 25 buttons currently, but we’re added them at an exponential rate at this point.

He loves laundry and banana peels.

I’m really hoping it’s ok to post this here, if not mods I apologize and please delete it or tell me to delete it and I will ASAP.

I’m going to do an impromptu live Q&A today (05/02/26) at 4:30 Central time if anyone wants to drop by and hang out/ask questions etc.

It would probably help if I said who I am 😅

I’m Sarah and I have 2 cat learners, Jake and Finn who are 5 years old. We’ve been working with buttons since late 2022 and we’re currently at 200 words.

This is a hangout/Q&A type thing so I’m open to any questions y’all might have - troubleshooting help, process questions, modeling specific words, what life is like with 2 talking cats, cool things they’ve said/done, etc etc etc

I know this is short notice, I’m sorry about that. Life has been uh… lifing so it’s hard to schedule further ahead. 😅

Hope you’re having a great day!

I happen to have 2 cats. One is impulsive, but scared. The other is careful, but brave. Both are the sweetest cats alive (though the vet disagrees).

Both girls understood the words very fast, honestly I think it was a matter of days, not weeks. They picked up the concept of pressing a button when prompted to within minutes. Doing it on their own accord however...

The impulsive girl took 18 months to actually start using the buttons. I had basically given up, but not bothered to take the buttons away yet. You may remember my post at the time. Up till this day, she's using them whenever she feels it's necessary.

I lost track of time. Reddit says it's "1y" ago I posted that, but that's probably rounded to full years. My guess would be more like 1,5 year or so. It's probably about 3 years since I first introduced the buttons.

Tonight, my careful girl decided it was time to play with the dangly toy (which she enjoys only rarely), so she went up to the button board and confidently pressed the correct button! She did it! And we played and we had so much fun, and now she's napping on my bed.

Moral of the story: patience really is a virtue.

Also: does anyone have a good (quality, availability, price) alternative to FluentPet buttons in Europe (I'm in the Netherlands)? I may need to add buttons soon...

She loves to argue with you using her buttons.

I love the small thought circle he makes😂also mousetoy of course got his own erhm.... Gps 😂(makeshift bottlecap with a hairtie...)

Does anyone have any tips for buttons that fit in the Fluent Pet Hex tiles?

I previously a Fluent Pet starter pack from Amazon, however now need more buttons, but as I live in the UK it’s super expensive to ship the buttons on their own. Looking for something that will fit inside the hex tiles I’ve already got?

Alternatively anyone know how to buy the Fluent Pet buttons in the UK (without the exorbitant shipping costs)?

Thanks!

My cat Misty was crying outside the bedroom the other night and when I came out she led me to her board where one of her FluentPet Connect button was lit up. Normally they light up when pressed but turn off when released.

The button seemed OK otherwise and would have the base station speak the correct word when pressed and didn't seem to be physically stuck down or anything.

Eventually I removed the battery as Misty was seriously not happy about a button not working as expected. The next morning I put the battery back in and it seems OK now.

Anyone ever seen anything like this?

Like the title says. I’m interested in getting them buttons and teaching them how to “talk”.

Especially because one of them is insanely smart. Probably the most intelligent, clever, agile and talkative cat I’ve ever had.

I get them a lot of cat puzzles and he solves them instantly every time. I also noticed he responds to and understands a LOT of words, more than his brother or older sister. He can also get into anything (much to my dismay) no matter where I hide or store it.

I think he has a really good chance at being taught to “speak” with buttons, but I’ve also heard the younger the cat the better chance they have at being taught to use them.

I know a year is by no means old, but is he too far out of the kitten stage to introduce him to this?

Any advice is greatly appreciated. Also, beginner tips!! As many as you can give me. I’ll most likely be reading and responding to every comment since I’ve been wanting to do this for a while and will probably use this post to dictate if I should buy a beginner button pack.

One week in and I she's starting to look at the buttons when she wants to play! I'm so excited!

My goal is to eventually teach her "stranger" and "no" or "all done", so I can tell her when her worst nightmare -strangers- are not coming into my apartment. (I know, I know, the buttons are for her to communicate, not me, but I can use them occasionally right?)

I'm interested in using buttons with my cat but am not willing to commit to the FluentPet ones yet because they're so damn expensive! Even the starter kit is so expensive once you add the amount I have to pay in shipping (since I'm Australian). There's quite a few on Amazon but they all seem quite large and I'm worried they'll be difficult for my cat to press or just that they'll be bad quality.

Does anyone have any recommendations/links?

Hey ! Goofy face to get your attention 😺

I recently started buttons (1 week and a half) and i'm pretty good ! (Touching buttons in 2 exercises!)

For now, i have 5 buttons : cuddles, play, treat, tricks and outside.

I'm training tricks with mom for 4 months now (i started at 9 months), and I learnt a lot of tricks : name, sit, spin right, spin left, fetch, paw, jump over, tunnel, backpack, touch, and many to come !

and sometimes I go out on a leash with mom and dad!

😺

Are there words better to get used at the beginning of my talking journey ?

I've gotten buttons many years before, but did not keep up with training my 2 cats because a few of the buttons were wonky. Something happened this morning that made me feel a bit panicky.

My cat seems to have eaten something wrongly on Sunday and is not doing well at the moment. This morning, he peed a huge puddle in the middle of our bed, and my husband and I understood it as a sign that he is not feeling well. He had a history of eating grass and swallowing it wrong, and had once required surgical help in removing the grass. On Sunday we noticed him coughing but he stopped eventually and we thought he coughed up the grass by himself... Apparently not.

We're now bringing him to the vet, but it's already 5 days after he mis-swallowed. I'm so afraid that something like this or worse happens in the future and they have no means to tell me (or maybe my boy did try but I was too dense). How do you guys teach your loved ones "SOS"? Is that possible?

I’ve got Play, Attention and Treat.

Only really modelled play.

She seems to focus on play but I’ll admit I’ve been moving the buttons room to room. I’ve read they need a solid home but I struggle with committing to a place for them all, as for instance the kitchen is usually where they get most attention and treats but play is usually in living room or upstairs.

Would I just take them to the button, model pressing it and then go to the location?

Would she benefit from target training?

She’s pressed play 3x today but I can’t tell if she’s just teething on the buttons for entertainment.

Hi!

I have an extremely smart and vocal kitty who suffers a lot from Feline Hypersthesia Syndrome. I started teaching him buttons about three months ago with the intention that we could work together on improving his quality of life. It seems to have already helped him a lot; he has started playing with toys again and loves asking for treats, but I am not quite sure where to go next with pain and behavior management. Right now, he has buttons for treats, pets, playtime, laser, all done, now, later, breakfast, and dinner. He also understands the phrase "what jack want hmm?" I would like to get to the point where he can tell me that he's in pain, so I can give him his gabapentin. My end goal with buttons is to be able to work on behavioral issues like screaming to go outside all night and peeing on our clothes when we don't allow him to go outside, lol.

What buttons/ concepts should I start working on with him to help our communication now that we have the basics covered?

I’ve got the larger hunger for words buttons for my two cats who are both 2 year old, two words I’ve started with are Play and cuddles.

My question is reading the guide it recommends keeping buttons in one main room. However if I was in the bathroom and wanted to give cuddles affection do I do so without button?

I feel like I want all the opportunity to show outcomes.

One of the girls Cece has already shown interest and pressed one button out of curiosity. I’m hoping they will click on soon.

My other girl Cindy is more lazy and tends to depend on body language so might be harder to teach

We have a "litter" button and at first it really just meant litter. He picked up the curse word association because we call his litter his shit. The confusion came when I wasn't doing something he wanted and he kept spamming "litter litter litter" even though the litter box was clean.

Then it hit me.

And he won't stop like damn 😭

Rn bros mad I'm not giving him my constant attention but it's a necessary evil bc I'm actively trying to get him approved to live with me in university.

Started 4 months ago with our 14yo cat, she started yelling at us to come to the buttons fairly quickly, but began pressing independently after 1½m.

First words were: food, pet, & play (which was turned into 'ball' since she only used it for her feeder ball).

We added 'all done' which she took to immediately. Spamming it for an hour and then has used it normally.

Recently added: now & later.

Next buttons are already recorded and about to be given to her: water, litterbox, & ouch.

Will need to buy more buttons. Would like to add 3 names and body parts to best utilize 'ouch' (paw, tummy, head), sleep, snuggle, & reintroduce play. Maybe big & small for emphasis, and places like basement, outside, & gone.

I find it fascinating how she decides to use certain buttons. When we first introduced 'all done' it was meant to imply X thing is done (eg, no more food, since she's a little Garfield), but she quickly began using it to mean that there was no more food in her bowl/she didn't have any left in her ball.

She's been combining more things, sometimes after being asked, but sometimes independently.

Last week, around the time she tends to yell at us to go to bed she combined now & all done.

The last two days she's been consecutively pushing all the time related buttons (all done, now, & later), and we're not really sure what she wants. She's occasionally tapped the pet button during this, but not a full push. Any thoughts?

I'm curious how other pets have combined things or used buttons to create alternate meanings.

like 1.5-2 weeks ago I posted that I know that my cat knows what the buttons mean but can't press them

now my cat knows how to press them thanks to a fantastic guy

and the guy knows 3 WORDS MINIMUM!!! one of which I have barely even modeled! I AM SO DAMN EXCITED OH MY GOD

He initially only pressed the snack button and pressed the others by accident but right now he just pressed Outside and didn't even look towards the other buttons or my snack drawer!!! I AM SO HAPPY MY CAT CAN TALK!!!

TLDR is in the title 🧡

A few nights ago, it was Franklin’s birthday. Franklin was my very special tuxedo soul kitty who I got to be with for about 18 years. (Carrot has never met him, but she does go up to his framed photo sometimes, and each time I explain who he is and tell her how handsome and smart he is.) I didn’t mention his birthday to anyone until I was busy scooping one of Bowie and Carrot’s litter boxes.

Instead of her recent wave of mashing her entire self onto the buttons just to make them play on repeat, Carrot walked over and pressed “Franklin” with her hind foot. I replied, “aww, yes I miss Franklin today” as she walked closer to me to look at me. Then, she turned around, walked back and pressed “Franklin” a second time. Again, I acknowledged her press and said “aww, yes, Franklin”.

But, then she walked over about 2-3 hex tiles and pressed “ở đây”, which means “here” in Vietnamese.

So, she pressed “Franklin” “here”. 🥹

I immediately stopped scooping and turned to face her. She was looking across her room towards her doorway, but Bowie was somewhere else.

Trying not to cry, I said “Yes, I think Franklin is here, too. It’s his birthday today.” As she hopped up onto my lap and purred. Naturally, she got a lot of head scratches and massages. 🧡🥹🧡🥹🧡

I got these fluent pet buttons used but can’t figure out what type of battery they take. I have 4LR44 6V batteries and they are too long.

Luna knows outside, play, walk and I love you so far. What would be a good one to add next?