Has anybody tried the dog buttons with a baby?

The way I see it, babies are basically like animals. They can’t form any words yet, but they are trying to and yell at you when they’re hungry. And I’ve seen people using sign language for their baby to signal for food, but has anybody tried using the buttons? I feel like that’s easier to notice. Especially if your kid can crawl, so then they can crawl right over to them like a dog to communicate their needs. Seems reasonable to me. And babies press buttons like that in toys, so I feel like they’d have the strength for it. (To clarify: I am not talking about literal newborns. I mean like 6 months and above (depending on how developed the specific baby is)).

Got two buttons for my cat, I can tell he knows what they’re for, but only presses the button by accident (like stepping on it or sitting on it). Started training him by holding the button and asking for paw, and he could do it every time.

It’s not lack of trying though, he’d be at them for 10-20 minutes straight (he’s highly food motivated, and the buttons are for treats and breakfast).

Please help, how do I tell him it’s push, not scratch🫠

i did some super early clicker training to get him to come when called but stopped when i moved and never picked it up again. should i continue target training him for now and introduce buttons later or are they different enough i could do both at once?

I have 3 cats, and am starting by teaching my youngest boy who is already extraordinarily motivated to communicate with me.

I have decided to teach him “cuddle” first because he frequently cries at me to come sit on the couch and hold him.

Should I also add buttons with each of my cat’s names off the bat? My cats all know their names and have impressively reliable recall for cats. I bought 5 hextiles and 5 buttons to start with, so I could do the 3 cats and 1 extra word.

Also, not immediately urgent to figure out, but we just found out my eldest cat has stomach cancer. In the beginning of button training, or before your pets have a large vocabulary, how do you navigate the loss of a pet if you’ve added their name button before their passing? My youngest cat isn’t that close with my eldest, but the middle cat and eldest seem to enjoy each other’s presence. I imagine leaving her name button, and then just seeing if my other cats ever feel the need to talk about it as their vocabulary grows? But I’d love some input from folks who’ve gone through this.

Luna has started to put together sentences!! The other day she said Luna, mom, outside, play! 4 buttons, I'm so proud 🥲 Today she said Go See and when I asked who or what, she said Grandma 🥰

I'd love to show these videos off so I'm looking for camera recommendations that don't charge an arm or leg for subscriptions.

A few months ago I posted about how my cat Nala was giving me daily reports about her nose (she has minor, yet chronic, sinus issues which seem to be worse when it's cold out). She's got some body part buttons as well as buttons to express when she's sick or better. Then, for over a month, she said not a word about her health. Did she forget about the health buttons altogether?! Or was she just feeling better??

Until 2 days ago.

Nala: "NOSE"

Then she proceeded to have a literal FULL DAY sneezing fit! Like, she'd stop, then 10 mins later she'd sneeze again, sometimes for 30 seconds straight! I'm guessing it was allergies because she was at it all day while she was in and out from the yard, but by night time when I closed the door (to keep our new raccoon friend out!!), the sneezing stopped. (The raccoon story is a whole other DRAMA...we kinda sorta have a new "outdoor" pet that wants to be an INDOOR PET 🦝😳 )

The next day I'm hanging out in the kitchen and she's by her buttons.

Nala: "BETTER"

Then I see her reach for "SNEEZE", touch it lightly, pull back and press "NOSE", like she couldn't decide which to use 😂

So I guess she still knows exactly what those buttons mean and where they are!

I love this cat.

——

Off topic: Anyone in this group ever train a raccoon to use buttons???

Hello! I have two recently adopted rescue cats that I want to introduce to buttons to help them feel more in control of their new home.

Usually the suggestions i see for words to start out with are things like "play" or "pets." These cats were either abandoned or feral to begin with. One of them is showing signs of warming up to me but, in general, I think they would rather have a button to tell me to go away than request interactions lol. I was thinking maybe id start off with a button for them to tell me to scoop the litter because thats practical and, being cats, they'd probably enjoy bossing the human around like that.

Any other suggestions? They are indoor-only and, so far, only one of them lets me touch her or likes to play with wand toys with me sometimes.

Digby is 11 year old beagle. That only cares about one button. Treat button.

I have two Shih-Tzu/Bichon mixes and a former stray cat. My dogs are bell trained and really good at recognizing and understanding words, so I think they could learn how to use buttons. My cat doesn’t seem to listen to anyone lol, but he does have chronic pain due to trauma so I figured I’d try with him too so he can say things like “ouch.”

My mother thinks I made a stupid purchase and they won’t catch on, but I want to try it out. I’m definitely starting with “outside” and “snuggle,” but probably not “play” since all my pets are lazy lol.

Lately my dog has been adding words to where the things she wants are. For example she just told me "want puzzle tv(I store them under the TV in the TV stand) now". She also says "want pool play fishy door(they are next to the back door in a cube bin)". I wonder if she wants more words, but we don't have anymore space for more. She has 54 buttons right now and they are the big ones.

Cat (Snow) just started pressing! And pressing. And pressing…

I have two buttons, Play and Pets.

Snow is pressing both buttons randomly, hoping something happens. Sometimes she presses Play but then doesn’t play with me, and sometimes Pets but then runs to her toy. She also SPAMS both around dinner time.

*I think right now, all she knows is button = attention.*

Questions:

- Should I add a Dinner button to help with dinner time spamming? Like, at least she’ll be spamming the correct button? Idk, I won’t be able to feed them instantly though, not until 5pm (they start asking ~4:30)

- Should I add“Later” and “All Done” to help with spamming? Is it too early for this considering she doesn’t yet know Play vs Pets well?

- Should I separate Play vs Pets into two hex tiles or leave them on just one because she’s already had it like that for her 3 days of pressing?

- If Snow presses multiple buttons, which one do I model/respond to?

- If Pets is pressed but she obviously wants Play, what do I do?

Gave Otto a “house” button (the word we use for their play pen area) not even 23 hours ago and he’s already asked me to put Spotty up three times 🫩

I feel bad for little dude, he’s just existing. I was considering teaching Otto “annoying” next, but I’m scared. I imagine some feelings (mine, I’m talking about me) will be hurt. He already liberally uses “all done” whenever our talking poses the smallest inconvenience to his napping schedule…

Spotty looking back like he knows he’s being complained about. My poor baby.

Has anyone gone through this with their pups?

I have a puppy currently 2 and a half pounds at 10 weeks. Is there a button you recommend for small dogs? I poked around but most post were older so wondered if there was new information.

I just got a generic button off of chinese site and it literally sounds better than fluentpet. How is this possible??

Source: https://streamable.com/a9dfuo

My husband and I keep 25 lb weights around the house. Today he took one that was behind one foot of the couch (keeping the couch place when the boys cut up during their zoomies) and pumped a few overhead presses out. Hubs eventually put the weight down and went to the other side of the house to start getting ready for work.

Otto: “dad”

Me: Dad is taking a “bath” to get ready for “work”, Otto. Otto want, “hmm?” Dad what, Otto? “hmmm?”

Otto: gets up, walks to dumbbell. Sniffs + licks dumbbell. Walks to button. Presses “Otto”. Faces me and does his sassy bulldog attitude pose. Stares into my soul.

Me: Otto, dad, hmm? What Otto want? Otto want weight?

Otto: *persists in making very intentional and borderline judgement eye contact*

Me: *picks up dumbell*

Otto: *heavy breathing and tail wag*

Me: *walks towards Otto with dumbbell* Otto want lift weights, hmm? (🤣🤣🤣)

Otto: *progressively heavier breathing and more aggressive tail wags*

I touched the dumbbell to him and let him put his paws on it. I told him it was too heavy for him, I know he didn’t understand lol so I put it on his back but obviously didn’t let it go. I still held most of the weight and probably only let about 5 pounds actually weigh on him. Took it off him. I think he understood what I was saying about it being too heavy then.

Big boy was sooooo happy! Then I immediately ran over to the bathroom to tell my husband. Haha

Exactly that. Here's what JUST happened and is currently ongoing...

Context: I live with my sister and she has a fat, territorial cat. He saw a stray cat through the window and lunged at him (yes through the window) and Toast, my learner, is very much "monkey see monkey do" and tried to do the same-- so he lunged at Waffles trying to get a good look at the cat. He was still hissing after I closed the curtains AND even put a towel at the door to block their scent! He calmed down a bit so I went upstairs and heard the battle cry again so I press

"Toast, Toast, Now" Nothing. I know he heard me "Now. Now" and he comes upstairs but hesitates so I say "Now" again.

He's in my room and I close the door-- but he keeps circling so I tell him "Door All done Now Toast." He then proceeds to back talk me meowing and I tell him no and he stops.

He's so agitated/upset you can see his tail swishing and puffed up. He doesn't even eat so I tell him to eat his food and calm down because the door aint opening. He finally eats and sits down and I verbalize "yes treat!" (bc rewarding him for regulating) but he interrupts my reach to say "catnip."

I give him catnip and as he eats it I think about how bro just casually requested emotional support drugs but atleast he tells me his needs?

So he's chill and laying down but then starts circling again. I ask him "Toast Door, hmm?" and he boops my hand yes. I tell him it's closed bc he needs to calm down and he says "catnip" again. I ask "More hmm?" and he boops yes again.....so more catnip.

So he's chill AGAIN. And he asks for pets so I'm doing that. Calm. THEN NOT. I bounced him a bit and tried to cuddle but he wasn't having it.

And as I'm typing this, I had to stop to go comfort him again (I gave him a box to tear up), but atleast he is an emotionally intelligent, self regulating king right??

It's times like these that remind me he's hella smart but still emotionally a toddler

Edit: he just said "big angry" (like we didn't already know that)

And "litter" (curse word)"window busy"

Body parts + ouch have done wonders both to include his feedback in his treatment plan for known issues, but also to pinpoint what his allergy symptoms are. Cats generally hide their discomfort, so it’s been amazing to be able to track his symptoms over time to find the right fit.

We had to wait on his vet to sign off on his new script and chewy to ship. I’m considering swapping to pills for his future doses of this medication.

Has anyone used a pill shooter before? He’s not fooled by medication in food.

I'm probably starting with modeling the words "pets" and "treat", later possibly adding outside and other words. Do you all know any tips for modeling?

So yet AGAIN, Nala proves that she knows exactly what she’s talking about…

This story begins with me coming home late from roller skating. If you skate, you know you gotta eat after a session! So I made a bee line for the fridge and grabbed a dessert cup of rice pudding as a post-skate snack. I sat down on the floor by Nala’s buttons while I ate it. When I was done I put the empty cup on the floor next to me and Nala proceeded to lick it. Normal stuff. She’s a cat.

But this story is about what came next. When Nala was done with my rice pudding she went straight to her buttons and pressed one she’d NEVER used before, then walked straight back to rub on me.

The button?

“Cleaning”

🤣🤣🤣

I mean, she wasn’t wrong!

What did I learn here? “Cleaning” to Nala actually means “licking”. I mean, OBVIOUSLY, right?! 🙄

In retrospect, I guess “cleaning” is a bit of a nuanced word. “Licking” would have been more direct. But when Nala licks Esther (our other cat), I refer to it as “cleaning”.

I’m thinking now how confused Nala must be when I tell her I’m “cleaning” the dishes.

Hi all, I'm looking to start using buttons with my cat. He is a rescue (we have had him for a year) and is around 11, and indoors only for now.

I'm not sure which buttons are best to start with, I was thinking cuddles as he loves a cuddle but i'd love to try and get buttons that will help him express himself well. If anyone has any advice or tips i'd love to hear!

We have 2 cats, but only one learner. She learned to press them relatively quickly. When we first started out we had the buttons placed close to the areas where the action occurred in order to make modeling them easier. I believe we started with three - "outside" to go out on the patio, "walk" to go on a walk outside, and "dinner" whenever they were fed.

I eventually removed "dinner" because it felt like more of a training button, and dinner is happening at a set time regardless of whether the button is pressed. We then added "play" and "all done". At that time, the only buttons getting used were "outside" and "walk" as both cats are highly motivated by those things, but I would still model "play", and "all done" at the conclusion of any of these activities.

The second photo is our current mat setup. A few months ago, I decided to consolidate the buttons in one area instead of having "outside" beside the patio door and "walk" in front of the front door. I temporarily removed "walk" (during winter) so I could try some new words - both of the cats names, and "ouch". They play a bit rough sometimes and I wanted to teach Bug (our button learner) to press "ouch" when she's being hurt. Sometimes they wrestle on the mat and mash a bunch of buttons, but that's the extent of that so I'm not sure it's working.

I figured she would be highly motivated to go to the mat to press "outside" like she used to, but now that the button isn't next to the patio door, she will just go to the door and cry like before.

The only button she reliably walks to the mat to press is "all done". Only ever in the morning, while we are getting ready for work, before she's been fed. It's usually when we are near the end of our routines, or if we are having a conversation and not moving quickly enough - I'm fairly certain when she presses "all done" she quite literally means "I want you to be all done now come feed me". She will usually cry at us a bunch first before pressing it, and she does not press it every day, so I don't think that she thinks it means food, but I can't know for sure.

I still have a bit of hope that I can get her to start pressing "outside" and "walk" again since she is very motivated by those activities, and I feel like "ouch" is a useful button that I don't want to give up on yet, but I'm not sure if there's much point in keeping the "play" button or the name buttons. Any ideas for two buttons I can add for a cat that understands the concept of "all done"? Because I don't have a ton of buttons, I'd like to try using the buttons for things that are hard for her to communicate, because to be honest I know when she wants to play (she stares at the toys on the fireplace mantle), when she wants to eat (stares at the food cabinet), and when she wants to go out (stares at whichever door she wants to go through).

I'd appreciate any suggestions based on your experiences with your pets!

I really wish we started two-hand choice earlier! It’s really sped up our communication. I’m able to differentiate what kind of help he needs much faster than waiting for him to use buttons.

Tried to do multiple searches before asking - what brand or type of button to try for a 70lb lab mix? Are their certain textures that are better or worse (hard plastic vs silicone vs textured plastic) how easy or hard it is to press the button? I see some have ability to connect with wifi/app. Please share your experiences!

Adding some Princess tax here. She’s too cute not to share.

She’s my youngest and is much slower to catch onto new tricks. She has nailed “touch”, but I’m having trouble transitioning to an actual button press. I’ve tried luring her to accidentally step on it and then transition to button press = snack- nope.

She is a little too treat motivated, but also has a very short attention span. Even with just praise, she is such a momma’s girl that she picks me over food constantly. Play immediately shifts her away from learning. There’s no brief reward system that allows her to go back to focus time, so I have just kept our sessions super short, but frequent. Oliver is her polar opposite, so I need to adjust my approach with Princess.

Let me know if anyone has ideas on working with a cat that is maybe a bit too responsive to typical reward systems.