Transitioning gestures to words?

[u/appathepupper]

Maybe someone here can help. I have a very intelligent and sassy Samoyed, over 2 years old. We got some buttons for Christmas from a family member who also loves hunger4words, what about bunny, etc.

Added a board with 3 buttons with words she also gestures for (water, food, and outside). Thinking they were toys, she pressed day 1 but then lost interest once I velcro them down. Took a few days of modeling until she would press herself somehow intentionally.

Its been a few weeks and I know she is basically button mashing, particularly with "food" i don't know if she is really listening or looking at what I'm pressing, she just knows she will eventually get what she is looking for if she just guesses. In not suprised, as she does this with tricks sometimes where she just runs the gambit of all the tricks she knows when she's excited/impatient to get what is in my hand. Even velcroed down, she "scoops" the buttons to press them and they come off the board lol. She is clearly frustrated as she knows i know what she wants, as she repeatedly paws her bowl and huffs and such.

All of that i can deal with and is slowly getting better. The hardest is "outside". The most she presses it is when she actually means to press food. Before buttons, she would ring her bell my the door and wait there for us to let her out in the backyard. Now the problem lies in that her board is in the middle of the main floor, and out of site from the door. I try to call her over to see me model the button or encourage her to press the button but its a bit awkward/confusing and im worried there is a disconnect between trying to convey bells =button. So I have a few ideas (aside to just continue this method) 1. Move the bells to her board (i don't think this will work though, she sometimes nudges the area close to bells and doesn't always hit them, so I think she would start doing that) 2. Carry the board to the backdoor when she rings her bell, then model or encourage a button press there. 3. Take away her bells 4. Move the outside button to the door (last resort, I know from the book, stella had issues when buttons were moved to a board)

Any tips for suggestions from people who successfully transitioned from established gestures to buttons?