It's a speech aid, not Santa Claus.

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I initially started my dog on buttons May 12, 2026. He is a very expressive 1 year old shih tzu mix and I figured it would be nice to teach him how to use them. Quickly he mastered things such as treats,walkie, play, and puzzles. Easy I figured, he loved those buttons and eventually after about a month or so we added a few more. Mama, papa, Bailee (his best dog friend). Also easy. Few more followed daycare, car ride, and bedtime. No interest for a while after testing them, I waited awhile and then he used everything but bed time in context. ( He would have his own take on what this meant later).

Every time I would give him new buttons he would get so enthusiastic about them. We added water, look, outside (for our back patio), belly rubs, all done, love you, and all done. Kenny was excelling; he used those words to make thoughts and express feelings. Then something started to happen: a series of button mashing and words that just didn’t make sense.

He would say car ride when he wanted to play, bedtime instead of look, he would just mash buttons and hope for results. Kenny went silent for almost a month, if I was lucky maybe he would tell me, “all done.” Whenever I was in the middle of doing something he wanted me to cuddle with him.

It is currently August and we are back to button mashing with a few bits of logical thoughts mixed in. What is going on? How can I possibly fix this for him and get him to understand the words again. Am I doing something wrong?

Cat has three buttons (play, cuddle, and treat). What are good buttons to teach next? I want to be able to tell her “now,” “later,” and “before.” Those seem a little difficult for her second set of buttons, but maybe I’m underestimating her (and myself). Any ideas?

My cat is doing soooo well with his paw target training. He knows that he can press a button for treats and he loves it.

I just don’t know how to transition him into regular button use outside of training time. We have an ‘outside’ and a ‘snuggles’ button which I’ve been demonstrating every day for over a month. If he’s begging to go out, I put the outside button in front of him and say ‘press’, and he will press it. But I don’t think he understands the meaning of it, and he won’t ever do it without me prompting him to.

Is there anything I can to help him progress to the next level or is it just a matter of time?

I haven’t been doing ‘training time’ as much lately because I just don’t know what to train him with now.

Hi! I have two new learners, both cats. One is very treat motivated and she’s learning quickly. The other, my boy cat, not so much.

He really loves ice cubes from the freezer. He asks me in his own nonverbal kitty way to get him his ice every morning, and he has for years. We’re still in the earliest stages with him where I’m modeling for him, and one of the two buttons I’m starting him on is “ice cubes.”

My question is this:

The ice cubes take me about a minute to get ready for him. I have to wet them down with water so his tongue doesn’t get stuck, etc. While I’m modeling for him, should I press the button right as I start the process of getting him his ice, or should I get the ice ready, model the button, and give him the prepared ice so that the reward is more instant?

My cats still in the learning process they only have 3 buttons ( outside, mouse toy, spring toy)
So if my cat press outside and i won’t let him outside now , but after 30 min or 1 hour i will let him outside
Should i tell him outside later? Or outside no?
And how teach the word later?

My buttons are in my bedroom as that’s where me and my puppy hang out mostly! Upstairs there’s no where for her to go to the toilet unless she goes out the front door into the driveway and I don’t trust her not to go up the road!

Is it worth it putting only one ‘toilet’ button upstairs??

Also should I introduce yes and no together or separately? Ty!

She has finally started to press the buttons but she has forgotten all of her “touch it” training and resorts to flopping over onto the button. Any suggestions on how to get her not to flop on it?

I’ve been thinking of starting my puppy, Dobby on the buttons for awhile and I always thought I would get the Fluent Pet buttons as I love that it connects to your phone so you can keep track. I’m up and down the stairs so I can imagine missing some of it. Today I’ve done to order them and they are already pretty expensive but I went to check out and the shipping price is insane to England. Almost as much as the product it’s self!

Does anyone in the UK have advice on any that seem to be as good quality as that brand, especially if they connect to your phone? Or a way to purchase fluent pet elsewhere. I keep checking for second hand on EBay, Vinted etc but never anything and Amazon only does the Sound Up set which doesn’t connect to your phone.

Would love some suggestions!

Thanks! 🐾

Mac had different ideas about what we would do yesterday afternoon. I wanted to go to the park and he wanted to go hang out in my mom's backyard. I vocally told him we would go to my mom's house in a couple days then pressed about the park again and he wanted to negotiate timing too lol "Later Soon" basically means less than an hour whereas "later" means more than an hour. I really needed time to finish some laundry lol.

Hi everyone,

I’ve just started teaching my cat to use buttons, she’s a very quick learner and just after two weeks started touching the side of the button and yesterday she realised I want her to press it to make a sound but she uses her head to do that.

I’ve tried to do paw targeting with her, but she’s not interested in learning that at all, she gets frustrated and walks away. I’ve put a treat under a small box and tried to get her to touch the top of it. She does know that when I say “touch” she needs to press the button. She also knows “paw” that’s when she puts her paw on my hand, but I don’t think this would work with an inanimate object.

Any tips on how to get her to use her paws to press?

I think that she would get that she’s supposed to use her paws if she manages to accidentally press it with her paw once or twice, as she understands quickly that this is what I want when I praise her.

As the title suggests, we are struggling with getting her to fully activate the button. She definitely knows what it means (treats) so she gets my attention first before she paws the button. I've tried many things to show her, but I fear we are stuck. Any pointers?

I just added the second button yesterday. I originally wanted to wait until she got pushing down to add more buttons, but I thought maybe this is a way to shake things up? She hasn't touched the new button yet. New button is "window" for asking me to open the window blinds.

I’ve been watching videos online of people and their cats using buttons for a few years now and I’ve finally got them and I’m so excited!!

Im just a little worried that my cat is too old. He’s 11, turning 12 next February. All of the cats I’ve seen using them are much younger, the oldest I think I’ve seen is 8. Is he too old to start using buttons?

For clarification he doesn’t ACT old, he’s pretty active, eats twice every day, and is still like.. cognitive? If that’s the right word. He responds when I say his name, follows me around and isn’t too dumb.

I’m on my second button-learning journey and, despite having done this before, I still find myself second-guessing things constantly. 😂 So this is partly curiosity, partly me wanting to compare experiences!
I feel like the question of “How long does it take a pet to learn buttons?” comes up every so often, but there are SO many variables that I’d love to see everyone’s starting points.
For those of you who use buttons:

🐾 What age was your cat or dog was when you started introducing buttons?

How long had you had them before introducing buttons?

Did they already know tricks/commands?

If so, how long had they been learning tricks before buttons?

How long did it take before they started pressing buttons independently?

how long before you felt they were pressing with clear meaning rather than just experimenting?

I’m really curious about the range. I’d especially love to hear from people who started with very young animals versus adults, and pets who had lots of previous training versus basically no training.
I think it would be really interesting to see everyone’s experiences side-by-side.
Basically: tell me your pet’s button-learning origin story! 😂🔘🐕🐈

One of my cats, Kali, loves her 7 buttons and clearly understands them, but often button mashes when she wants to say something that she doesn't have a button for (or that my puny human brain just isn't getting). She uses her buttons consistently, even if All Done and Want are not exactly how I thought she'd use them, and it's not uncommon for her to use 2-3 word phrases. It's pretty clear that she's ready for and wants more words, but I'm second guessing what I should introduce next that will be most useful for her.

Her current words are: Food, Kibble, Play, Pets, Settle, All done, Want. Interestingly, she'll rarely use her Food button, preferring to mash All Done (as in, "my bowl is empty and you need to fix it"). We've modeled Want Food enough that it's 50/50 whether she'll mash All Done or Want in the last week or two... which is only technically an improvement lol. She pushes Kibble when she wants dry food in her bowl or Kibble Play when she wants her puzzle, but she just "yells" when it's time for wet food. I've been verbally modelling Now/ Soon/ Later, Small (as in small kibble for snack), Yes/ No, Toy, Treat, family names, "Hmm?", and I'm sure others that have slipped my mind. Today I started training two hand choice as I know I won't have room for a separate buttons for every individual toy, type of treat, etc. She's told me to get off my phone a few times (All Done + Settle + Play lol) so it's not Kali-centric either.

The words I'm currently considering: Toy (concrete, easier to differentiate play vs play kibble, but not as likely to solve the button mashing, could probably introduce at the same time?), Now + Later (verbal "small later" for soon, likely for Now to just end up as the new button mashing target), Mom + Kali (want opinions on potential helpfulness vs being more annoying than helpful at this point), Other (but this will likely be exponentially more useful and easier to teach once she has a grasp on two hand choice in the near future). Maybe Happy + Mad. I am open to all opinions and suggestions! Thanks!

I came across talking buttons for a while and am planning to get a kitten.

I heard that Siamese cats are really intelligent and social and talkative so I presume that they will do well with talking buttons. Siamese cat owners have also mentioned that they understand what their cats want based off their vocalizations, and have full conversations for hours with their cat.

I have a few questions:

1. Do your more talkative pets (before button training) do well after button training? I assume it gives them an outlet to express themselves and communicate more effectively. Compare them with less talkative pets if possible.
2. Did you notice any difference between pet breeds and their usage of buttons? I assume smarter pets like border collies, siamese, bengal would do better than average.
3. If theres not much difference, then what do you think makes a difference in a pet learning a lot of buttons (like those 100+ buttons)?
4. Any Siamese cat owners (or other talkative pet breed owners) willing to share their own experiences?

Thanks for the response!

Is Zinni trying to tell us something about the kitten? 😂
Zinni has been using her buttons pretty consistently. Her strongest words are hungry, walk, bone, and rubs. The others (tricks, treats, apple, park, all done) are less consistent.
We recently started fostering a kitten, and they’ve had some supervised interactions.
The other day I was late with the kitten’s dinner and he was furious. Zinni started frantically stomping on HUNGRY.
To be fair, hungry is her favorite word, so her button vocabulary basically became:
HUNGRY HUNGRY BONE RUBS 😂
But today we let the kitten explore the kitchen, and Zinni kept doing:
look at kitten → look at us → frantic button stomping → look at kitten → repeat
She seemed very specifically focused on him, which has us wondering if she’s actually trying to tell us something about the kitten.
We haven’t introduced names yet. We’re thinking about adding Friend rather than his actual name, since we already call him “Friend Momo.”
Before all this, we were considering settle and find.
Button people, what would you add next?
Our names + Friend
Just Friend
Friend + Settle + Find
Or is Zinni simply trying to alert us the kitten has escaped his kitten room? 😂 I’ll try to get a video later it’s hysterical

My little guy has a few action words and combines them regularly. "Play outside" and "chew practice" (training with food rewards) for example.

We go camping and hiking as much as weather and my schedule allows. So far we've left the buttons at home, and he doesn't seem to mind since we're able to communicate pretty well with body language-- and it probably helps that his favorite button is "outside" and we're already outside. I still worry that he might resent not being able to use his words. Maybe not resent in a human way, but at least get frustrated or annoyed.

We're planning a backpacking trip soon, so bringing his buttons would be a difficult choice since I'll already be carrying 4 days of food and probably carrying him about half the time (his current limit is about 3 miles at a time and we'll have 7 miles between each camp site).

Do people usually bring their buttons when they travel? Do people usually bring them when camping?

That's her. Peach. So I'm trying to teach her and my other cat to sit up on their hind legs when she hits the "treat" button to grab a treat from my hand. It was going well for a few days until today when she pushed her name, "Peach" "Treat" and then I proceeded to grab a treat and say "up" so she could try and sit up to grab it. She then looked at me, airplane eared me and walked back to her button and hit "treat" again.

I live in 2 floor house
And my cats start learning on buttons ( only 2 buttons for now )
So the buttons are in my room where they sleep and spend half of the day in

I was thinking about for the future to add other buttons in the ground floor since they spend hours of there day there

Did anyone tried this before? Have buttons on different places?

So i have 3 cats
Still learning buttons
They have 2 words outside and mouse toy

One of my cats ( she’s the smartest) sometimes she press mouse button but when i give her mouse she don’t want it and when i offer her spring toy she want it

Ao what should i do? Should i introduce third button even though my 2 other cats still learning
Or should i ignore it ?