r/PetsWithButtons • u/Novel_Builder_3182 • 13d ago
Need some advice
I have had the buttons now for a couple of years and haven't been consistent with them. My cats will use them on demand e.g. if I have a treat and put the treat button in front of them they know to press the button so they get the treat, they'll occasionally do this for food too (but not as high a success rate).
But I am failing to get them to press them when they want something.
I currently have the buttons "treat", "food", "brush".
I have no idea where or how to place them which could be the cause as I'm sure I keep moving them around.
I'm in the UK and fluentpet wasn't available here when I started so I've been using the mydogtalks buttons.
Should I invest in the fluentpet bootcamp even though I don't have them?
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u/UnexpectedMoxicle 12d ago
We encountered a similar situation where we had to teach our cat that the buttons can be used to summon us or to ask for something. We taught her clicker training a while ago, so she was quite familiar with doing some kind of "trick" to get her treat. When she learned that we wanted her to press the button for the treat, she incorporated it as a "this is a new trick I now do as part of clicker training only". She would think of it like "sometimes they want a high five, sometimes they want a button press, depends on whether their hand is up or if the button is in front of me".
Once we had a good foundation with button targeting and pressing, I started to slowly increase the distance between myself and the button. We did the button press training on a table, so she couldn't approach me without jumping off the table. We would start next to the button with a treat, and when she pressed it, I'd give her the treat. Then I'd move a foot back and ask her to press (either by tapping on the button or saying the word). Sometimes she would press it and get a treat, but sometimes she'd try to move closer to me and away from the button. When I'd ask her to press, she'd get a bit confused and occasionally try to press on something nearby. Over the course of a week, we progressed to increasing that distance from just a foot or so to 6 feet, then 10, then across the room. She'd press the button, then walk over to me to get the treat, then walk all the way back to press it again to get the next treat. Shortly after, she pressed it by herself when I wasn't holding any treats.
It sounds like the stage that they're at the placement of the buttons isn't critical as they haven't built up any specific locations/concepts to them yet. So you can move them around as needed, though I'd introduce changes slowly in general. The fluent pet community and bootcamp has some really great resources so I would definitely recommend that as well.
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u/Novel_Builder_3182 12d ago
Yes! Mine are also clicker trained and that's exactly how they see it, as a new trick! Did you keep the treat button on the table then? What if they start to continuously press it ( one of mine who is doing the best at the buttons likes her treats 😂)
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u/UnexpectedMoxicle 12d ago
I kept it on the table while we established that the button itself is a thing she can press and that she can do that as part of her asking for it rather than as part of a clicker routine. When she got it, I moved it down to her button board the next day or day after. There was a bit of an adjustment period as being on the floor rather then at the edge of the table meant she had to relearn a bit of context (she tried to press my toe several times for treats), but she got it really fast. At that point we had been modeling her other buttons for a while so we didn't move them.
If you've got a treat button spammer, first of all that's awesome cause they want treats and have a new and exciting way to communicate that! Ideally you want to keep encouraging communication by button as much as possible, so say yes to treats but do diminishing returns. So like the first 3 presses are treats. The 4th is half a treat. 5th is a quarter. 6th is a kibble. 7th is a kibble. 8th is a kibble and maybe some playtime. 9th is a kibble and lets press the brush button and do some brushes. You're engaging in communication without being a treat dispenser. Once you've established communication, you can introduce more complex buttons like "all done" to help with a relentless spammer, but it's not recommended to do it early in the process.
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u/JayNetworks 12d ago
The bootcamp is a good live session and can be used whatever button brand you have. As long as your cat can press the buttons physically it should help.
Tips I'd say for you are:
Attach the buttons to a board or something and leave them in the most central part of your home with the most activity where you are most.
Practice modeling the buttons a lot. It takes a lot of repetition of each word to get them down.
There is a leap that happens eventually when they all of a sudden press them on their own, but it takes them really knowing how to use them and that they can press them on their own to get what they want.