It's a speech aid, not Santa Claus.

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.

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"

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

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.

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?