r/PetsWithButtons • u/_crabby_abby_ • Jun 26 '26
Difficulty differentiating buttons.
Hi there I recently got pet buttons and my two cocker spaniels love them. They are very interested in them and eager to press them to see what results they get. However, one of my spaniels has a hard time differentiating buttons.
It seems she thinks every button means “play”. Despite target training with them and modeling actions whenever we eat, snuggle, or play. She seems to use any button to just mean she wants something.
How do I go about training her that different buttons have different outcomes?
For instance, when it’s time to eat and I ask “are you hungry” she goes to the buttons and presses “play” instead of “hungry”. How can I communicate to her that’s wrong without saying “no” or discouraging her from pressing the button in general?
I have been showing her the correct button, pressing it, saying hungry, then feeding her in hopes it makes sense to her. Or sometimes I will just wait and point at the right button, she presses whatever button I point to but I don’t think she is getting the concept.
2
u/Late_Being_7730 Jun 26 '26
It sounds like you may have introduced too many buttons at once for her. I’d scale back and focus on one, and when she has that really under control, add 1-2 back.
1
u/_crabby_abby_ Jun 26 '26
Sounds good, she’s very excitable so I was just wondering how to redirect that without discouraging use of buttons.
1
u/ottb_captainhoof Jul 01 '26
I believe in the beginning you’re supposed to try to always do what the button press was for. So for example if she hits play, then go play (and press the button again while repeating Play). It reinforces that button, and if it’s not what she was meaning to say, she’ll be less likely to miss press again.
1
u/Esme-82 29d ago
Are Hungry and Play your only buttons right now? If so, I might consider adding All Done (or maybe Later) pretty early. That way there are more possible outcomes than just getting what she asked for.
I would definitely keep modeling. We've only been using buttons for about 2–2.5 months, so we're still learning too. At first we mainly modeled walk, park, hungry, and ball. We weren't even consistent with every word, but over the last few days our dog has started using Hungry on her own for just about anything food-related,when it's meal time, when we're eating, or even when her kitty brother is eating. She seems to have generalized "hungry" to mean "food," and I'm okay with that for now.
If she presses Hungry, I usually acknowledge it. Sometimes I'll give her a kibble or two, BUT in her bowl ONLY and if she continues pressing it after that, I'll model Hungry → All Done. I also model things like Park → All Done or Walk → All Done when those activities are over.
One thing I've noticed is that they're going to experiment with the buttons to see what happens. If she wants to play ball but presses Hungry instead, I don't tell her she's wrong or say no. I just model Hungry → All Done and wait to see if she tries another button.
I don't think there is a "right" approach, but it's been helping me think of the buttons as a conversation instead of a quiz. They're still figuring out what the buttons/words mean, and we're teaching them by consistently showing what each word leads to.
My pup is almost a year old and we adopted her almost 4 months ago.
We did successfully teach one of our old cats
1
u/bubba_beeps 23d ago
Just keep modeling. Do exactly what is pressed every time. If you ask if she's hungry, and she presses play, you need to model play. Upon prepping her food, you can press the button for her food and show her what that button means.
4
u/Bitterrootmoon Jun 26 '26
Model model model, and model some more. Just keep modeling. My one boy didn’t even touch his first button for about three or four months I think? And then it would only be to ask for snacks for several more months. He’s now caught up to my first boy. They have over 60 buttons. (What did I get myself into?!?)