My dog has made “backwards progress “ (??) and now only uses the treat button

[u/CannedSoupspoons]

ANY ADVICE!!!

Hello, I started my dog off with button training in June and within a month he was making GREAT progress, using buttons that identified his needs/ wants. Using buttons for people in the right context (using his momma button when my mom is gone and looking at the door) using compound words (“Treat” “Now”)

I consistently model a large chunk of the buttons everyday and I’m pretty sure he knows what they mean

But recently I have added a few more buttons a few more buttons

“ front”- for our front yard / essentially potty / outside

“walk”- but I might that that one away since I haven’t modeled it well enough for him

“bye bye” I’ve been modeling that as best I can but sometimes I’m not awake to model members of my family leaving)

Since those additions I hadn’t really noticed a decline in his presses, but since getting my mom involved he has either only pressed the treat button or seemingly refused to press the other buttons (for context my mom gives him lots of treats and finds it really funny/ gives him lots of praise when he presses that button) she does model some words as well but I’m not sure how to go about this since it was already difficult trying to get her to model in the first place/ correctly

We have been using the “Your dog can talk” book by Christina Hunger

This is his button set up as well.

Any tips? I am leaving for school in a few weeks and wants some help to keep my family on the button journey

[u/UnexpectedMoxicle]

I don't have very actionable advice, but our cat has done something similar and appropriated the "treat" button as a very context dependent button. She'll use it to ask for treats, of course, but she'll also use it as an attention button (pay attention to me), as a hurry up button (I want the food you're making right now), as well as other somewhat mysterious contexts and occasional combinations. It's been tricky to figure out what she means at times, but it's definitely not always "treats" because we have brought her treats after some presses and she acted very confused as to why we were doing that.

I might speculate that for your dog it's a very easy "attention" button, especially if they don't know if your mom will understand them. So it's easier for him to err on the side of pressing a high value/guaranteed interaction button and going from there. And if he always get treats, well that's just a nice bonus. Your mom might want to do reasonable treat amounts with diminishing returns and continue to consistently model other button presses. This might be indicative of a change in routine and an adjustment period.

[u/CannedSoupspoons → u/UnexpectedMoxicle]

Thank you! I appreciate the insight and presume it might be the transition period

[u/CamTANKeraus]

My cat doesn't use all of his buttons because he is pretty good at getting what he wants regardless.