Learner Name: Honey Butter

Age: 7 months (born 2/2/2020)

Teacher Name: Mary

Started Learning Word Buttons: At ~3 months old

Number of Words: 3

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Our previous buttons had 4 3M strips attaching them to put word board. My oldest gets excited when using his words, and often scoops them out of their spot. Has anyone had a good solution for keeping them in place?

We’ve had our first button in place for almost a month now, and my 8-month-old pup still won’t push it. We decided to start with “outside”, since this is something she already asks for and needs to do multiple times a day. 

We always push the button before we go out, and be sure to use the word a lot and tell her what’s going on. She definitely understands the word outside, but she still doesn’t associate it with the button. I’m wondering if it was a mistake to try to begin with something she already has her own way of asking for (sitting by the door, and barking/whining if we don’t notice her).

My questions are:
- was it a mistake to start with a button for a need she already communicates?
- should we try adding a new button (like “play” or “toy”) to help her understand that the buttons mean something, or is that more confusing? 
- should we be modeling the button press right as we head out the door OR before we start putting on her harness and leash to go out (since that’s what would happen after she would press it)?
- or is this all normal and we should just keep doing what we’re doing? 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Thank you! 

Hi all,

My dog is finally getting the hang of these buttons, and it's so cool to see her progress and how much she enjoys using them! 

My fiancé and I do our best to respond when Zoey presses a button, because we want to take every opportunity for learning and reinforcement. However, I had a Zoom meeting planned to catch up with friends who live far away this evening, and as soon as everyone had logged on to Zoom, Zoey started frantically pushing every button around the house! I didn't know what to do, but I was not prepared to ignore my friends in order to respond to Zoey's every button press, especially when she was hitting "go pee" and "outside" repeatedly, and we had JUST been outside for a pee minutes earlier! She's a healthy adult dog, and prior to the buttons, she had no problem going a few hours without peeing, playing, or getting treats.

It seemed to me like Zoey was pushing all of her buttons as a strategy to get my attention, but I could be wrong. Does anyone have any thoughts about this behaviour or how to respond to it? What about those of you who work from home? Do you interrupt a meeting to respond to your learners' button presses? Do learners regress if you ignore their button presses for a few hours periodically when you're busy and you know their needs have all been met?

I will also note that we have an "All done" button, which works well when Zoey asks for things ie. treat, play, go pee and she's already had ample opportunities to do/have these things, but even responding with "all done" requires an abrupt pause from whatever I'm doing, which is not ideal when I really want to give someone or something else my undivided attention.

Thanks in advance for your thoughts and advice!

Clyde prefers to scratch and claw at the buttons so I was wondering if putting the board up low on the wall it might encourage him to use his nose more? (He might use his nose one in every 100 presses so I know he’s got the idea).
Any other recommendations for teaching him to press more gently is appreciated!

I just modelled "Anthea Couch" and got onto the couch to show Bones that the button with my name on it means me. Previously when I've done "Anthea Bones Couch" and gone to the couch he's jumped up as soon as I've sat down. This time he didn't. 

Does that mean he understands that I was referring to just me? 🤯

Even though I'm using the buttons I'm still sceptical about how much they can understand and do with the buttons. Then we have moments like this and it blows my mind!

Hi!
So we've had a breakthrough last night thanks to target training, and I think Flint is now in stage 2: he pushed the button 6 times already today, and he knows pushing the button means he can go outside, he definitely pushes it with purpose. After about a month of modeling it, I'm kind of amazed at how fast it went between last night's first tentative push and today!
Thing is, he doesn't really push the button, it's more of a light tap, like he does in the above video.
Now that he understands and uses his first button I'm thinking of adding new words, but I wish he would fully press his button to activate the sound.
I'm worried his inability to fully press them will hinder his progress, as it will be difficult to differenciate between buttons. Also, it is hard for me to react when I can't here him pushing the buttons.
Do any of you have any tips on how to get your learner to fully press a button? I have the LR buttons.
I've seen some people talk about putting symbols on their buttons to help their learner differenciate them better so I'm thinking of doing that and go on with new the next words.
 

🌟 progress 🌟

[caption: vidéo du chat qui tape sur un buzzer pour recevoir des friandises. il y a un post-it collé sur le buzzer. j'ai coupé le son mais je lui dit juste "tape" en touchant le buzzer] pic.twitter.com/uOmpYODNxo

— Haviland Tuf (@flxnt_in_space) April 17, 2021

I added "now", "soon" and "later" to Scout's board on 4/1/21 and have had no luck whatsoever with her having any interest in the words. We've been modeling the words while speaking for months prior to adding them, and modeling them with buttons as well as speaking since we put them on her soundboard. We also tried scented stickers to help her tell the difference between all three.

Those of you who have learned that understand these words, do you have any tips and tricks?

Thank you!!!