I thought it might be neat to see and hear about everyone's hobbies and interests outside of the buttons, and if they somehow lead you to participate in this whole AAC process with your pet. (I honestly wouldn't be surprised if many of us had similar hobbies or careers!) 

I'll go first...  

I work in mental health and education with teenagers. My job involves using a strength-based trauma-informed approach, modeling, tracking and changing behaviors, and taking lots of data related to IEP goals. My career definitely has influenced my decision to use the AAC buttons and how I go about the process of teaching Scout to use them.

As far as my hobbies and interests... I love hiking, volunteering (I sit on the Regional Council for my local chapter of the American Foundation for Suicide Prevention),  advocating, cooking (vegetarian), antiquing (I just started collecting vintage Pyrex!), board games, arts and crafts, caring for my plant babies (we're growing quite a few tiny succulents right now), watching independent films, spending time with our family at the beach (NJ!), camping, live concerts (I love a good mosh pit!!!), traveling, arts & culture, and going on road trips.  I'm also currently on a fondue kick.

How about you?

We have been trying this button thing with little success for the past six months. We have tried the target training, we have done the modeling, as far as I know we have been doing all the suggestions people on here say to do. It just seems like she doesn’t want to do it. And I tell her use your words and she just stomps on them randomly like she is throwing a tantrum. When I try to get her to watch me modeling them she will most of the time intentionally look away. And then when she does use them she claws at them and sends them flying across the room. It’s like watching a cat flick items off a ledge while staring at you. 
This whole process just makes me feel so angry and frustrated with my dog. I don’t know if I am the only one feeling like this. I just want to know how to decide if this is something that I am wasting time on or if it’s something that just requires more patience. 
Sophie is definitely smart enough for this she just doesn’t seem to care much for what I want from her unless doing the thing can be immediately exchanged for food. I hope this doesn’t come off too whiny but I feel at wits end with this process. 
So is it time for us to move on?

Hey friends! I’m wanting to follow all your smart babies on social media. Drop your Instagram or TikTok or whatever account names so we can all follow each other. Ours is @picklesandpeachspeak on both Insta and TikTok. Thanks! -Melissa

Pickles and Peaches on TikTok

Want treat want #buttonboard #dogscantalk #theycantalk #canineaac #picklesandpeachspeak

https://m.tiktok.com/v/6924535496706133254.html?_d=secCgYIASAHKAESMgowGafbPlu%2F39Y2AHODAgQ0qmI61AqTkte7SPYUE66AF1xkZmkQHoK4JW8lmwtAhKnjGgA%3D&language=en&preview_pb=0&sec_user_id=MS4wLjABAAAA3c8Wkq8cyNRSn4OCGOw_nINimxZ78Exq1yhaxIM38t8jYof5J51xdsV_idTmh0Wq&share_item_id=6924535496706133254&share_link_id=93AB658F-319A-4768-95C2-0A5FD969EE84&timestamp=1612626059&tt_from=copy&u_code=d97191d706e70f&user_id=6756431753864643590&utm_campaign=client_share&utm_medium=ios&utm_source=copy

I’m not a fan of using the term behavioral challenges, but it was the best way to sum it up in the title. Are there any other learners out there that display challenging behaviors (un-related to the buttons)? I'd love to hear about how the buttons have impacted your learner's life!

Our pup Scout has a lot of trauma due to her life experiences prior to us adopting her. She also happens to be a high energy dog with super chewing abilities. This all combines together and comes out in the form of her eating inedible objects, destroying things (ex: her bed), mouthing, jumping, and making a lot of vocalizations (whining) throughout the day. We work with her constantly and have seen HUGE progress since we adopted her in May, and we attribute a good amount of that to her having the buttons to be her voice. She still has a long way to go, but I'm interested to see if she changes as we add more words.

We have recently started Scout on Prozac to see if that helps to decrease some of her compulsion to eat non-edible things as well as her intense excitement levels.  We already do all of the non-medication things we can to address her issues (Lots of exercise, lots of training, routines, working with a dog behaviorist, lots of brain stimulation, etc). At this point the compulsive eating of non-edible objects has become a matter of safety so we figured medication was worth a try. I’m wondering if it will decrease her chattiness or desire to learn once it kicks in. Any other learners take medications for their behaviors? Do you mind talking about what they take and how it helps?

I think using the buttons is in a way a form of a trauma-informed approach to treating learners with behavioral issues. The buttons give them a voice which aids in self-empowerment and self-advocacy. The behaviors are often just their way of trying to talk or communicate with us and share how big their feelings are. 

Feel free to join any group your dog fits in best! Character/looks/spirit wise. The listed breeds are a suggestion, not a rule! 

Hello, 
I am bringing my puppy home in 4 weeks and I’ve been trying to plan/prepare to start using buttons early on. We speak both English and Spanish in my household and I’m not sure if I should incorporate both languages for his buttons. Should I repeat the word in both languages? Should I stick to one? Any advice? 

Hey guys! I just made a TikTok for documenting Maggie’s progress and I was hoping to connect with some other Learners on the platform as well. I was hoping you guys could comment a link to your TikTok profile to make it easier to find everyone.

Our TikTok is @maggletheraggle

Okay, story time! 

My learners and I started about six weeks ago. My dog progressed from stage 0 to stage 4 in four days. Things were going great. In about 10 days, with some excellent advice from Libby  and Anna & Bertie   (which you can check out here: https://how.theycantalk.org/c/discussion/pacing-please-send-help), we cruised along at a very uplifting pace, adding about 14-18 buttons to a full soundboard in a couple weeks, Harbor putting together unique 2-3 word phrases and communicating clearly in novel contexts. Honestly, I was a bit floored by his progress, and almost couldn’t believe it was real. Because what dog just needs a new word modeled 1-3 times to run with it in the same day? I must have just been seeing things because I love him, right? Anyway...

Within about 2-3 weeks, an increase in buttons on FluentPet tiles led to spacing issues and frustrations with accuracy (which you can read all about here: https://how.theycantalk.org/c/tech-support/huge-paws-bigger-zeal). Honestly, I think Harbor caught on so quickly and progressed at such a clip that he hadn’t developed intrinsic motivation for AAC communication before we met with our first obstacle. We just hadn’t put in the work and time together for long enough for him to want approach an AAC hurdle with the grit I’ve seen him apply toward so many other solutions in his life. Again, Libby and  Anna & Bertie came through with excellent advice and suggestions and guiding principles, and I worked on transitioning toward stomaching the added cost of likely having to replace FluentPet tiles with more Harbor-friendly tiles. It wasn’t that affording new materials was a real issue, but I was really focused on the investments already made toward this project. Things were getting more complicated. That would be cool. I just needed time. 

With Harbor, I backed off. I love to teach and figured learning principles are probably similar across species. I know I should probably learn more about that, but my gut told me that I needed to simplify quickly or risk losing him after such a promising start. I took a few of his much newer, less tangible words (want, help, now, later...) and put them away. I redistributed some of his more tangible words around the house in relevant areas. “Music” continued to live in the music room, “Stranger” moved to the front door as did “Friend” soon after at my sister’s timely suggestion. “Water” returned next to the bathtub faucet, “Eat” moved to the dining room, etc. The only buttons that remained on the soundboard were “Where”, “Hug me”, “Play”, “Tennis Ball”, “Outside”, “Inside”, “All Done”, “I love you” and some names. This allowed for the former spacing when Harbor succeeded so adeptly and took a lot of the pressure off of us both. 

Then began the creative soundboard usage. Harbor nearly ceased to press buttons on the soundboard. Instead, if prompted to use his words, he would use his left paw to hold a tile down whilst he reached under an adjacent tile with right paw and pastern, his paw spread, his wrist curled around the edge of the tile. He’d grip the tile by contracting his toes together,  pull upward forcefully to break the tiles apart and flip the one in his right paw over, buttons down. He would then proceed to stomp around on top of the upside down tile, successfully setting off every button on the tile he’d flipped. He looked like he was having a ball, working himself into a fun-filled frenzy that superseded any productive AAC communication. This, combined with the fact that he liked to pop his “Outside” button out of the tile before using it, led to systematic FP tile decomposition. Every time he flipped a tile over, the adhesive bond between the plastic top and the foam base of the tile weakened. Every time he popped out a tile, the weaker bond was exacerbated by his nails, regardless of how well rounded they were from grinding, simply because of his weight and strength. (I will say that through it all, every one of his FP buttons remained completely functional and intact, with the exception of “All Done” which, after disassembling and reassembling it, still works somehow, even if it doesn’t depress any longer.) I removed the “Outside” and “Inside” buttons from his soundboard, placed them by the door, and moved the remnant of his soundboard near his elevated “place bed”, a location more associated with calm and impulse control. I left the now defunct tile that had housed location names on the end of his soundboard, it's crazy surface adhered at haphazard intervals, the majority, crackling and flag-like, hovered above the foam. I hoped that if he became too excited and decided to flip a tile, this one would serve as a decoy, preventing gross damage to functional tiles. 

I built a morning routine around using his soundboard in its new location just to maintain some sort of momentum until I sorted everything out. His board held a total of six words/phrases, his name and my name. “Play” and “Tennis ball” often led to tile flipping. So that left “I Love You”, “Hug Me”, “Where” and “All Done” plus names. These four words and our morning interactions with them facilitated Harbor’s adorable question, “Where hug me where?”, on one occasion when I’d ceased to hug him before he was finished, but didn’t show a lot of promise for language acquisition generally speaking. Progress stalled. The frayed edges of our hard-used tiles became more exciting than communicating with AAC. 

As the top peeled away from the base of the tiles, the tiles themselves became more tactilely attractive to Harbor, who’s always been fascinated by the physical world and his effects on it. The textural variety between the surface and base of the hex tiles led Harbor to explore and then revel in the sensation of peeling the tiles asunder. On a few occasions, I found myself telling him, “No!”, as he interacted joyfully with his soundboard, tearing chunks of plastic surface material from their home. This was not how this was supposed to go. This was not positive. To be honest, I think we both started to avoid using his soundboard at this point. A week or two went by with no change. 

On 1/29/21, a Friday, Harbor was trying to engage me in play. I let him know I was busy and then ignored his subsequent, persistent requests because I was helping my sister who needed my full attention. Then I heard my name repeated insistently from an AAC device, “mama, Mama, Mama, MAMA,” stomp, stomp, clatter, stomp, stomp. It was the first time Harbor had used my name to summon me. It was the second time ever that he’d pressed “Mama” on purpose. I dropped everything and hurried into the living room, where Harbor wailed on the button that he’d popped out of his soundboard. It was now shooting waywardly around the slick hardwoods as Harbor lunged after it, bopping as he went. He looked up, thrilled to have gotten my attention, and I had an epiphany. If the tiles themselves are preventing communication right now, why are we using them? Why don’t I just put them away and carry on where we’re at? Why don’t I distribute words into clusters around the house and try again with different tiles when I find some that show more promise for our needs? So that’s what I did. Right now there are four different groups of buttons and a couple of lone buttons distributed into locations where relevant modeling and/or conversations can continue until new tiles arrive. Dynamic conversations with Harbor’s original thoughts that occurred early on will have to wait. Novel combinations and uses of words for both of us won’t happen for awhile. But we’re still working on modeling and trying out multi-word phrases and reinforcing conceptual usages of AAC in the meantime. I even pulled out some of the buttons I’d put away and plan to rotate them into different locations and configurations to work on generalizing concretely as I slowly integrate them onto a new soundboard. Here’s our current set-up:

Dining Room (My dog does eat in the dining room. My cats do not. The family dog does not. Feel free to ask about this.):

By Back Door #1:

By Back Door #2:

Living Room:

 On the cat’s scratching post:

 By H’s place bed:

Front Door:

 Right Side:

 Left Side:

Bathroom: 

Music Room:

This week our new tiles come. I plan to start moving buttons onto them more slowly this time, beginning with a pace of 2-3 buttons per week starting with older buttons first excepting “Outside”, “Water”, and “Music”, which I plan to move later. So “Play”, “Tennis Ball” and “Where” will find their way onto a soundboard this week, “Hug me”, “I love you” and a name or two next week. This week, I also plan to add a button outside of my brother’s room recorded with him saying his name. (Tryssie is also one of Harbor’s favorite people.)

Has anyone else found themselves in a similar situation? Does anyone reading this have any input or suggestions? I’d love to hear it regardless of whether someone has intimate experience in this scenario, or has on-purpose chosen this method or, like me, found themselves falling, “roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble”* down the grassy, green slope into this improbability. I feel a bit like I’m bushwhacking at this point. Any feedback is super welcome. 

*The Poky Little Puppy by Janette Sebring Lowry 

My dog quickly picked up the cue "Touch" to push the button. He is treat motivated and it didn't take long for him to understand. However, after I moved the button and added the word "Potty" on it, he no longer wants to push it, even with a treat present. 

I don't intend to add any more buttons until he feels more comfortable pressing the first one, but I was curious to hear how long it took other people to get the hang of it. We are hitting only week 2 of training.

And yes, I do understand it takes time. I guess I just get eager as I want to have results by March...although he doesn't know that.