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I have two cats (Ziggy and Zora). They are 8 months old. Before the buttons arrived, I started to teach them to step on something. I started with three buttons: treats, play, and pet. In the first few days, I modelled treats a few times per day and encouraged them to step on the button. Ziggy learned fairly quickly how to step on them to make a sound (though there are still some "silent" presses) and got better each day. After just a few weeks, he uses all three words every day, and I think he knows what they mean and can differentiate between them (e.g. we modelled play from their very first day with us, so this was a known word for them), but sometimes he just presses for attention, I believe. Zora hasn't pressed any buttons yet, and she does not want to step on small things, so we are working on that as well. I find the buttons great; the sound is good, easy to "install" and easy to press.

We’re about a week and a half in to using our sound board. I’m starting with two buttons — “treat” and “pets.” I wanted to start primarily with our Australian Shepherd Lab mix, Eddie. He seems to be more curious abt the buttons. His brother, Franklin, is just excited to get treats. Eddie will hit buttons accidentally, but sadly, there has not been a purposeful button push yet.

First word was outside. Second was hungry. Those are big feeling words for her and it’s great to see she understands she can use the buttons instead of mouthing us!