![]() So I’m setting some boundaries and removing the buttons when I’m not ready for them. And will I promise to do everything my dog wants me to do when he wants me to? No. It has been many years since I’ve had a baby or the toddler in the house, but it reminds me of controlling the situation in a similar manner.ĭid I do everything my young children wanted me to do when they wanted me to? No. Which is why I now take up his button when I am not ready to take him outside, even if he asks. He pressed the button, I took him out, brought him back in, gave him some water, and guess what? He pressed the button again. But he certainly knows the button exists and that something fun happens when he presses it!īut it got to be too much very quickly. Was it clean and delicate? No, not really. This is the door that Auggie and I go in and out of several times a day, for potty breaks as well as playing fetch and just hanging out when the weather is nice!Įvery time I wanted to take him outside, I asked if he wanted to go “outside”, pressed the button to hear the word “outside” and then repeated it to him before opening the door and allowing him to go outside.Īnd then… yes, on the very first day, he started to mash that button. Which is what I decided to do.ĭay #1 Button Training – Having settled on “outside” as my first word, I recorded my word on a button and placed it on one of the included mats and set it by our back door. ![]() ![]() And talk a lot, say the words frequently, and model pressing the buttons while saying the words.Īnd I even found a few suggestions for the very first word that people could start with: Outside. And not to start with too many buttons, start slowly. Yes, there were a few tips and tricks to be found, such as not to make your dog press the buttons by lifting their paw and pressing it down for them. I received my FluentPet package on a Friday and gave myself the weekend to read up a bit more about the process, and to my disappointment, didn’t find nearly as much information as I would have liked. I am not delusional and have no doubt that the stickers are more for the humans than the canine learner, but on the other hand… maybe Auggie will learn to distinguish between the different pictures after all! Seeing someone else do it and use it, and being able to order the supplies instead of trying to recreate it myself.Īs an added bonus, my daughter is something of a professional sticker maker ( you can find her stickers on Etsy) and she kindly sketched out, and printed, custom stickers for this family experiment. FluentPet offers several different bundles to get started, making it as easy to get started as opening a box and recording a few words.Īnd that is what pushed me over the edge. After all, Christina is a speech-language pathologist, and I’m some dude who likes to cook and blow glass, not really skills that lend themselves to advanced dog training!īut in the year since then, I saw two developments that made me reconsider and think that maybe, just maybe, trying to teach Auggie how to use pre-recorded buttons to communicate would be great training, for both of us.įirst, again just by happenstance, I came across the Instagram account of Bunny the Sheepadoodle who is now using some huge number of doggie speech buttons, maybe over 70+ by now! She and her parent do a wonderful job of illustrating possibilities and what it looks like in daily use.Īnd second, a few people starting working on creating a starter set of mats and buttons to use for adventurous dog owners who wanted to give this a try. It is super impressive, and quite intimidating, and I looked at it as something for the experts and not for a beginner like me.
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