FluentPet Speak Up! Key Vocab Kit with Clearer Upward-Facing Sound - 12 Recordable Buttons w/Pre-Installed Batteries, 6 HexTile Button Mats - Training Dog & Cat Communication Buttons

I wish these had been invented decades ago--I wonder what my other wonderful dogs might have said to me. The product is good quality and there is ample customer support. I had one button go flat (out of several packages of these I've purchased) and the seller promptly sent me several new batteries for it, free of charge. My boy races for his buttons first thing every morning and starts communicating. It's a lot of fun for both of us. And it can be eye-opening at times: I had been working at the computer for a while when I suddenly heard "Mom. All done. Play." Need I say more?

My 3 month old puppy picked this up almost immediately. They only arrived yesterday and she already has learned to hit "play" if she wants me to engage in play with her. I trained her by withholding the toy then hitting the button while also saying the word "play" several times. I then stopped hitting the button and she quickly realized that if she hit it play would start back up. The only issue is she's struggling to hit the button every time and gets really frustrated. If she's really close then I'll sneakily hit it for her so she doesn't feel defeated.

These are very good quality, comes with stickers you can customize and a few preprinted. I used for weeks trying to teach my cat playtime and brush. She just looks at me like what is that why is it your voice? I swear she knows what they mean but hasn’t once come close to pushing the buttons herself.

They arrived just as pictured in the Amazon product listing. The package included stickers, a screwdriver for the battery area, the buttons, the foam mats to put the buttons in, instructions, and a step by step guide to button teaching. Upon receiving the buttons, 2 of them didn’t work. I emailed the company and they were fast with a response. Turns out the batteries just got loose during shipping and after taking them out and putting them back in, the 2 buttons work now. The buttons are loud as long as you aren’t whispering or low voiced when talking into them, they’re easy to set up and easy for my dog to press.

Update: It sucks that you can't really know how good a product is until you've used it for a while, and by then it's too late to return. Ultimately, I would not buy these again. They were not a good fit for my dog. He's a Corgi, which is pretty small, and so small buttons seem like they should be fine for him, but he has so much trouble hitting them. He will press the button repeatedly with his claws, and no sound will come out, and then I have to press it because it only works if you hit it directly in the middle, and that's really hard to teach the dog and it slows the training down a lot because to him, it seems like the button doesn't always work, and he feels like he has to dig at it and attack it to make it work. They also lose the recording about once or twice a week, and I have to re-record it, which again slows training down when he presses the button. Finally gets it right after so many tries, and it just says to make a recording please blah blah blah blah blah. So annoying. I think that these would work better for cats, but then I looked on Reddit, and a lot of people are saying that they're hard for their cats to press, which I understand because they just don't press well. So, as weird as it is, I don't know why these are one of the top recommended because they are hard for animals to use. They don't hold their recording, and I've even heard that some people's cats have gotten sick from eating the foam before. Not a huge fan of these, and I'm going to keep looking for others. Also, people like to say it's great that it comes with instructions, but we tried to scan the QR code to find the instructions, and we could not find them. It just sent us to a random video that wasn't even the first video and acted like you had already watched something, it wasn't helpful. Just really overall, I'm not impressed. I like these buttons, but they also have some downsides that make me wanna look for other options. First, I wish they made it more clear that these are more for cats. Because I bought them for my dog and he's a corgi, which is a smaller dog, but even for him, he has trouble hitting them because they're so small and he's still learning. It's kind of hard to teach him. But he'll paw at the little felt area where the button is and he'll paw at it very quickly digging into it trying to get the button to go off. Sometimes it goes off right away sometimes not. And he'll h get frustrated when he paws at it but it doesn’t go off, which is just really hard for him. He's still learning. But if the button was a little bit bigger, I think he'd have more success. Second, they're starting to get claw marks in them from the times that he's scratching them trying to hit the button. So the durability is kind of questionable. They're made of the same little foam material that kids' little puzzle mats are made of, but they're super thin. It's like less than half an inch thick. So I feel like for the price, the materials could be better quality. They could be thicker foam, and they could have bigger button options for dogs. Thirdly, more than a few times when my dog pressed the button, it somehow had reset itself, which there isn't a way to do that unless you switch the switch on the back, which my dog can't do because the button is inside a little puzzle piece. So they just kind of automatically randomly reset themselves somehow. And it happened twice to two different buttons. Fourthly, the buttons come with a sticker sheet of common words, but the words are not cut out or anything, so you have to manually cut it out with scissors or write it with your hands. The buttons are so small that it's hard to write that small. So, I just cut out the words manually. I don’t know why they don’t just pay 2cents extra to have the words pre-cut out. Finally, it's a little tricky to figure out how to record it for the first time. You have to hold the button down to record and then release it when done. All in all these buttons work and are good quality and nicely presented, but maybe the quality is more for cats than dogs with large claws. I’m going to keep using them and see if it improves once my dog learns to be more accurate with them. So far he just thinks pressing the button is a trick he does that I reward him for, he doesn’t seem to get that he can press them any time he wants something.

Of course, we've seen so many YouTube videos of the pets who use these buttons, and we're enamored with the idea of our cats using them. I downloaded am iPhone app called "The Simple Clicker" free version, which, after a few sessions, I decided to purchase the Pro version of since it's only $1.99😃 First, I "charged" the clicker, meaning that every time you click, you give the pet a treat so it learns to associate the sound with a treat. Next, I had to train our cats to become comfortable with stepping on the neoprene pads. The first step was placing treats on the mats for 2-3 sessions. It seems like our cats didn't like the texture of stepping on the mats. I think it's also worth noting that it's likely a very good idea to allow the mats to sit out for a few days--outside of the package -- so they can off-gas, (meaning release any volatile compounds that give it that weird odor. in case you’re wondering, I did look it up, and neoprene is not likely to be toxic to humans, so I assume it is also not toxic to pets. However, I figure if I can smell that smell, then it’s probably offensive to most pets as well. Granted, I am very sensitive to odors, but still, I am sure that any animal is even more sensitive to odors than I am). The next step will be getting the cats to put their paws on the button. I really do not know how I am going to do that, and I have not gotten to that part yet. One other thing to note is that training is recommended to be done before regularly scheduled meals occur, that “treats“ should not comprise more than 10% of an animal diet yet should still be within Reasonable dietary nutritious guidelines, and that crunchy treats are a great opportunity to promote the animals dental health. And I haven’t done research on this part yet, but I am sure there are published recommendations for ingredients and macros for treats according to the type of animal you have. Anyway, I seem to be our pets favorite animal for the moment ha ha ha because I’m the one giving them so many treats! I also found that, depending on I’m not sure what 😆 sometimes, I can use their regular kibble as they’re reinforcement with the Clicker, seems not only much more economical but also very likely more nutritious as well as well yeah more nutritious but I have found that both cats, at different times, have found the treats I mean they’re they’re regular kibble to be motivating at sometimes and not motivating at other times. As you can see from the picture, Billie (eating) found their regular kibble to be motivating during this session, but Ella (on the right) didn’t. During the next session, they reversed! 😆 By the way, fluent pet does give you a link to download their free training guide as well as resources to join the quote fluent pet community once you purchase the item and give them your email. I mean I’m sure the email is for marketing but, so what, right? 😄 So, if I am successful in getting our cats to press the buttons, then we will expand two more tiles. We I am having so much fun with this! And it’s providing great bonding time with the cats, they are clearly enjoying it, L and funny thing is that my search of none suggest making the First button be a treat button. However, the fluent pet res pet to think that the only purpose for pushing a button is getting food treats. So that makes me question whether I should have charged the clicker with food at all. But anyway, here we are, so I don’t know… At any rate, the cats and I are having fun! I highly recommend this as well as the app I mentioned! I can’t wait to make more progress!

My cat uses these all the time to communicate his desires. I started with "outside" and "play", tried just modeling for 5 months and he was interested but couldn't quite figure out that he needed to put his weight on the button to press it. Taking another approach, it took 1-2 weeks of paw targeting before he caught on. Ever since then he's been pressing buttons every day. I added "tricks" and "water". The buttons work well and and are perfectly loud enough for our space.

I received these buttons a little over a month ago and one of them is already not working. I am not sure if the button itself is broken or the batteries have simply died, but given the price I would expect better. Edit: I also tried to replace the batteries in the button and was unable to do so as it is extremely difficult. Second edit: I reached out to customer service about this situation - they are incredibly unhelpful and rude. I reached out to customer service about this issue and they asked me to send them a video of the non-working button. After sending them a video to show them that I was unable to replace the batteries, they asked me to remove the batteries from another one of my buttons and place them in the button that wasn't working. I indicated that I was unwilling to remove the batteries from another button because they are so difficult to replace as then I'd have a second non-working button. They responded and indicated that I'd have to figure out how to replace the batteries because they are supposed to be replaceable. I replied and requested a video of them replacing the batteries in their own button. They did not provide a video (which is very telling) and instead gave me text instructions that claimed the fit for the third battery is "tight." I replied and indicated that I followed their instructions and that I am physically able bodied and still unable to force the third battery in. They responded by asking me to again remove batteries from another working button and then attempt to replace them and suggested that something may have happened when I removed the batteries from the first button. I replied and indicated that I'd need confirmation that they will replace both buttons if I could not replace the batteries in the second button. They responded and claimed they have sold "over 2M buttons" and that this was "the very first time" they have heard of this issue and that I'd need to send back both buttons if I couldn't replace the batteries in the second one... but that I would also need to take a second video of myself attempting to put the buttons back in second one before they would provide a prepaid shipping label. At that point, I was fed up and decided to look elsewhere. It is unfortunate given that my kitty is getting very good as using the buttons, but given the price I'd expect a longer lasting product. I'd also expect much better than rude, passive aggressive, and unhelpful customer service. Overall, it seems that this brand doesn't stand behind their product and I'd suggest looking elsewhere for pet buttons.