3.23 i am obsessed with this cat on instagram named elsie who uses buttons to communicate. so much that i got margot buttons .... my sister actually sent us some buttons when i first adopted margot, but i never really incorporated them or worked with them enough. now i am trying again...

i believe she is well suited to this because a) she is smart and has a high level of engagement naturally b) she knows how to press a button already. for christmas my parents got her this treat dispenser game where she hits a button and a little machine dispenses some treats ... theoretically i should be able to set this up for margot and have her do it without my full attention, but actually she is disinterested in playing the game unless i am fully watching and commenting the entire time. she won't even do it if i'm in the room but doing dishes. basically she is extremely highly motived by my attention, so i think she will like button-speak, because it's something we do together c) she understands how to follow my hand like a target and can be easily guided to press the right button d) i Believe in my Learner .... so much of the button literature is basically you have to believe your dog can do it. also a very cute detail of it all is that they call your pet using the buttons your "learner." i <3 my learner

on thursday last week i gave margot her first button, water. i set it up next to her water bowl. i would hit the button and then ask her to go engage with the water, which she would do because she speaks english. me giving margot her command: ENGAGE. no but she can understand "go touch the water." so i would hit the button, have her touch the water, hit the button you get it. 

i gave her another button the next day, "out back," referring to the backyard aka concrete square. i also gave her "play" so she could have a fun word that maybe she would be motivated to press without my prompting. 

she hasn't independently made any button pushes yet, i don't think. before we go out back i hit the button, then ask her to hit the button, which she does in a sort of exasperated way. so far the buttons feel kind of clunky, like adding an extra step when she already understands so much of what i say.

i am super tempted to add more buttons, like "margot" "ashley" "breakfast" "dinner" and maybe "treat," but she doesn't have one consistent treat she eats so i think that may be confusing. she loves her dental treat ("minty"), and always runs soooo fast inside when i tell her i'll give it to her. she usually only gets it after her last potty. i wonder if that would be a good word to see if she'd ever independently press. i also think about buttons for when i'm leaving and not her, or buttons for amounts of time - i saw a video where a guy who does a formal study on button animals says the animals way more frequently press "now," and humans are much more likely to press "later." i'm just not sure how you teach abstract concepts like time. or basically every animal has a button that says "love you." how would i demonstrate "love you" to her. you know 

tl;dr and so begins #margot'sbuttonjourney