Q. Who is this learner of yours?

 

Tilda is a 4.5 year old pitbull that I rescued as a puppy. She knows what she wants and knows how to get it! She loves her friends and family fiercely.

Q. How long did it take for Tilda to press her first button?

 

With prompting, a few minutes. Without prompting, a few days!

 

Q. What have the buttons revealed about Tilda that you wouldn’t have known without the buttons?

 

Tilda loves and misses her friends. She has buttons with the names of some of her friends, and if it’s been a while since she’s seen one of them she will ask for them!

Q. What do you do to ensure the buttons remain an engaging and positive experience for Tilda over time?

 

I try to honor her button presses. If she uses the buttons to communicate, at minimum I will respond to her with words. If she’s made a request I can fulfill, I’ll do it!

 

Q. What is your funniest  button moment?

 

The first time my now-husband spent the night, a few minutes after he left, Tilda said “where stranger?” A more G-rated story: I was trying on a weird-looking Halloween costume. Tilda stared at me for a while, then went over to her buttons and said simply: “concerned.”

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He uses FluentPet Connect Buttons with HexTiles.

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Q. What is your most surprising  button moment?

 

I can think of two!

1. The first time Tilda put together a two-word phrase on her own. She’d just finished having zoomies and said, “all done,” and “tired” before plopping on the floor. I’d never put those two words together, but she did and it perfectly matched the moment. That was the first time I really saw her make language her own.

2. Tilda has a best friend named Zuzu, who lives four hours away. We rarely see Zuzu and Tilda rarely asks for her. But we were planning a trip to see Zuzu and my husband and I had been having a few conversations a day where we mentioned Zuzu. After a few days of this, it was time to leave. I used the buttons to tell Tilda we were going to “go” “car” “then” and before I could finish my sentence, Tilda chimed in saying “hi Zuzu.” I was amazed that she had picked up the context that a Zuzu visit was on the horizon and that she used her buttons to communicate that.

Q. What challenges have you faced with button teaching?

 

Sometimes Tilda is very demanding of my attention with the buttons when I am busy with something else and can’t engage with her. It can be frustrating when she presses buttons insistently but I can’t help her.

Q. How do you decide when to introduce a new word to Tilda?

 

When I noticed we used a word frequently, Tilda showed interest in the word, and Tilda seemed to understand when I spoke the word.

 

Q. How have buttons changed your relationship with Tilda?

 

I see Tilda as a fully sentient creature with hopes, fears, and frustrations. I understand that she wakes up with ideas for how she would like her day to go. I feel a much greater responsibility to enrich her life wherever possible!

Q. What advice would you give to others who are interested in teaching their learners to use buttons?

 

Start with simple, concrete words your learner loves. Start small. Don’t get discouraged if they don’t take to it. Even if they don’t use the buttons regularly the training activities are still a good bonding experience. And you never know, maybe the buttons will be a huge enhancement to your relationship!

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