Talking Buttons for Cats: i can haz language? 

My cat has found a way to tell me that she wants my mom to visit us. Like most Europeans, I don’t wear shoes at home, but my mom likes to wear slippers indoors. And so I have a pair of slippers just for her and she always wears them when she visits. Whenever my mom hasn’t visited us for a week or so, my cat will pick up one of these slippers, drag it into the living room, sit on it and start yelling until I come to see what’s going on. And once she does that, she’ll repeat it daily until my mom visits us again. So my little girl found a way to tell me that she misses her human grandma.

My guy… Kendra from BilliSpeaks has been working with Billi for years, essentially teaching her a second language, and has had impressive results well worth looking into. Is it for everybody? No. Doing it correctly takes an awareness of behavioral science and knowledge of cat body language. It’s never going to be a shortcut to not having to pay attention to a cat’s body language. But watching Billi learn how to express herself is an incredible insight into how cats think and relate to humans, and has clearly enriched Billi’s life. She can now understand that her medicine comes before food, and tell her owner if she’s in pain, and where. It’s not just “treats” and “food.”

Look at BilliSpeaks. Billi’s mom Kendra is a vet, and they do use cat body language. Billi will flick her tail when she’s irritated, when using buttons and when not. She slow blinks. She holds her tail high with the hook at the end- and all of this, crucially, changes as they talk. Her ears go back when she presses MAD, all of it. It adds specificity, just like with humans.

I'm currently taking my cat for a walk because he pushed the outside button! I jumped at this trend because my cat's default communication technique was to yeowl at me non stop. The buttons help me understand exactly what he wants from me so it is definitely helping with that communication compromise you talk about. We only have 4 buttons. Outside, Play, Sctitches, & food.

I've never had a problem with communicating with my cats, sometimes I can communicate better with them than some people these days.

I got a set of buttons after watching a lot of Billispeaks to get my cats to play more and it's been going great. It takes out a lot of guess work when they can hit the "play" button followed by the toy they want to play with. I also have an "all done" button for when they are done. I can get them to play at least 3x as much as before.

I don't think anyone has said that the buttons are a good thing to use for all dogs and cats, nor do I think anyone has claimed they are a replacement for all communications. So far the animals (online at least) that have the most benefit from the buttons are Bunny the dog who explicitly has anxiety, and Russell the cat who also has anxiety as well as trauma. Russell in particular is so interesting because he has other cats in his household who don't care about the buttons and aren't interested. To me it shows that the buttons are a great solution for pets who are struggling with mental health issues and need more nuanced help and comfort. Russell will ask for things to be cleaned because he grew up in an extreme hoarding situation, he will get anxiety about things being clean and can't use body language to describe his issue.

Regarding Billi Speaks, who is senior cat, uses these buttons, Kendra is a vet. I highly recommend watching her channel before you firm up your opinion. Your points are very good, but the approach Kendra takes is multi-faceted and very scientific. Cat body language is a large part of it. She even talks about her own bias within it. Billi communicates her emotions simultaneously with her buttons. Hissing/growling when pressing "mad" or lashing her tail. Ouch when she is about to throw up. So yeah, really, give it a go.

If you watched Billi, you will understand that she doesn't do all of that for food, but to make her humans to shut up 🤣 The other day she wanted the pets from her aunt, and Billi requested CHIN PETS from her using the buttons (then BRUSH PETS).

I feel like the button training for communication isn't inherently a bad thing, I see it as a way for cats to approach their humans from their side of the communication fence. That is to say, the same way we should be approaching the fence by learning their way of communication, the buttons can help them by learning our way of communication. Some cats do seem to search for ways to communicate with their humans, and I think the buttons are a way to help them in that. My cat is once such cat who, over time, has learned some of my mannerisms of communication and uses them with me and other humans during the 15 years we have been together. How I express affection by petting his cheeks, or holding his paws, for example, are things that he picked up on and started to mimic to express the same sentiment too. Or a very specific call-and-response we do when either of us is trying to find the other's whereabouts in the house. Of course, at the same time, I express myself to him using cat language, too - the slow blinks, the nuzzles, even making biscuits with my big human hands. My point is, if the cat is reaching out to communicate to you, why not help them along by giving them a tool like the buttons?

I believe he's partially correct but there is quite a LOT of evidence though the billi speaks channel and the woman is veterinarian who is a specialist in zoo and wildlife species... I think a shared conversation between Jackson and Kendra Baker(cat mom of billi) would be beneficial to sharing experiences and training tools. Like anything else the buttons can be "used" as a shortcut but so is clicker training... It's a tool to be used to communicate and clearly animals do experience different temperaments in a given situation, they do have some level of emotion. Obviously there is a translation limit but abandoning a communication for when you want a warning before your cat barfs up a hairball, when they want something (play, outside, cuddles, pets... Etc), or even when they may be annoyed or alerted about a particular noise seems a bit short sighted especially when he's mans aren't the best on picking up all minor body language. Yes we should do our part but there's no reason for the cat to not meet us in the middle as well so they we both can communicate even better.

I’ve watched Billispeaks for several years on RU-vid. Her mom is a veterinarian and has trained her on the buttons. It is absolutely remarkable how much that cat can convey and the logic she uses. Personally, I am super excited to see what we can learn from cats by the use of their communication buttons. I am absolutely fascinated by Billi.

Our Cat has learned to ask for water out of the faucet! He communitcates it to anyone that uses the Master Bathroom! Because it is so clear people freak out that he did that for them! He enjoys training people!

Personally, I don’t see an issue with using MULTIPLE forms of communication. With your analogy, what if you and the person who speaks Mandarin both knew a bit of each other’s language? Then you could both learn ways to marry what you already know to communicate. I think this COULD POSSIBLY be the equivalent of using a translator for the more difficult things. That doesn’t mean you have to forget what you already know, or ignore when maybe the translation is a bit inaccurate. Using “I love you” might just be their way of getting some cuddles instead of directly saying it. Either way, their human feels the love and the cat does too. Speaking multiple languages has never been bad for anyone, why would this be different?

You really should check out "Billie Speaks". She is also being studied by UCDavis. If you keep an open mind, you might just be surprised at how well Billie uses her buttons to communicate. She truly understands what those buttons are for and how to use them.

Jackson, I’m glad you are talking about this. It makes sense for someone with your extensive experience to be skeptical. But you’re defending dog button training due to “science” and the lack of established “science” for cats. BilliSpeaks, who I know you have heard of, is a woman (Kendra) who has and still is in the process of continuously teaching and using buttons to communicate to her cat Billi and vice versa. She is part of the study that Bunny the dog is in. You have not watched Billi’s journey from a few buttons to now. She can tell time/differentiate between morning and evening and before/later. Instead of getting physical with a cat (Guppy) who was staying in their home, if Billi had enough of Guppy, Billi would press the “All done” and “bye” buttons to signal her feelings that Guppy was no longer welcome. If Kendra did not do anything, then the next time Guppy got in Billi’s face, she would then attack her. Billi is also able to differentiate between her mom and dad, mom’s friend, and mom’s mother as they have their own buttons. She will ask for them if they are away. Especially dad as she is crazy over him. One of the most recent significant achievements has been Kendra compromising with Billi. Billi is sick and has to take medicine once a day with her meal. Kendra tried to hide it in her favourite food and that worked for awhile. But then Billi refused to eat it. Kendra realized she couldn’t hide it in anything as the taste was overwhelming a turnoff for Billi. Over a period of a few days, she was able to create a new routine with Billi. She would have to eat her pill first and then she would get her meal. The video is magical. Billi often initiates conversation when her parent(s) are lying on the couch watching tv. She is not signaled to do anything. She knows how to ask for specific toys, she knows how to ask for specific areas of her body to be scratched and can ask for cuddles OR pets. She can also tell Kendra when she isn’t feeling well or if something hurts in a different way (like loud rapping music - she hit her button mad several times and said ouch when Kendra was playing Hamilton and also when Kendra was putting together furniture in another room and there were loud noises Billi didn’t like. As I said, Billi is ill and her prognosis is not good. I think you would be missing out on a significant scientific discovery and breakthrough if you don’t ask Kendra to meet Billi in person and observe them communicating. I know Kendra would be thrilled to meet you and have you see for yourself that it’s all genuine. She is not grifting, she is not faking, she is a cat lover just like you are. Billi may be one in a few thousand cats that have the capacity to learn but they also need a human willing to do the long term work. Most cats will be able to achieve what Kendra and Billi have. And while Billi is still with us, it is a wonder every upload that we are lucky to witness.

It’s important to understand that the buttons can enhance natural communication but never replace it. There was a video on billispeaks where mom wasn’t in the room and only heard the verbal, and misunderstood. She said the body language was very clear she just wasn’t there to see it. Also important to keep in mind that an animal will not understand a word the exact way you do. For example “mad” seems to mean more along the lines of irritable or frustrated.

Been watching Bili for a long time now. And at first I didn't really think it meant much. But at this point, I really think she communicates. Perhaps not always what humans think it means necessarily, but definitely think she's communicating. She has a lot to gain with it. It's a way for Bili to train her human, more than the other way round, of sorts. And that to me is very cat.

Billi speaks is wonderful. That cat seems so happy to have a voice. LOL the Mad button.

As many have said before, I think most people using the buttons in a more serious fashion consider them a plus, not a substitution for body language, anyone saying that's lazy and a shortcut haven't seen how much time and dedication it takes to do it right, and I do see a huge potential in them, for example to teach your cat to take medicine like Billi's owner did instead of having to push it down their throat or trying to trick them into taking it (that method seems more specific and direct than a clicker in my opinion); maybe they can even get to a point where they understand medicine makes their pain go away (before you say anything, I have known people that had pets that needed a daily dose of medicine and their pets would even remind them or ask them for it if they forgot, so it's not imposible for them to see a correlation if the effect is fast or notorious enough). Anyways, as someone that speaks two languages, I don't see any harm in exploring an additional way of communication with buttons, not every cat will be interested in it and of course you have to be careful how you actually find ways to teach tricky words to them and to not read what you want to read into their button pressing, but, for example, I am pretty sure cats and dogs feel frustration/annoyance (which is how Billie seems to use mad). It's just really interesting to see how a cat like Billie seems to enjoy not only asking for pets in specific spots or specific toys, but also asks for people she wants to see or simply narrates things that happened.

Another Billispeaks believer here. There are at least two videos where Billi hasnt seen "Dad" for several days so she keeps hitting buttons that say "where dad" or "when dad." You cant tell me that's about treats!

My cat has learned 6 buttons which is plenty for my purposes. They are all action buttons for me to do something. His buttons are brush, water, treat, pet, food and kibble. He eats wet food and dry food so he tells me when his kibble needs topped up. It's fun and he really does have the hang of it which amazes visitors.

I think of the button training as enrichment. I speak two languages and can understand two others. I enjoyed leaning new ways to communicate. I believe that cats are capable of nuanced understanding and buttons give them ways to express feelings and needs that they have no other way of expressing. For instance, Billi can say, cuddles, or chin rubs. You are only limited by your own creativity. And its interesting to watch her consider her response. Cats seem to think longer about something than humans do. When I ask one of my cats to do something, they think about it for several minutes before complying. I do believe the button training can be very useful, just as clicker training is useful for teaching certain behaviors. The buttons give the cat an opportunity for response. It widens their world of self-expression. No, they're not little humans. But they have feelings and likes and dislikes just like us.

I have trained my cat (female, 11yrs, rescue) on the buttons. I thought that there was no way that I would need more that 12 buttons, I need more than 12 buttons. I find the buttons are great for Sophie to ask for things directly. She will ask to "play". She will ask for "food" or "treat" or "treat-food". I modeled the combination of those two words to give her another way to ask for a specific thing. I find the buttons a good interim solution until I can train the cat on how to use a clicker. Until she can get her paws around using a clicker to train me, this is a good way to know what she wants me to do. I have tried asking her for a cuddle but she either doesn't understand or doesn't care to give me a cuddle when *I* ask. Fun Fact: I am a House Cleaner. One of my Clients has a cat trained on the buttons. I spend a few minutes at the beginning of every shift telling her cat...No. Treat later. Later-later-later.

I think Billi Speaks is a compelling case. I heard one owner say that she thinks her dog was trying to say these things the whole time, she just hadn't been able to listen. I think that's true, as a lot of the time when Billi uses her buttons i find myself thinking that my cat can tell me these things without using buttons. So i think the buttons DO work, but they are a slower way of telling us things that we could hear if we are paying closer attention.

I didn't have a pet until I was in my 40s. It took me a while to fully realize that my cat understood most everything that I said. He gave me many examples of this over the years. I walked into the room one day. He was resting in his cat tree. I asked what the weather was like. He pulled the verical blinds aside so we could take a look out the window. I was surprised, but I thanked him. ❤😊 Just one example. I miss him dearly.

I've been using buttons with my sphynx cat ever since she was a kitten. Started with simple things like play, food, sweater (to let us know if she wanted her sweater on or off), water, peepeepoopoo (to clean her litter box), and we have a bunch more buttons about her heated pillow, certain toys, mommy and daddy so she can ask for one of us specifically if she wants to. She uses all her buttons, and she's better able to let us know what she needs without us struggling to figure out what all her different meows mean. Like sure, understanding some of the vocalizations is useful, and we still do our best to try to do so, but it's just impossible to always know what's wrong or what your cat needs just like when a baby cries and the parents are like "what's wrong? are you hungry? did you poop your pants? do you need to poop? do you need attention? does something hurt?". If there's a way to train your cat (or any other pet capable of this) to communicate more clearly with you, why wouldn't you take it? It was extremely easy to understand what to do from Christina who started this whole thing on social media teaching her dog Stella to talk. She's a speech therapist who knows all about these communication devices and how to teach someone to communicate with them. Personally, my partner and I didn't go for the extremely complex kind of board that a dog like Bunny has, because that was a bit too much work to do to model those words all the time. We kept it simple with what we consider to be the basics, and it works. I don't appreciate the fact that you're making fun of these communication devices, because they're really helping people listen to their pets better. I'm autistic, I get overstimulated and frustrated if my cat meows too many times. Reducing the amount of times she meows and being able to cater to her needs as quickly as possible so she herself doesn't get frustrated is the best thing. It may be a "social media hype" thing, but it doesn't mean it's bad. The buttons I bought were cheap, the training was easy, and it only resulted in positive outcomes.

I use buttons for my cats! Please note, I've been trick training my cats for a few years now, so training them on this was pretty easy. They're 2 months in and have been using them regularly for a few weeks. All the buttons are action buttons and I agree that that's why it works. We have a 'treats' button that I started them on to get the mechanics of pushing it down, then added 'outside', 'pets', and 'all done'. These are all phrases that I've been using in their lives routinely and so they're used to hearing those words in association with things. Then their names as buttons so I could press them to direct their attention down to the buttons instead of them sitting there staring at me. This has been working pretty well, they enjoy pressing their name buttons (and each other's) and you can tell by their body language that they understand that they pressed their name button. They look down with their ears perked and press it again and again. Pets, treats, and outside all are massive hits too. They're NOT 100% on the button positions yet and will press a few before finding the one they seem to want, but then they'll press the one they want in rapid succession. They're still learning 'all done' because I'm not giving them infinite treats or putting them in their catio every 5 minutes after they JUST got inside. I just added 'play' and 'uppies' which are relatively new words to them my one cat loves to be held and i think uppies is a hilarious word so we're implementing that every time he want to be carried around the house. Now, the reason i did this. I work from home and spend all day with my cats, but I'm also ADHD and will hyperfixate on my work. The buttons allow them to alert me to if they're wanting something I'm not giving them. One of my cats is very vocal and very human focused. While he has lots of cat activities around the house to do, he has a higher value in them if I'm involved, moreso than the other cat. With that said and keeping in mind that I'm distracted and working, he gets more bored than the other cat and expresses it by singing cat opera in the other room in the most angsty tone. This stresses me out because I'm working on work deadlines and not always able to drop what I'm doing to check in on him and end up feeling like the worst cat parent ever because he's bored and frustrated. Then, I introduced the buttons with the intention of teaching mainly that cat to use them so he could get my attention in other ways than screaming. This has worked beautifully. When he's starting to get bored or wants something, he presses them and I can put treats in one of his cat toys, put him in the catio/go on a harnss walk, give him extra pets, play with him, or carry him around the house for a few minutes to chill him out a bit more. This has resulted in significantly less screaming and he seems a lot happier overall. So does my other cat who picked it up too. Tldr, buttons work for me, but i only use them for action words and their names. I don't think concepts like 'love' or 'mad' would work well.

To everyone recommending BilliSpeaks, apparently Jackson's assistant reached out and Kendra has already sent her availability for a chat! Just waiting on Jackson to pick a time I hope? 🤞 It would be such an interesting conversation to hear since questions from a skeptic's perspective are so helpful for getting insight that don't get fully conveyed by short clips of button presses

I said this during the livestream, but I really think it depends on the trainer and how you use them! Like on Billispeaks, there was an episode where Billi stepped on "ouch" and "noise" when her human companion started playing the soundtrack from Hamilton. I mean, obviously there is a limit, but I think it really does depend on the individual cat, the individual human, your relationsjip with them, and the complexity of the concepts you're trying to communicate. Like, if you're using cat body language for "I love you, I trust you" etc and *also* using the "I love you" button at the same time.... I don't think its entirely unreasonable to assume the cat will get the point.

I had my doubts, too. Then I saw Billi Speaks here on RU-vid. Sure sometimes it’s doubtful, but when Billi’s mom got her to realize that she could have her favorite food after taking her medicine on her own, I was amazed. (Billi is an older cat and has some stomach issues, so using pill pockets and such are not options). “Medicine” “then” “food”.

Cats are still smarter than we think. There's this one cat on tiktok that used the buttons to convey a concern about a coyote attack on their catio the prior night. One of the cats was at the buttons, warily eyeing the catio while pressing the buttons "mom" and "stranger" repeatedly. The cat was taught the word stranger because they were very stranger wary. The owner managed to teach the cat the word on days strangers would appear at the home. The cat picked up the word quickly and often used to to describe animals or people they'd see outside the window, by combining "stranger" and "window". As such, when the night after the coyote attack, the cat, named justin, contstantly referenced the coyotes via "stranger". The "mom" the used the normal phrase of "stranger"(along with "dog") and "all done" to reassure the coyotes were gone to justin. Upon doing this, Justin's body language relaxed and he flopped onto the floor playfully.

The parent of the cat Billi from the channel 'BILLI SPEAKS' doesn't just use the buttons to get Billi to do/eat something because a lot of the time Billi initiates the conversation. Would love to see what you think of their interactions.

What I will say, after watching Billi: I have changed how I talk to my RitchieCat. I have simplified my syntax and become very consistent in what I say to him. And I am seeing signs that he is understanding my words much more than he did before. Does that mean that Billi knows what she is doing with her buttons? Possibly? But I have certainly improved my communication with Ritchie!

I'd really love to see a conversation between Jackson and Kendra (Billi's mum). I've been watching Billi for way too long to agree with Jackson here

My cat has buttons. She has terrible anxiety and we're hoping by giving her some more control over her environment we can remediate that. She can now ask for catnip or 'adventure' (going outside in our arms to sniff plants and look at the world) as well as brush, pets, play and puzzle. I'm skeptical about how much she understands at this point and how much is her wanting attention, but twice we've been playing with her, disengaged because we had to do something, and she called us back with 'play'. It was enough to make us go 'hmm'. She is like a toddler. She goes to her buttons frequently when we're eating and when I'm on the phone. LOL She also has 'later', 'now', and 'all done'. Those we mostly use to model for her, but interestingly she seems to be more receptive to waiting or giving up rather than spamming her buttons at us if we click them. We'll see how it pans out over time. We gave her 'happy' and 'mad' to see what she does with them. Today she hit pets, my daughter went to her to pet her, and she then went and hit 'happy'. That's her first time using that in that kind of context, but it's exactly what we've been modeling. We'll see where it all goes. You posted a version of this a couple of weeks back and then took it down. I really hoped that you were going to watch the videos everyone recommended. Please post another video after you dig into what is being done with cats. Have you watched Billi? Justin Beiber (the talking cat, not the singer)? Russell? I'm not positive, but I think cats are being researched with this as well.

It is funny how cats learn words, even accidentally. I would always say "time to go to the kitchen!" for breakfast/dinner, so now they immediately think of "food!" any time I say the word "kitchen." I literally just watched a video of a bird with a language board, who immediately started saying "tummy ouch" when the owner added some body part words to the board. There apparently was not anything noticeably wrong with the bird, but a trip to vet showed an infection. After being treated, the bird stopped saying "tummy ouch" and went back to wanting to play games.

I'm fascinated by BilliSpeaks and her buttons. Billi (the cat) has Kendra (cat Mom) and Dad trained very well. Lol. I'm sure the one button my girls would take to would be the 'wet food' button. The 230 am demanding of fresh wet food by crying in my ear is already bad enough. I don't need to hear it in my own voice (button) too. Billi has been quite helpful to illustrate my girls have the potential to know what I'm saying.

All I know is that 15 years ago I set up the point at the cup IQ test for my retriever. I pointed to which one had the treat. She just cocked her head. My ragdoll Reilly walked up, sniffed the solo cups and toppled the correct one and gobbled up the treat. Got it on video. He was also capable of unscrewing lids off treat jars. One of the vet school extra rescues you come home with. In the 1970s I trained my cats with sign language (or gestures I made up for tricks). Sit. Up. Paw. Lay down. Roll over. I had no idea cats ‘could not be trained”. He would go through his trick list unsolicited to communicate that he wanted a treat. So, in that way, he trained me too.

The buttons would only work with a ton of training and a cat who's interested. There's one cat that is actually really impressive with the buttons. Her mom has been training her for years with them (3 yrs now & dozens of buttons later) and you can tell the cat certainly has a basic understanding of the words her mom uses frequently. The cat even combines buttons, for example, "where + Dad". The channel is called "Billy Speaks" if you want to check it out. My cats definitely understand quite a few words, but I've been working with them since kitten age and use a lot of positive reinforcement. I don't have any buttons and feel I understand their body language and vocalizations well enough, but if I had the extra time and money I think it'd be fun to try a couple!

As others have mentioned Billie the cat from BillieSpeaks has learned to communicate through the buttons. Actually communicate, not just press them for food or outside. Whether it is that she is "mad" because she is told no or because Hamilton songs are playing. Or even to communicate that they have pain and where it hurts. When it comes to using the communication buttons it truly depends on the animal. Some animals will be interested in it some will not. Yes almost all animals can be taught to do this for that, but that isn't what these are necessarily what they are intended for. It is absolutely necessary to learn your animals body language. But how many times have you known something was up with them but not know what? That is where the buttons can come in so they can communicate what is bothering them, so you aren't having to go through a long list of ppossibilities. 🤷‍♀️

My cats have absolutely no problem communicating their demands. They have been excellent trainers.😊

Billi is an amazing and highly intelligent cat who uses the buttons in a way that you would not believe. I suggest you watch her, her physical emotions reflect her body language. Time is understood, too. Often she will engage and direct the conversation unpredictably and with intelligent responses. Like when she didn't want to take her arthritis medicine 2 times, and on the 3rd time said "where" "come" and walked to the cabinet where the medicine is, ate the medicine then her food. Buttons can work with cats and BilliSpeaks is a perfect example. (On YT)

While buttons do make requests more specific, if you watch enough of BilliSpeaks, you'd see how useful it is for a cat to offer commentary on where she's feeling unwell, that rap music upsets her, or that she is watching a bird. More recently Billi has expressed an understanding that medicine makes her feel better, so she will eat it willingly, despite its foul taste. One of the more intriguing exchanges was when she persisted in referring to a human as "Squirrel" and later expressed a desire to see "Squirrel." It's satisfying to see this as a sense of humor, but IMO this at least implies a measure of creativity.

I known only Billi and her mom, I love the idea that she model the word , i think it different approach. Billi can tell when she sick and her mom negotiate her to take medicine, that is incredible. LOVES, Your fan from Thailand.

I always remind my wife that cats understand far more than most people realize. She got her first cat a year ago. Just because they're ambivalent doesn't mean they don't understand. I've always talked to mine like a person, and half or more understand most keywords in a sentence. Just remember they are wild animals, so they may or may not care what you want. 🤣

I don't personally plan on button training my own cat, but I can see situations where it could be helpful - specifically in cases where the cat may want something they can't easily get across with body language because that something is missing. If my cat is meowing at me and looking disgruntled, it isn't always clear if she's looking for a missing toy, or if she's looking for my partner who's out grocery shopping. I definitely agree that anthropomorphizing cats (and other animals) is a big issue among pet owners, but I think if you approach the buttons not as a device for "helping" the cat "talk", but as a way for the cat to more easily communicate certain needs, I think they could genuinely be really helpful in reducing stress and common annoyances for the animal. You just have to be careful to stick to buttons like "wand toy" or "walk" or "fresh water", and not move into "I feel angry" or "I love you" territory, as the latter is both risky and simply unneeded.

Cats understand more than we give them credit for and the way they communicate with us astounding. My cat uses buttons effectively to communicate and follows basic commands now without any rewards at all. It helps me know what he wants. Sometimes I am not sure of herl wants snacks, outside, play, or dinner. Buttons help so much! He's only a year old. Excited to teach him more.

I wish you’d talk to someone like Billi’s mom and have a conversation about this. I’m not convinced that you’ve seen what she’s done. She doesn’t seem to be using shortcuts.

I adopted my boy from a couple who couldn't figure out his aggression issues. He picked up tricks rather quickly so I thought to try the buttons. Once he had those, he had the tools to get his needs met without a language barrier so to speak. It definitely helped him chill out!

I have used buttons with my cat and it's been a fantastic experience. I was part of the research study as well and found that many cats took to this well. It is intended as both training/enrichment as well as a way to study cats differently. One of the very interesting things that has been identified in the study is that cats and dogs (possibly other animals too) actually comment or narrate a great deal. This means that this is more than just a trick, because in these instances, there isn't an immediate response from the human. To teach this well, it also requires a lot of connection and ability to read your companion's body language. It isn't a short cut, but an enrichment in my experience. Could it be misused? Yes. How much of this is communication? We will have to wait for the research results to see.

Billi talks. She uses the buttons with context! Billi asked Kendra to be quiet! 💀 I think it was yesterday when they were building something.

My cat Maude is FAR more fluent in English than I am in Kitty Language. I understand several of her vocalizations and a good bit of her tail sign language. Slow blinks and nuzzling, of course. But Maude recognizes and understands dozens of my spoken words. I do believe that buttons can help cats use words. Billi clearly communicates on a higher level than most pets.

I was wondering what the reupload would look like, considering the previous one was quite unresearched and aimed to put down instead of being open to different ways of communication. Jackson himself says here that if you don't know someone's language, you try to find a way to learn words and ways to communicate. Isn't that exactly what all the owners of button users are doing, along with the well researched team of scientists? As a vet myself, I see the value in both, and I am hoping for a day when another cat or dog like @billispeaks or @whataboutbunny (or the many others) with obscure illnesses come into my practice, with owners saying that my pet told me they have an 'ear ouch' or 'tummy ouch' before they actually get too poorly. I just hope Jackson can learn to coexist with the research instead of putting others down for trying, because I used to send my clients to his channel for cat behaviour, but now I am reluctant to continue... And as many others said before me, it is not about learning 'to talk', it is about being able to communicate in a new way. The words on the buttons will mean different things to different learners based on the communal meaning assumed to it by the human and the animals. Keep the researching mindset going, please, and listen to the experts with the correct accreditations ❤

Even without buttons, cats clearly learn some words, not just food related, such as if I say "gonna get ya" he understands I'm about to reach for him and usually reacts by running off because I tend to say it when I'm playing.

I understand my cat's meow, at least the most important ones. There is the "I need food" and the "I finished pooping you clean it" also when she tell me "it's time to come to sleep". She comes when I call her. Yet we still happy kitty happy human without buttons. On the side note, having these viral videos about Bunny the dog, Billi the cat and other pets using more and more complex expressions over time just helps more people realise how complex are other animals too not just humans. They have feelings, awareness of environment, time passing and so on and not just basic biological survival instincts.

Buttons are not a replacement for nonverbal communication with cats, but they can make it easier for some cats to tell you specifically what they want. They can learn that pressing the red button gets them a treat, the yellow button gets them their yellow toy, and the blue button gets them their blue toy. (Even if they can't make out those actual colors.) This IS a form a language. We have only two buttons in our house, and they are for our dog. One is for our dog to press to let us know to she needs to go outside, and the other button is outside to let us know when the dog wants to come in. Our cat observed the dog pressing the "go outside" button, and began pressing it herself to try to get us to let her outside. Problem is, we only let her outside when we have time to carefully watch her the entire time, to make sure she doesn't climb over the wall into a neighbor's yard, or eat anything she shouldn't etc. So we don't reward her pressing the button by letting her outside. Still, she will press the button, and sometimes it will trick one of us into thinking the dog pressed it, and come running until we see its the cat. So she has learned that pressing the button summons her people to that spot.

Henry meows, I respond vocally, if he meows again I stand up, he leads me to what he wants in order to ask for something. He'll take me to the toy drawer, to the fridge, to the cricket cage, whatever he's wanting that isn't scratchies or cuddles. Sometimes he'll just get me to follow him for a stroll around the ground floor just to reinforce to himself that he's being heard and cared about, checking to make sure I'm looking at him the whole time. (Traumatic kittenhood abandonment outside way before weaning messed this poor baby up, but he's okay.)

In case nobody here actually looks at the DESCRIPTION of the video as to why it is a reupload: "DISCLAIMER: We removed the original video at the request of one of the TikTok users included in this video. Any footage of actual cats is there just to illustrate how the buttons are used. I am not criticizing anyone who chooses to train their cats!"

I would like to hear your take on the channel BilliSpeaks on RU-vid. I do agree not every cat is going to take to button communication. Personally, I think it depends on how well you read your own cat and how much you interact with them. I know my cats have learned what certain human words mean and you could, in theory, translate that to a button through repetition. That appears to be what has happened with Billi on the BilliSpeaks channel.

Thank you for separating emotional states and training. I think the buttons can be useful, BUT, to use a firefighter’s perspective, another tool for the toolbox.

My cat loves watching Billie Speaks videos

My cat communicates without pushing buttons: “I want food in my food puzzle” “put that on the floor” “I don’t like being picked up” “I want that food,not what’s in my dish” “Hello how are you” “Are you awake?” “It’s time for my clicker training”…and many more. I agree with the meeting at the fence.

My heart melted when the guy and his cat were just lovin' each other sooooo much. Just beautiful!!!

Clearly a hot button issue

Have you seen the cats that want to communicate though? Honestly I get that not all cats want to but also not all cats love going outside on leash…

Got my 2 yr old rescue Obie to allow a harness to go outside on a leash, thank you Jackson for the tutorial!! He is the most prey driven, food driven cat I've had in almost 40 years of cats. I'm his 3rd owner, the first 2 couldn't handle (read control) him. I could tell how they'd disciplined him by what he was afraid of. I've helped him find compromise with pure and simple love and adoration from me. He enjoys that enough now that he acts out much less. Less water bowl messes, less crockery being push off various surfaces... I am also using some of Jackson's behavior remedies that I got years ago to help with a bullying and spraying situation. I'm a BIG fan Jackson, for years!!!!!!❤

This makes so much sense! I DO believe most animals are much more intelligent than many people give them credit for, but there are differences in how we communicate. Learning how they communicate makes more sense to me than trying to force them to communicate in our way. Exception might be treats and outside buttons but… my cats would just press on these two ALL the time! 😂 I already know what they want when (for instance) they look at the doorknob then look back at me repeatedly! (Followed by the almost immediate polite raps and meows on the glass door when the weather isn’t good.)🙀

I would love for you to talk to Kendra, Billi’s mom, since Billi has a robust vocabulary and starts a lot of conversations, and make a video about that. I feel like cats communicate well as it is, but they can do a lot more than we sometime give them credit for.

You need to watch BilliSpeaks. She talks in sentences. Her mom was able to get her to eat medicine with no tricks by telling her it helped her tummy not hurt. She still clearly hates the meds, but eats it willingly. It's crazy. She has an ear button to say where she wants pets, but used it once to say a loud noise hurt her ears, implying she related ears as hearing organs. There are many more pretty impressive cognitive examples she gives.

Cats absolutely speak and understand their humans. The more we talk to them, the more vocabulary they learn.

Okay, that cat nuzzling his human just melted my heart

I have the buttons and one of my cats uses them. That said, he really only started using them *after* we had developed a relationship where I met him half way and he saw that when he used the buttons, he could get reliable responses from me. They've proven extremely helpful for cat sitting. While the cats are fed on a schedule, the button happy cat will let the sitters know when he or his brother needs extra play or when he's okay with the sitter petting him (he doesn't like people reaching for him and the buttons have given him a tool to enforce his boundaries even with new people). Once I introduced the no button and respected it, he's been a much happier, confident cat with visitors since even people who don't know him know what a button saying no means. He still happily uses traditional methods to communicate with me and we've done a lot of the traditional training since he enjoys it. The buttons most of the time act as a fun trick which lets him be more precise with his communication regardless of the other human. So far whenever I've added a new button it takes him less than 5 seconds to try it without prompting.

My last cat and I had an amazing mutual understanding through a mixture of body language, voice, tone, intuition, and maybe a little telepathy. Sarper Duman and Pianist Cat in that video is the epitome of man-cat love expression. I've watched that video many times, and it always makes my hart melt.

Dea4 Jackson ❤ I really love your work and your wonderful insights into cat behaviour. I’ve always had cats so I’m a total fan of you and them BUT! You need to spend time with Billispeaks - her mom is a serious vet and Billi is part of a scientific study investigating the button responses in cats. “There are more things in this world that are dreamt of in your philosophy, Horatio” - there’s Russel, and a new kid Jolin… I think there’s more going on in cats than we appreciate.😁💐❤️

I think the most interesting cat using buttons is YT's Billie the Cat. I haven't seen those videos in awhile but I think she was the first cat I ever saw using buttons. My cat has tapped my leg with her paw when she wants something usually food 😊 I'm just waiting for this to go full animal farm. We may end up not liking what cats, or dogs have to say if they could speak a human language.

My cat currently uses 32 word buttons and uses them appropriately. I need to add more buttons because he has a big vocabulary. I’m surprised as a cat expert that you don’t believe cats can learn and know what they mean including emotions.

My cats let me know what they want. They get my attention and lead me in the direction of what they want me to do . ( open the window....change water bowl .... need food ....clean litter box. ) etc. I love how we communicate. 😉💕

Cats and dogs are way smarter than we give them credit for... as for the buttons, they provide a second means of sharing their thoughts and observations. I think it would be useful to animals... and they're always watching us to learn things anyways. Human languages is just another thing that might interest them. 😅

Thank you for adressing the antrhropocentrism.

I use buttons because I was not good at understanding our Main Coon. We use buttons for tasks and different treats but not for emotions. It's really interesting to see when he requests treats. Mostly after lunch or dinner. When he looked stressed he requests catnip. Also, he can request pets, play and can ask for me or my wife. It helped us to understand him. It's very sweet when he asks for my wife and I have to tell him "later, later, later" since she is on a business trip. After that he settles down or asks me to pet him... or to f..... of the his sofa so he can sleep. We will not introduce much more buttons other than maybe "Autsch" since he had FORL. I want him to show me early on that it starts tu hurt again.

There's more to these buttons than just asking for treats or playing. I agree that interpreting feelings is more debatable, and it's not for every cat or dog (in fact, in households using pet buttons, often only one of the pets "talks", while the others ignore the buttons). It seems that some cats and dogs are more interested in communicating and in expressing what they want/think/feel (?) more precisely. I find really it interesting to see how they want to narrate or comment events. Bunny is hilarious when she comments on her dad going to the bathroom. 😄 She often feels the need to talk about something that is happening or has happened, and some cats do it too. I saw an IG video of Justin Bieber the Cat telling his mum about "stranger dogs outside", and what he meant was that there had been coyotes outside the catio the night before. That's one example of how the buttons can be useful. Obviously his parents could have seen that he was agitated and worried, but the buttons enabled him to explain exactly what was the cause of his fear. I think it mostly depends on the cat's intelligence and personality, but it does seem that some of them are interested in a more complex form of communication.

Billi Speaks would like to introduce you to her "mad" button

Button communication is not a replacement for body language, despite what many comments here and Jackson seem to think so, but it's an addition to communication. An amplifier, so to speak. Teaching cats to use buttons to communicate not only gives them more options to express themselves to us better, but the humans learn cat body language even better. Yes, teaching buttons means understanding cat body language BETTER, it does not mean body language gets ignored. Body language is key to understanding the meaning of some presses, because not all the time do us humans understand what the cats are pressing. It takes the cat's body language and context in mind to figure out the meaning. So many comments here (and the video) are dismissing the impact buttons have on our pet's lives. Yes, when your cat meows, you can probably understand it wants food, or maybe it wants to go outside. But can your cat meow and tell you that they're experiencing a UTI, or that they're going blind, or wondering where their deceased friend is? Probably not. Buttons help with that; they allow the cat to be more specific about conveying their communication to us humans. And it's not only about requests or food spam as many seem to think; cats can narrate what's happening (from alerting us to a loud sound, or that there's a weird smell inside), inform what's happening to their bodies (such as medical issues), convey emotions (lots of cats have opinions about our music!) and will also ask questions. Buttons have been a great addition to my cat's lives, including hundreds of other cats who have been taught the same. It has only amplified my understanding of my cats and enriched their lives even further. Many of us starting buttons tend to realize down the line that a lot of cats are... well, bored. Extremely bored. Something that was simply ignored by many cat owners. But with the buttons it became much clearer that they need something to do in their lives, and the buttons are a way to demand for it and have the human listen. After all - how many times have we seen people say "My cat keeps meowing at night and I don't know why,"? As much as these comments would like you to believe that they understand their cat perfectly; it can be improved and finetuned through buttons. Buttons are an enrichment and a way to improve communication with your cats (and other animals). I can only recommend you talk to people who are using buttons to get the bigger picture. To dismiss the buttons like this, is to dismiss our cats want more out of life and they are perfectly capable of stringing coherent thoughts together, and yes - including expressing emotions. Two days ago I went to attend a birthday party. During the birthday party I got a notification on my phone that my cat pressed some buttons back at home. She said: "[her name], come, [my name], [my name]". She was asking me to come back home.

Interestingly, Dr. Kendra of @Billi Speaks had long been training Billi using traditional methods. She added a "Training" button, and Billi now uses it to request a training session. Billi has two motivations for wanting a training session: She's rewarded with treats, and better than food alone she's rewarded with interaction with her Mom. I don't understand why the criticism in this video focuses on emotions expressed with buttons. If those were the only buttons, then it would be a fair criticism. I wish I had buttons for my son's feral rescue, because he had so many health issues that it would have been nice if he could have communicated them before the emergency vet visits. We kept a close eye on the tell-tale behaviors, but i knew darned well that by the time a cat shows a behavior, the sickness or condition is already dangerous. I don't know if Percy would have used the buttons, but it would have been worth a try. Besides his poor health, he also was a hunter, and being rescued with an injury when he was already 7 or 8, he was just not inclined to show typical household cat behaviors indicating that he wanted to hunt some pretend prey (i.e. play). When he was ready to hunt, he targeted ankles. My son was able to train him to use a paw touch, but he wouldn't do that with me, and yes I used time tested training techniques to encourage appropriate behaviors while extinguishing undesirable behaviors. And he was full on tooth and claw, as to be expected from a feral. I've still got scars, and he died coming up on 3 years ago. At least he had regular meals and shelter from inclement weather, and got to enjoy his final few years, but it would have been better for him if he had a way to tell us what part of his body hurt before he was in need of emergency veterinary care.

i think Staples may have initiated that button, "EASY"🤔😄

Agreed, the buttons are probably not best for conveying cat emotions to their humans. However, they are spot-on for things like "Outside!", "Adventure!", "Litter Box Alert!", "Dinners!" (meaning canned food), etc. I have 5 of the buttons and 23 indoor cats .. 2 adoptions, 21 rescues. All but one cat uses the buttons 'appropriately' ... one doesn't use any of them. Did take some weeks (about 7) for most of them to figure out/associate the button with its corresponding reward/activity. The only one I occasionally hear at 3:00am is the "Litter Box Alert!" ... obviously. Thanks Jackson!!

I love the points you make here! We’ve got 4 buttons for the dog (outside, water, yes and no) and one of our two cats will occasionally also use them to get our attention. He does seem to have the same understanding of the vocabulary that the dog does… but the cat who doesn’t use buttons realistically has us just as well trained as the cat who does 😂

This makes a lot of sense to me. I use buttons with my cats (well, one of them). I never quite understood how I should train or test for conceptual words and I never tried. I do believe in actions and they work well. Tells me when she wants outside (proving it by running in the direction), reminds me when I forget a meal, tells me when she wants to play. It’s super fun.

I mean to me it's obvious they know the words that you take the time to teach them. So I agree that it is indeed training. I don't think any of think cats are going to writing sonnet's, but we just want to know if they are hurting and unhappy. (Like when Billie says things like "medicine, ouch, bye" when her stomach hurts, or "noise ouch" when she doesn't like Mom's music) This is the difference between buttons and clickers. They can't use the clicker to train us, and most of us are perfectly happy being servants to our kitty overlords 🤣. That's why we WANT the buttons to work so badly. Also, I've seen several of "debunking" vids with these buttons where they try for a few weeks and then are just like "obviously this doesn't work". Kendra has been slowly introducing new buttons to Billie for YEARS and pays a ton of attention to body language to confirm the buttons. (Like when she's slapping her tail annoyed and says 'mad' or the slow blinks when she says "I love you"). Kendra is the first to admit that it is 100% training, and that she doesn't always understand what Billie is trying to say. Another huge limitation I see with Billie specifically, is that there's times you can tell she is trying to say something, but she doesn't have a button for it, so she defaults to "mad" (which basically all negative emotions in the one button). She's participating in that study that I personally cannot wait to read when it's concluded.

Language/communication as a whole is essentially a very complicated form of learned responses we learn as kids so we aren't just crying our whole lives as the only form. Cats have already been proven to modify their language exclusively to coexist with humans better (meows) and this is just letting them advance that modification. Most people using the buttons with their cats acknowledge the human tinted glasses issue and work to bridge the gap better by incorporating the cat's body language and context clues into it too. All this to say, I don't think it's worth excluding the idea just because it starts as trained or learned responses. That's language in a nutshell, and it can grow and flourish from there, helping people be closer to understanding their cats and vice versa. Isn't that what we ultimately want? And as an aside, I watch Billi Speaks, which is run by a vet. Very good medical and behavioral points of view from her about the subject.

Another way to know your cat loves you: if he goes to watch you use the bathroom or guards the door while you're in, it's because they're protecting you from errant predators that might come in through the dryer vent (or so they think). Doing your business is a vulnerable time, and they want to make sure nothing happens to you, even if it means getting up when they're still sleepy. Reverse: if it's a stressful time for them, it might help to go look at them/visibly stand guard when they're eating and going to the litterbox. I find my cat takes her time to eat when she sees me watching her.

My cat actually speaks English! Only says a couple of words though. "Okaay" is one of them.. "Hi" is another.. Try teaching your cat the word "OK", they can make the "K" sounds as observed when chattering, when they look at birds and do that, "kekekekekeke" thing. It's funny and it happened to me by accident actually. I always would say right before I went outside, "I'll be back ok?" or, "Be good ok?" and after a year or so, my cat walks up to me and says, "Okay"... and then walks over to the front door. Haa haa haa.... it was hilarious! It's even more funny that she will not say it as a "trick" it's always only in context to the meaning. Like in her mind she's thinking, "I'm not saying "ok" unless it mean "ok" damn it! But finally and sneakily I did get a recording.

The piano man and his cat melted my heart! 🥹🥰🥹🥰

My cat and I have superb communication. I tried clicker-training a few years ago, and I know now to give my baby a treat every time he chooses to go through his play tunnel 😅

The video of the man playing piano with his cat always kills me. The sheer saturation of love in that video is unbearably beautiful and takes me back to when my childhood cat used to beg for my attention by slamming his head into my chin.

It all really really really depends on the personality of cat. I have 3 cats. That are all related and they each have very very different personalities.

The beauty of living with pets is about learning to communicate and understand a different 'language', to try and get inside a different mind. That is the challenge (especially with cats!) but it is so rewarding when communication happens!

I feel like you haven't even watched some of the better-known cats who use buttons, specifically Billi. For sure, you have a big point about us seeing things and interpreting things via our human preconceptions. However, watch Billi and see how she often emotes while using her buttons. When she's pressing "mad", she's often twitching her tail in an annoyed way or, when it's been due to her "cousin" cat, growling or hissing. I think it is very important, if trying to teach a cat to use buttons, that you also can read those cat non-verbals. Otherwise you run the risk of misinterpretation. I've tried buttons myself with no success. My one cat is a bit of a doofus. A very loving doofus with paw-eye coordination issues. My other cat would much prefer to yell, thank you.

Well my counter point to you during your Human Tinted Glasses portion of the video, is our communication as humans is a trained behavior as well. So yes, trained behaviors is an excellent form of building communication.