Who do we think we are?
We’re Anna and Lizzy. You may have seen us around the HTCT Forum as Anna & Bertie and Lizzy & Bunny. Anna has been teaching the buttons to her toy poodle Bertie since August of 2020. Lizzy has been teaching her maltipoo Bunny since August 2021. Our learners are similar in some ways, both small and fluffy and fussy, but very different in others. Bertie began using buttons when he was 9 years old; Bunny started as a tiny puppy. Our learners have both been quite successful with the buttons. But that’s not why you should listen to us.
Anna has spent the last two years immersed in the button teaching community. In 2020 it was the wild west and we were all figuring stuff out as we went along.
Talking to other button teachers was and is essential to understanding how the buttons work. Teaching an animal to use these buttons is very different from other kinds of training you may be more familiar with.
In the past two years Anna has helped hundreds of people through rough starts or scary setbacks and coached them to success.
After becoming an active part of the community from day one of her own journey teaching buttons and making good progress teaching her own puppy to talk at a young age, Lizzy has also proven herself to be a very successful coach, helping teachers at all stages find ways through the challenges they face.
Also, Anna is American and Lizzy is British. So you'll see examples that draw from life both sides of the pond, as well as both American and British spellings across the site.
So why should we listen to you? -Someone somewhere, presumably
Yes we’ve taught small dogs to talk, but we’ve also helped everyone from those with giant dog breeds like Great Danes to folks with small kittens. We’ve helped caregivers of energetic collies, nervous Yorkshire terriers, food-loving Labradors and feisty chihuahuas find the right way to introduce buttons and the best ways to build on their success or overcome setbacks.
We have been told over and over again that we have helped people and their animals succeed with the buttons when they were ready to give up entirely. There are a lot of folks giving good advice on social media about what worked for them and their specific learner/s, but the two of us have a broader view. The advice we give is drawn from our personal teaching experience, yes, but also from the detailed coaching and collaboration that has helped animals of all shapes and sizes and species communicate with buttons.
What’s Talking Talking Buttons then?
We have struggled first-hand with the lack of quality, accessible teaching materials when you want to get started with talking buttons. Most of it is scattered across social media and it’s difficult to pick out the good advice from the bad. And there is some very bad advice out there. Also, we mentioned the wild west? A lot of the things we did in 2020 were guesses and some of them have been born out as correct and some of them…haven’t. But because of the nature of social media, those outdated ideas have continued to circulate. We also know that, while there are some broad principles that apply to almost everyone, some issues need detailed and tailored approaches, and almost everything needs a more detailed explanation than social media allows.
Talking Talking Buttons is a landing place for longer form content that Lizzy and Anna have written to help folks set themselves up for success, and more easily troubleshoot when they do have issues. We’ll be constantly updating content so it’s based on best practice and informed by our experience as coaches, so you know everything on this site is up-to-date and relevant. We’re doing everything we can to make the platform as user friendly and easily searchable as possible, so you can find the right information at the right time.
Because we didn’t want to put any of our knowledge behind a paywall, we’ve set up a tip jar for folks who want to support us. Running this site does cost money and we spend a lot of time on our writing as well as the individual, in depth, tailored support we provide to the community, so any contribution you can make is deeply appreciated.
Are You Guys With One of the Button Companies?
Full disclosure, we’re both part of FluentPet’s affiliate program. We both have small dogs and discovered early on that the smaller more sensitive buttons were a necessity for our small learners. But TTB content is intended to apply no matter the type of buttons or technology used. In fact, it’s our firm belief that you can use many of the techniques of button teaching to enhance your communication with your pet without buying buttons at all. We recommend a technique communicating with two hands which someone without the ability to buy buttons or an interest in getting them could still use to open up a whole new world of communication with their dog or cat - take a look here. We also recognise that lots of people don’t have the funds or space for lots of buttons and are always considering that in what we write.
If you do want to buy FluentPet buttons, we’d appreciate you using our affiliate link, it doesn’t cost you anything, but the commission we would earn on a purchase would be a much appreciated ‘thank you’ for any help our content has given you.