Food Words
Food words get a lot of bad press in the button community. A lot of folks assume they’re always a bad idea to add to the board. We’re going to discuss their pros and cons here and (spoiler alert!) talk about why you should probably add one.
First things first
Food is extremely important. We all talk about food all the time. We live in a society (no matter where you live) that has a lot of feelings about food and we really have no business imposing those ideas on our pets. They need food and are dependent on us to get it, so of course they want to talk about food when we give them a new way to communicate with us. It’s backwards thinking to give learners words for things they want to talk about, except for the one thing they want to talk about the most. So this is not going to be a discussion of whether to add a food button, but rather when to add a food button.
Are there any important events in your life that revolve around food?
Do you think about your next meal or wonder how long it is until dinnertime?
Are you finding our article really interesting but your mind keeps wandering to that lovely slice of cake in the fridge?
Ok, so read this article, then reward yourself with some cake (see what we did there)
Cons - actual and assumed
A lot of folks, probably the majority, think food buttons are bad. Go directly to jail, do not pass go, don’t add a food button. The main reason people usually don’t want to add a food button is that they’re afraid their learner will spam the food button constantly, or their pet is on a feeding schedule and being able to request food would throw it off. To these folks we say, you’re still in charge. Dogs have been begging for food for millenia without buttons. The buttons don’t create a desire, they only allow our learners to give voice to it. Granted, it is more difficult to say no to a learner who is straight up telling you they want food, rather than whining or meowing at you in a way that lets you pretend you don’t understand.
Here are a few things we’ve heard a lot…
Food words are bad first words because they’ll be spammed
Learners will probably spam buttons early on in the process, and spamming a food button is no different to spamming Play, Pets or any other beginner button. The techniques for managing them are the same, and the behavior comes from a place of excitement at their new power to control exciting things - if your cat presses “pets” 20 times in a day for a little while as they learn more about the buttons, you wouldn’t say they were ‘too affectionate’ for the buttons and take the button away.
But most of the time the expected extreme button spamming doesn’t happen or is very manageable. Most learners know their schedule and they know how much food they get and they don’t actually want to spend their entire day gorging themselves. Some dogs, labradors for instance, have a genetic issue that keeps them from ever feeling full and they have a tendency to overeat. Others (dogs and cats both) may overeat because they’re bored, so looking into new kinds of enrichment is a good way to address this issue - an issue you wouldn’t have identified without the help of food buttons. We’ve linked to some useful resources at the bottom of this article to help with spamming and a technique called “diminishing returns” for food (but it works for other spam too).
With any early word you need to ‘gear up’ to make it easy for you to model a lot and respond positively to the majority of presses. That might mean breaking your treats into much smaller pieces or putting them on a snuffle mat or some other form of enrichment. It might mean using puzzles or investing in some lower calorie or longer lasting treats. If you’re using a word that means your main kibble or mealtime food, be prepared to break it into smaller portions. You don’t need to feed more food, but you might need to feed more often.
Food buttons make learners think buttons are a trick
Another reason people advise against food buttons is a concern that learners will come to see button pressing as a trick that they get a food reward for, the same as they might get a treat for “play dead” or “roll over.” Or that the learner will be so motivated by food that none of the other buttons are even remotely as interesting to them. These are more valid concerns than some of the others we’ve talked about. The way we avoid this happening is by starting with more than one word, in a central location, and make sure you have another word that is also exciting to your learner.
Food or treat buttons should NEVER be a learner’s ONLY starter button. In our opinion, you should begin with buttons for at least three highly motivating starter words, so that learners see the buttons doing different things in relation to activities and objects they’re excited about. And you do want to make it clear up front that every button is not a food dispenser. For most learners, modeling multiple starter words is enough to prevent that from happening, but if you have one of those food crazy labs, you might be better off waiting until your learner is well established with the buttons before you introduce food words, or at least words that don’t involve longer lasting food options or working for food (like Chew, or Puzzle).
We have a meal schedule so there’s no point
If your learner is on a strict food schedule that cannot be deviated from, my first question is, why? If the reason is that you feed them in the morning, go to work outside the house all day, and then feed them again when you come home, your learner won’t be able to ask you for food when you’re not home, but what’s the problem with them influencing the schedule outside of that? If you add a food word as a starter you do need to be prepared to offer your learner some food if they press the button outside of mealtimes.
If your pet has a medical condition and their food intake needs to be carefully controlled, that could be a solid reason not to add a food button. If the reason is that you put your learner on a strict feeding schedule years ago for reasons that made sense at the time but actually no longer apply, consider letting go of that schedule. Obviously we need to be able to enforce rules and boundaries with our animals but there should be a reason for them, not just rules and boundaries for their own sake. So do some reflection here and make sure you aren’t having a knee jerk reaction to the idea of deviating from your current norm. Part of teaching your pet to talk is being prepared to listen to what they have to say. We also need to be prepared for the fact that not everything our learner says or asks for is going to be what we expect - if they want four small meals during the day instead of two big ones (and there’s no medical reason that’s not possible) then take that on board.
I just don’t want to hear constant food requests
We’re trying to allow our learners to communicate with us when they want, about what they want. Not adding words for things they want to talk about will do one of two things. Early on, it’s likely to demotivate your learner and make them struggle to see the point of buttons. Once they begin pressing buttons, we’ve seen time and again that food-motivated learners who have been denied words for food simply try to use other words to talk about their food - that’s not helpful to either of you.
Poor Sad Baby Bunny
Hardly any kibble.
In defense of food buttons
A good starter word is 1) highly motivating, 2) something that happens multiple times a day so you can model frequently and say yes to requests frequently. Food is very motivating, and you can say yes a lot to food requests by giving small amounts of food at a time. If you don’t have a super food motivated learner, try a treat button. Puzzle buttons can be great for learners who are either not food motivated or who might be too food motivated for just a regular meal button. You are shooting yourself in the foot by not taking advantage of this extremely motivating concept. Food (or Eat or Kibble or Hungry) is the first independent press and the word that makes the buttons click for a lot of learners, more than any other single concept in our experience. The majority of cats using buttons today wouldn’t be if it weren’t for their food button kicking things off.
Food is also a useful concept because it is so common and such a core part of everyone’s day. Even learners who aren’t food motivated learn a lot from their teacher modeling a food or treat button because it’s such an easy concept for them to understand. Frequently teachers who resolve not to add a food button find that they have to eventually add one later because their learner is trying to talk about eating and mealtimes anyway and it’s very confusing to talk around it and figure out what they mean.
We recommend a form of target practice using a food word on the soundboard, and that is the technique Lizzy and Bunny used to help a very young Bunny make her first presses. For very young learners in particular, their range of words is very limited, and food or treats can be one of the few things they really understand as a concept and know the word for.
Food buttons can also help you monitor your learner’s appetite and keep you apprised of medical issues. We know of one teacher who was frustrated that her learner kept spamming her food button outside of mealtimes and eventually took her to the vet and found out that they had a tapeworm. Anna and Bertie had one of those aforementioned pointlessly rigid schedules, and his dinner was at 7pm on the dot. As soon as Bertie had a food button he started telling Anna that he was hungry for dinner around 4pm. Once she saw the pattern she figured out that a lot of Bertie’s more frustrating negative behavior in the evenings was a side effect of his being hungry. They moved his feeding time and were all much happier.
When to add a food button
It’s pretty clear we think adding a food button in your first set of words is normally fine. It can be motivating, give you a word that’s easy to model and understand, and you can even use it for target practice.
If you’re still worried about adding a food word to the board at first after reading this, then wait until the second or third wave of button additions, and add it with another word that is also motivating, so by that time you will have more options to model and offer to your learner.
Takeaway points
Food buttons can be a great starter words, but:
Never begin with just one button, or only food words
Be prepared to listen to your learner and adapt your schedule
Spamming is a natural part of the process and will pass
