FluentPet Tester Kit – Set of 2 Dog Talking Buttons & 1 Blue HexTile – Customizable Cat & Dog Training Buttons for Communication – Batteries Included – Pet Buttons Gift Set
Brand: FluentPet
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Description
Additional information
Brand | FluentPet |
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Amazon Customer (verified owner) –
These are the old buttons with the speaker on the bottom - poor qualityPoor quality. All of the buttons are the older first generation model that has the speaker on the bottom and no holes on the top. That makes the volume quite faint. If I'd realized that I would not have ordered this set so I'm pretty disappointed. Also 3 of the buttons don't work properly – the seem to have speaker issues and are more quiet and/or crackly. I do not recommend this set and I plan on returning it. For the price this feels like a rip off as the quality just isn't there. I own the next generation buttons as well (the ones with the holes) and they are a lot better. But of course you can't order a tile kit with those buttons on canadian amazon. Kind of wish I had no decided to go with fluent pet in the first place. I may look around for other products that are compatible with the buttons I have.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
My dogs needs more familiarizationMy dog has us trained. And here I am trying to train her. I think she is winning!
Why HexTiles Matter (verified owner) –
Comparison between Fluent pet and Hunger for wordsThe media could not be loaded. I recorded both buttons at the same time and then played back to see how loud and clear they were. “Fluent pet speak up” button is louder and clearer but also more expensive. The “Hunger for words” button is larger, uses 2 AAA batteries. Both are easy to record. Both require a small Philips screwdriver to open the back to insert batteries. Fluent pet comes with batteries and screwdriver. Hunger for words does not provide screwdriver or batteries. Price reflects some of these differences. I removed a star for value because I do feel that Fluent Pet is very pricey.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Great for a smart pup!Easy to use and great results. We eventually had to take it off the floor bc of over use! Fantastic purchase 😊
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Small buttonsWhile the sound is good, the buttons are small. Not ideal for a large breed dog.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Loud and clearThese may be a tad too loud, but they are clear and work great.
My cat has no interest even when I tried training with treats. She cares not.
The item itself is great but only buy these if you have a really motivated pet.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
Buttons easy for cats to use, but poor sound quality, thin mat backing, odd label selectionI've wanted to try this for a long time, but waited due to the ages and health situations of my prior pets, who have since passed. I now have two 8 mo kittens, who are very interactive and constantly trying to "talk" to me, so I finally sprung for it, figuring now is the ideal time for them to learn. We're still in the very early stages of using the buttons, so my rating is not based on the efficacy of the language-learning system, but the quality of the physical product.
Pros:
* Buttons are easy for small paws to press.
* Method is straightforward.
* Physical product is quick to set up, nice looking, and well-packaged.
* Different colored mats for different parts of speech is an interesting idea and seems like an improvement to their original product (which I only saw in videos, but appeared to have no color coding and to rely only on spatial memory).
Cons (mostly issues due to the $129 price tag):
* Sound quality is a little fuzzy (no better than off-brand buttons, which I briefly tried with a prior pet) and one of my buttons is weirdly louder and another fainter compared to the others.
* When removing cut-outs to place buttons into mats, neoprene backing feels very thin. It seems like it could accidentally be punched through if one is too enthusiastic.
* Sticker labels seem dog-centric, along with some oddly specific ones for a "basic vocab set" in which one can record only 12 word options. I personally might have preferred a sheet of blank labels (*ideally* ones with a wet-erase surface and a thin-tipped non-toxic wet-erase pen, so that they could be edited).
* Not much can be said with 12 words, especially in a multi-pet and/or multi-human household, which needs a button at least for each pet if not multiple people. For $129 it seems like they could at least include 16 buttons. Having just a few more word options could add a lot of value in practice.
Overall, given the price of this package, one might expect a little more attention to detail in terms of the product quality/usability and consideration of a larger customer base.
This last thought is purely speculative and does not effect my rating, but I'm wondering if it might make more sense to have differently colored and/or patterned button tops to provide clearer visual cues to link to specific word meanings. In early online videos of Bunny (from before the FluentPet system was released) generic buttons were used that were an array of bright colors, and my understanding is that those are what she first learned with. FluentPet seems to have updated their mats to allow different colors for different parts of speech, but the buttons themselves are all still white. I realize that cats and dogs see colors differently than humans do, but they do have some shade differentiation and can distinguish between high contrast visual patterns. Is it necessary to still rely almost entirely on spatial memory, or is this making potentially limiting assumptions about how animals learn language? There are little stick-figure drawings on the sticker labels, but I suspect those are more helpful to the humans.
Conclusion:
I still feel optimistic about this product and look forward to seeing how (if) my cats progress with it. At the same time, I see only 2 clear advantages to purchasing this system as opposed to constructing one's own with off-brand buttons and floor mats. (1) The smaller buttons are easier for use by little paws. (2) There is no leg work, in that all the pieces are there…. Constructing one's own system would require finding the right mats and buttons, figuring out how to attach the buttons, etc., and I'm not sure how the cost would compare. I haven't seen any small paw/cat-sized generic buttons, so I would probably repurchase this, mainly for that reason…. On the other hand, I think that if I had a big dog who could handle the bigger off-brand buttons, I might have preferred the DYI route, since the button sound quality is not any better, and it would be easier to experiment with button spacing (for a larger animal) or with color-word association in the DIY case.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
One week in and my cat is slowly getting the hang of it.My cat is 3 years old and I have a hard time deciphering when she wants her scratches vs when she wants food. This is one of the best purchases I've done for my pet, because I am hopeful she will start being able to tell me what she wants. I'm about a week in and so far I've gotten to have her press and learn one button somewhat. I have to do say that you will need to be patient, as for each animal is different. It comes with a QR code that you can scan and read a general set of advices and tips. And please, do not start with the word Treat or any food related commands. I did scratches, as she LOVES scratches and now she can once in a while let me know when to give attention. Do not expect your animal to quickly learn and be able to teach it multiple words at a time. Patience is the key, and slow and steady wins the raise.
The only thing I wish was different was the amount of pressure that it takes to press the button. It is a plastic button, so it has to *click* to make a sound, which proved difficult for my cat to learn how much pressure is needed. A little bit more sensitivity would help, especially if you pet is on the lighter side, or gentler. But overall, still happy I purchased this and I'm excited to see what new vocabulary my cat can learn and "talk" to me.
Anonymous (verified owner) –
These buttons are amazingThe media could not be loaded. We tried some other styles of buttons and they worked fine, but for my dog, she has some special needs, she is blind and deaf on her right side, it’s a birth defect, nerve damage in her neck has made her complete deaf in her right ear and her right eye sees mostly shadows. So you can imagine with the shadows she would bark all the time and at everything and so she thought barking was how to get our attention for everything and it was constant because she was trying to tell us what she needed.
Once she realized the buttons talk for her it changed her whole world!
These buttons are better in every way because the speaker is not underneath the button so it’s louder and clearer, which is perfect for my partial deaf girl. They come with the mats to put them in so they stay stable which helps a lot because she can’t see the pictures on the front so her buttons need to be organized so she know last where each word is, we worry she could lose her eyesight so this helps her to be able to talk to us on bad days easily.
They are easy to use and my girl picked up on it fast. Her barking dropped by 75% and her anxiety dropped as well. Dogs are intelligent and these buttons make life so much easier!
Amazon Customer (verified owner) –
awesomeGreat piece of kit.