Meet Melissa and Sam: How Buttons Helped Sam Advocate for Himself

Featured Guide Meet Melissa and Sam: How Buttons Helped Sam Advocate for Himself Jul 27, 2026 By Calvin Docking Q. Who is this learner of yours? Sam is a 3-year-old Chihuahua mix with the running and catching skills of a major league ball player (and the throwing skills of a t-ball player, but he’s working on that). He’s a Running of the Chihuahuas rockstar, loves FastCAT, and shocks everyone watching at CABT. Sam finds water fascinating - he loves watching the river from piers at the Wharf in DC, and tripping into creeks on long walks. He likely would be down to join the clipper race if his human were up for it. Watch this video and meet Sam here Q. How long did it take for Sam to press his first button? Sam’s first independent press came about a month after we started. There was a quiet period just before, when he seemed to lose interest in our target training/modeling sessions. I even moved the buttons up high to clean and left them for a few days! I work from home, and one day when I was busy at my desk, Sam wandered over to his 3-button soundboard and pressed FRISBEE. I remember he looked at the board, then at me, and I had the feeling he was expecting a toy to materialize out of thin air and come flying. When I stood up to deliver, that was it, he was hooked. And the spamming phase began! Q. What have the buttons revealed about Sam that you wouldn’t have known without the buttons? Sam has been diagnosed with IBD and pancreatitis, and it took a little while - and all kinds of new unhappy behaviors - for us to get there. Poor guy clearly was in pain, but specific incidents suggested he might have some injury in his leg or hip. This stupid human didn’t start to look in the right place for Sam’s pain until the frequent vomiting started. Enter buttons for MEDICINE, OUCH, BELLY, LEG, and more! Over a year into our journey trying to find a long-term diet and medicine plan, I have learned so much about Sam and am constantly impressed with how clever he is when it comes to advocating for himself. Sam and I are able to communicate effectively about when he does actually have leg pain, when a request for belly rubs is just about the snuggles, and when he really does need pain meds and isn’t just looking for attention or a treat. Q. What do you do to ensure the buttons remain an engaging and positive experience for Sam over time? I work from home, so we pretty much use buttons all day every day. I definitely need to step up my modeling game - while Sam is repeating with buttons things I say aloud (like calling blueberries BALL TREAT REFRIGERATOR), he does go t

hrough phases where all toys are FRISBEE or STICK. Maybe because I can almost always at least try to respond to presses, the buttons have become an integral part of our day-to-day. We just moved across town, and I waited until Sam was scooped up for daycare on the day of the move before packing the buttons up, and immediately found some space for them at the new place - in a new configuration! - so they’d be available for him when he got home. Everything else was chaos, but the buttons were out because they are so important to us. (Meanwhile, I did 3D print some caps for the buttons, but I did not print nearly enough. I really wish I had video of the movers adding things to the box I used and taping it up, completely unphased hearing COLD COLD COLD COLD COLD… Q. What’s your funniest button moment? There are so many! Every time Sam throws shade with OOPSIE or WOW he cracks me up. Recently, I learned he likes that I make silly animal noises when we play because I tried being quiet playing tug with a favorite stuffie and he stopped, looked at me, then went to his soundboard and pressed NOISE. Play resumed only after I complied. 😂Last week, Sam pressed ALL DONE when the microwave beeped and I didn’t immediately go get my food. Want buttons like Sam? He uses Connect Buttons with HexTiles. Shop Sam's Buttons Q. What’s your most surprising button moment? Sam has surprised me a few times with button combinations I never modeled but that expressed something so well I knew exactly what he was talking about. A recent one was NO BALL TREAT MORE. Sam is not big on subtlety. Q. What challenges have you faced with button teaching? I definitely missed the mark in the beginning, not joining the mentoring sessions and other community offerings. I purchased our first buttons hoping to give Sam alternatives for two behavior concerns and didn’t think to consider whether they were concerns to Sam. Whenever a button was recorded with a word/phrase that I wanted Sam to have, I struggled to get him to use it. PLEASE was a shocking success - I introduced it with a new cue, “ask nicely,” and accepted a quiet sit or PLEASE in response, and really all I wanted was the screaming demands for fetch to stop. The quiet sit is the response that stuck, but Sam figured out that if at first he doesn’t get a “yes”, following up with PLEASE will do the trick. I say “please” to him when I ask him to help me get a ball stuck under the couch, and I almost never feel my eardrum burst anymore Q. How do you decide when to introduce a new word to Sam? Now that I know better, I listen to what Sam wan

ts. When I notice him repeat creative ways to try to get me to guess what he wants, I know we need a need button. I have a few dozen stickers prepped with words I think would be good to have because other users have them, but they don’t go to buttons until Sam seems to actually want to talk about those things. We added REFRIGERATOR because Sam kept using HALLWAY in his requests for certain treats. The fridge is a door, and it was next to the front door in our old apartment. Whichever the reason, Sam does still use HALLWAY occasionally when he means the fridge, so we’re still working on that. Q. What advice would you give to others who are interested in teaching their learners to use buttons? Watch the webinars and chat with other users in the community. I would do so many things in our early months differently. I also wish I started earlier because Sam was definitely capable, and I sometimes wonder what might be different. But the number one piece of advice I would give is - before you pick starting words - to think about what things your learner is already communicating to you just fine without buttons, what they love and probably want more of, and what they would appreciate you understanding a little quicker. As a noise-sensitive and anxious pup, Sam loves being able to talk things out, but we didn't start out like this. I was first introduced to AIC by a neighbor who bought a set of buttons for her dog and gave up a month later because he wasn’t getting it. I almost did the same thing before Sam dove into spamming. Give them what they want (to say) and then model, model, model! Join the conversation at community.fluent.pet! Share Share Reading next How a Soundboard Becomes a Map of Separate Buttons Apr 24, 2026 Leo Trottier Leave a comment This site is protected by hCaptcha and the hCaptcha Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. Name Email Message Submit