Documenting 2023
Happy news! Mumen’s vet told me he’s back to 100%, he’s no longer on his steroids, and we’re running into the new year with renewed vigor to document the dog stuff Mumen and I love to do.
I thought I’d start the new year out by documenting the FluentPet buttons Mumen has now and how often he uses them. It’ll be fun to compare his growth with an ‘end of year’ post as 2023 progresses.
So, which buttons does Mumen have on his FluentPet board right now and what is his relationship with those buttons?
Mumen in front of his FluentPet board.
Outside (By far his favorite button. He knows this grants him access to the fenced-in backyard. He uses it to go out and play as much as he uses it to go potty.)
Play (Play was one of our first buttons before we introduced toy-specific buttons. He understands the meaning and uses it occasionally, but now that he has toy-specific buttons, he favors those over the more vague ‘play’ button.)
Pets (The pets button is mostly used by the humans in the house. Mumen will occasionally press it to ask for pets, but seems to rely more heavily on body language … IE: he flops over onto his back … when he wants to receive pets.)
Flirtpole (His third favorite button. Mumen LOVES playing with the flirtpole and will ask to play with it several times throughout the day.)
Toy (The toy button refers mostly to plush toys. He uses it occasionally, but prefers to play with the flirtpole if he’s in a playing mood.)
Ball (Mumen has giant balls that he loves to push around and chase. They’re strictly outside, since they’re quite large and would probably damage something in our house if he played with them indoors. He doesn’t use this button too much, because he knows he can just press the “outside” button to go outside, at which point he can play with his ‘outside ball’.)
Puzzle (Mumen uses this button quite a bit. I’d guess his fourth favorite button. He loves puzzles and enjoys engaging with them. Occasionally, he’ll use this button if I don’t respond to the ‘hungry’ button, because he knows I fill the puzzles with treats.)
Chips (Chips is one of our cats. Mumen presses this button occasionally, but not often. Typically, this button is used if Chips is in the room with him.)
Dip (Dip is our other cat. Mumen has pressed the Dip button before, but interestingly, never just a single press like he’ll do with Chips. When he presses the Dip button, it’s usually used in addition to the Chips button to string a request to play with their cat toy, IE: ‘Chips, Dip, toy, flirtpole’.)
Cheesecake (Cheesecake is our Great Pyrenees. Of all the other animal buttons, Mumen uses hers the most. He hates going outside alone, and mostly uses her button in addition to outside, presumably to request Cheesecake join him outside. IE: ‘Cheesecake, outside’.)
Oliver (Our youngest human child. We just introduced buttons for Oliver and Caleb, so I don’t have enough data on them yet, but Mumen has hit the Oliver button once. I believe it’s too soon for him to fully understand the meaning, but luckily names are easy to model, and I’m sure he’ll catch on soon.)
Caleb (Caleb is our oldest human child … well, technically he’s an adult, because he’s 18, but you get what I’m saying. Just like with Oliver’s button, this one was just introduced. He has yet to press it, but it will be easy to model for him on the days that Caleb is present in the house. I’m confident he’ll pick this one up quickly.)
Mister (Mister is the word for my husband … don’t ask, it’s kind of an inside joke, lol! My husband is very supportive about the buttons, but definitely doesn’t engage or use the board nearly as much as I do, so Mumen does not press this button often. The jury is still out on whether he just doesn’t know its meaning yet, or if he doesn’t have much to say to my husband.)
Lady (Lady is Mumen’s word for me … yep, another inside joke, lol! I believe he knows or senses how much I absolutely gush when he uses my word, so he’s taken to using it as something of a ‘pretty please’ button, or to tell me he wants me to go outside with him. IE: “lady, outside”. I’d say it falls in the middle/lower middle of one of his most used buttons since I respond to him without him having to press ‘lady’, but I’m hoping he’ll use it more in the future.)
Mumen (He mostly uses this as a “look at me” button. I’m confident he knows the meaning, since he hears his name used every day. My favorite memory of him using this button was when he pressed “Mumen, mad, no, outside.)
Walk (We literally just introduced this button today, so I have no data yet. I wanted to wait to introduce it because it’s so important to honor their request as much as possible to cement the meaning in their minds, and I’ll fully admit, I did not want to go on ten walks a day. But I’m trying to live a healthier, more active lifestyle … so if Mumen requests a walk, I’ll actually be forced to move more, lol!)
Work (I thought this button would mostly be used by me. I wanted to use it to let Mumen know when I’d be gone for longer stretches of time. When I leave for work, I’ll press ‘lady, go, work’ or ‘lady, go, work, now’. Imagine my surprise when he used it a few times on his own. Most notably, “Why, what, work, hmm?” I believe he was asking me why I go to work, or in his mind, why I leave for long stretches of time.)
Love you (An admittedly difficult button to model given that love is such an abstract concept, but he has pressed this several times to indicate happiness on his part. My favorite time he used it was when we were playing with the flirtpole, and as I was putting it away, he pressed ‘love you’. I believe it was his way of telling me he enjoyed playing with me.)
Go (This button is used mostly by me, usually in addition to the ‘work’ button. ‘Lady, go, work, now’. I’ll model it when he drinks water ‘Mumen, go, water’ or outside ‘Mumen, go, outside’. He has pressed it several times when I didn’t respond to the ‘outside’ button, I believe in a roundabout way to get me to let him go outside. If ‘outside’ doesn’t work, he’s known to press ‘go’, and when I ask him, ‘go, where, hmm?’ he’ll press ‘outside’.)
Hungry (This is our catch-all button when it comes to food. He uses it to request treats, to request breakfast/dinner, and occasionally to request a puzzle since he knows puzzles are associated with food. We introduced this button later to stave off the inevitable spam request for treats, but to no avail. He presses it at least ten times a day. Don’t worry, we don’t feed him that much, lol!)
Hmm? (This is to indicate a question. Definitely one of Mumen’s top five favorite buttons. I find it particularly interesting when he pairs it with the ‘what/why/where’ buttons, and he’s done this several times. He’s also asked me questions with it. Mostly though, he uses it as a single press conversation starter or to get someone in the room.)
Water (He doesn’t use the ‘water’ button often, but I’m confident he understands its meaning. My favorite memory regarding this button is when he pressed it, I noticed the water dish was empty. I filled the water dish, expecting him to take a drink, but the cats took a drink immediately instead, and Mumen showed no interest in the water. It seemed like he wanted me to fill it for the cats.)
Bed (Definitely a middle-tier button as far as usage. Mumen will request ‘bed’ a few times a week. Bed can mean his dog bed in the kitchen, or our bedroom downstairs.)
Daycare (Another newer button. He has requested daycare several times, but it was during hours where we couldn’t go. I model it for him when we go to daycare, and am hoping to get to a point where I can ask him if he’d like to go to daycare so he can give me a yes or no answer.)
Belly (Mumen uses this one somewhat frequently. He’ll use it to request belly pets, or he’ll use it to be extra dramatic about how hungry he is. ‘Belly, hungry’. Gets me every time. I’m very confident he understands this one.)
Happy (One of the other buttons that warms my heart, and probably his most used ‘emotion’ button. He uses it in addition to ‘outside’ a lot, especially if his single-press ‘outside’ request isn’t being granted … ‘IE: ‘happy, outside’. He’s also used it to correct me. I once asked if he was mad because he was growling at something, and he trotted right over and hit ‘happy’.)
Concerned (This is one button he uses in a very strange way … to me, anyway. I’ve only ever modeled this button when he whined, and usually he only whines if he hears the neighbor dogs barking and wants to go outside to see them through the fence. So, while he uses this button frequently, it’s now almost always paired with ‘outside’. I think ‘concerned, outside’ means he wants to go out to see the neighbor dogs, but I’m not 100% sure yet.)
Mad (We model ‘mad’ whenever Mumen or Cheesecake are growling at something. This doesn’t happen too often, but Mumen seems to have grasped the concept of ‘mad’. He doesn’t use it much, hopefully because he’s not often mad, but he has used it appropriately several times before. Most notably: Mumen mad no outside.)
Sleepy (I model ‘sleepy’ for Mumen whenever he goes to his bed to lay down. He’s only announced to me that he’s sleepy twice since introducing this button, but both times I took him to bed, and he went right to sleep. I’m confident he understands the meaning, just doesn’t feel like narrating every time he’s sleepy.)
Where (Arguably one of the harder buttons to model. I’m still gathering data on this one. I’ll model ‘where, Cheesecake’ or ‘where, Chips’ or ‘where, water’ and try to show him that way. He’s used it in easily understandable context a few times, but also used it in ways I didn’t understand the meaning. I don’t necessarily think this means he doesn’t understand it, but it definitely means we both need to work on new approaches to decipher what the other means when using it.)
Why (Another difficult one to model, but I use it frequently. Whenever he growls, I’ll hit ‘why, Mumen, mad, hmm?’ or if he whines I’ll hit ‘why, Mumen, concerned, hmm?’. He’s used it a few times, once when I was moving his camera higher after expanding his board he hit, ‘why, what, lady’. I took this to mean he wondered why I was moving his camera higher. He’s also used it to presumably ask why I worked, IE: “why, what, hmm?, work”. I’m interested to see where he goes with this one.)
What (He’ll use this occasionally as a single-press when he’s trying to get my attention, or he’ll pair it with other buttons, as mentioned above in his “WHY” button post. I use it more than he does, most often to ask ‘what, Mumen, want, hmm?’ but he’s certainly curious enough to use it every once in a while.)
Yes (Mumen used the ‘yes’ button more often in the beginning of our button journey. He will occasionally respond to questions with the yes or no button, but right now it’s mostly used by me to confirm any of his requests. IE: If he presses ‘flirtpole’, I’ll respond with ‘yes, flirtpole”.)
No (I use the ‘no’ button more often than Mumen does, usually because by the 90th time of him asking to go outside, I finally have to tell him no. He has used it several times to seemingly express an interest in stopping something that’s going on (he hit ‘no’ once when we were petting the cat and not him) and has used it once to express his anger (Mumen mad no outside).
Want (Mumen only uses this button when he wants my attention and other buttons aren’t working to get him what he wants. It’s few and far between, since I’m pretty quick to respond to his presses.)
All done (Mostly used by me to indicate when something has come to an end. Mumen has used it occasionally to indicate his desire that an activity end as well, for instance, when my husband was petting him and Mumen pressed ‘all done’. The sass, I tell you. I believe he understands this button well even if he rarely uses it himself.)
Help (Mumen does not use this button much. We introduced it fairly early, but haven’t had much opportunity to model it. I’ll model it if he’s pawing at a door ‘Lady, help, Mumen’ or when I applied his cream “Lady, help, Mumen, ouch” or “help, ouch”. The jury is still out if he fully understands the meaning of it, but he did once use it in an impressive way. He hit ‘help’, I asked “what, help, Mumen, want, hmm?’ and he replied ‘Belly’, after which he immediately flopped over to receive belly pets.)
Now (This button is almost exclusively used by me. I introduced ‘now’ and ‘later’ early on in Mumen’s journey, and while I think he understands the concept based on my modeling, I can only think of him using this button less than five times since its introduction.)
Later (Another button that’s mostly used by me only. I’m assuming because when Mumen wants to do something, he never wants to do it ‘later’. I surmise he understands its meaning because when I press “outside, later” he’ll abandon his quest to go outside … but he does not use it much himself yet.)
Ouch (We introduced the ‘ouch’ button during Mumen’s recent health scare. Every time I put cream on the open wounds where his drain holes were, I’d model “lady, help, ouch” or “lady, help, Mumen, ouch”. He hasn’t had the button long, but has used it several times as if to remind me to put his cream on during his healing process, and once to tell me his head hurt. I’m excited to see the potential this button has as far as him alerting me to injuries in the future.)
Head (We’re slowly introducing more body parts. This was one of his most recently added buttons, so he’s only used it once to tell me his head hurt (he pressed ‘ouch’, I asked ‘where, ouch, hmm?’ and he responded with ‘head’. I model it with pets. “Lady, pets, Mumen, head” or “head, pets” to help reinforce the meaning.)
Cold (We introduced this when we got a lovely Wisconsin blizzard and the temperatures dropped to -30 degrees with the wind chill. We also use it when we give him cold things like ice cubes. It’s a newer button, so he’s only pressed it a few times, presumably when he wants me to give him an ice cube. I don’t know if he understands the broader sense of ‘cold’ yet, but he certainly knows it gets him ice cubes.)
And that’s where we’re at on this January 1st, 2023 morning. Looking forward to updating as time goes on. Mumen is still relatively new to his FluentPet journey. Having come this far in only three and a half months is impressive to me, especially with the set back from his health scare. I’m very excited for what the future holds for both Mumen and I, and inter-species communication as a whole.