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here are the two pieces of advice I have: firstly, stop tapping the button when you're trying to bring their attention to it. this is because of advice #2, which is the key, and that's that when their paw is even near the button, push it yourself so it makes the noise and then give them a treat. once they can reliably do that, progress to only clicking and rewarding when their paw is touching the button. then when their paw is ON TOP of the button. once they understand that if they put their paw ON the button they get a treat, then and only then move to rewarding them when they press the button.

when you tap the button, you're demonstrating the button being touched and nothing happening. pushing something isn't a natural cat behavior, so until they understand what you're doing to the button to make it make sound, all they see you doing to it is touch it. keep returning to them to reward them if they press it when you're not in the room, but when you're doing the sessions, press the button and reward them if they're even near it, as if you're trying to teach them a trick.

the last thing I've got for you is I think I might add the pet button back in, or else give them a hello/greeting/attention button. it seems like an easy one to put next to your desk or couch and reward them with something they pretty much always want when they accidentally press it, whereas play is more situational

So Animal Learning teacher here, with these buttons you want to reinforce (give treats) with "gradual approximations", so every time they do something close to what you want, you give them a treat (like reaching towards the button you give them a treat) and as they get closer to what you want them to do gradually restrict giving treats to a narrower and narrower range of behaviors you want. It will take a very very long time to train them if you only give them a treat for the final behavior you're want to train them on.

You should say the word EVERY time you play with them, give them a treat, give them affection - with or without the buttons. They have to learn what the words mean.

DONT GIVE UP!! We all know Kurt and Gary are very intelligent and absolutely can do this!!❤

I had one of my cats learn buttons. The older, aloof one won't press, but enjoys reaping the benfits from my younger one's presses.
It took my younger one a year. I tried it on the floor, for a few months, took a break, tried it on a surface for a month, and I finally got an accidental press and we haven’t stopped since then. We're up to 20 buttons after my most recent additions and he's already needing more!

It was so frustrating to watch Gary put his paw right next to the button and not get a treat for it 😅 With a lot of animal training, you have to reward them even if they're just putting in some effort. And then you gradually build up. Treat them when they put their paws near the button, and then treat them when they touch the button, and then when they eventually press it.

So...it took me three periods of trying the buttons to get them used, and I learned from that what worked best for my cats. First, don't do a treat/food button for awhile. You need to be able to enforce the action EVERY TIME they press, and if they are spamming a treat button, you'll have a very fat cat. Start with ONE button. Pick something highly motivating for at least one of your cats, something they clearly ask for over and over. In my case, that was access to the sunporch. Place the button by the thing they want. For the first week, every time they ask for that thing and you give it, you press the button and say the word, then give the thing, then press the button again. For the second week, they'll start to hone in on the button but they probably won't actually press it. You gently take their paw and touch the button, give the thing. Soon they'll be pressing themselves.

Then introduce another button. Ours was "play", by their main toy bucket. Model again, except this time you don't need to guide their paws, they'll get it. They'll start to get that this button here does this thing, this other button does this other thing.

A couple challenges we hit:
1. After button #2, my button-user Kit (it's common in multiple-pet households for only one to use the buttons) started spam-pressing the buttons and biting the buttons and getting really irritated. This is because he needed another button. He wanted something and didn't have the right words. At this point, I added emotion buttons because it was the perfect time to model "mad" and "happy".
2. When you start getting more buttons, there will be confusion. Now there were three buttons by the sunporch door, so he would hit any of those buttons to mean "sunporch", but I wouldn't react unless he hit the right button and that was frustrating. More button biting and yelling. Be calm, say "OOPS", press the button they want, and do what they want.

After we got through the second issue, a light bulb went off with Kit. He was using five buttons in the proper context and even started doing two-word phrases quickly. I got my first "love you". Then his brother got a "love you" for grooming him. We're up to six buttons (sunporch, play, mad, happy, love you, cuddles) all placed together in a central area, all being used in context throughout the day, but especially right after I get home from work.

I think next we'll add some more item words, like specific toys and catnip, and then names. Kit's already pressing buttons for his brother and sister.

I think Billi learned when she was thirteen.

I have a bell Behind the door and taught my dogs to ring it when they wanted to go out. My daughter’s cat learned to do it just by watching the dogs. That was years ago, now the dogs are no longer with us 😢(died) 7 years ago, my daughter moved out with the cat for a few years, now she has moved back and the cat still remember. Now I wish she teaches our new dogs to do it!

Don't give up.  Just don't worry about filming it.  Leave the treat button out.  Click the treat button every time you give them a treat.  And if you hear them hit the treat button, come running and give them a treat.  Because they were clicking it.

I think tapping the button was just confusing the boys because you were doing the behavior but not getting the result.  When you touch a treat button, a treat should appear.   (At least in early training.  Saying no, and later comes later.)

The reason forcing a cat's paws onto it doesn't work is that it makes it feel like a punishment to the cat.  

BilliSpeaks (RIP Billi) has a lot of videos of speech training her cat.  She may have been the first talking cat.  I'm not sure.  Stella is the first talking dog who kicked off the whole talking animal trend.

I started cat buttons with my orange when he was around 10. It took 6 months to get him to press the first button. We had to start with the command "tap on top" to get him to touch anything including the button. The issue from there was finding something high value enough that would make him put his weight on the button to press it. Treats weren't enough, but he had a certain toy he wanted me to throw. I would only do so when I pressed the button, but I would wait longer and longer each time so he finally got impatient and did it for me to make me throw the toy. Then I just had to reinforce that behavior.

From there, adding more buttons was pretty easy. I gave him contrasting buttons, two at time, so he'd understand the difference between them. Now he tells us "all done" when we talk too much. Beware training your cats to talk. They're rude. lol

Another key factor is consistency from the humans. If you have a button that means a certain thing, always press it before doing that thing. We have a PetPet button, and so long as I'm standing up, I'll walk over and press PetPet before petting them. If I'm not close to the buttons, I'll still say PetPet in the exact same way the recording does. While I can remember which button is which by reading the label, the cats have to do it from memory, so daily repetition is super important.

You also have to have patience. They aren't stupid.

Im not a pet guy but watching this guys video are actually fun

RIP Billi, aka Her Mad-jesty

I think if you attach the Treat button to the cabinet door, they might learn it, since they paw at the door already. Then you can transistion it to the floor.

My Jasper uses Fluent Pet buttons.  He has 11 buttons he uses regularly.  It took him about 6 months to begin using on his own.  My cat Coleman never took to them.  Jasper LOVES them.  Treats was a good beginning button.  Put some lickable on your finger, place it on the button, when they smell the finger press the button as they eat and press the button.  15 minutes a day.  When they seem to understand you should start to get some head presses on the finger and then put the lickable on your finger after they head butt your finger on the button.  Last evolution is they will scratch at the button.  Give a treat every time they touch the button in any way.  They will then begin to press, either with head or paw.  Give treats for accident hits too.  If Gary puts a paw on your hand when you touch the button, give treat.  Jasper was 7when he started.  Don’t give up.

You should watch the chronicles of Todd. He is great with his buttons!

Lol I scared my cat the first time he used it. He now has 53 buttons including miss, concerned, sad, sorry, and oops. My dog passed recently, he started using the miss button  at a month and a half and negociated (now, soon, later) with me when I said she was not coming home. The bargaining part step of acceptance. They are incredible.

I think you should not give up! These things take time, probably longer than 2-3 Months even. Keep doing it every day a couple more months and one day they’ll do it. When my Bunny was still alive I taught her to stand on her hind legs by just doing it every day for months and months and months. At first I’d do it with a flower and along a fence. She’d be in the in the fenced in area, I’d be sitting on the outside and put a small daisy or any kind of flower between the gaps of the fence bars and then I’d drag the flower up so she’d have to stretch to reach it. She’d use her paws to get up and at first I let her but then I’d gently tap her paws so she’d be standing on her hind legs without support. I’d do this for a couple more Months every day and then I tried without the fence completely. She knew what I wanted her to do right away. She also knew her name and would come running to me if I called out her name (9/10 times anyway) TL;DR: Don’t give up!