They do understand. I have a cat that talks with buttons. I try to count the amount of nonsense vs actual needs, and it is around 70% something understandable (i.e. “food” when hungry, “litterbox” when it’s dirty (and it needs to be really dirty for him - like a day old), treats (when I press okay he runs to his treat spot) or “let’s play”). More examples include “now” and “later”, where he presses two buttons, then when asked clarifies about one of those things. I.e. let’s play, pet me, I ask which he goes either “let’s play now” or “pet me later” etc. It needs a lot of consistency though.
They do understand. I have a cat that talks with buttons. I try to count the amount of nonsense vs actual needs, and it is around 70% something understandable (i.e. “food” when hungry, “litterbox” when it’s dirty (and it needs to be really dirty for him - like a day old), treats (when I press okay he runs to his treat spot) or “let’s play”). More examples include “now” and “later”, where he presses two buttons, then when asked clarifies about one of those things. I.e. let’s play, pet me, I ask which he goes either “let’s play now” or “pet me later” etc. It needs a lot of consistency though.