It helps to be clear about what these actually teach. A dog pressing a button is not speaking, they are doing what dogs have always done well, which is learning that a specific action reliably produces a specific outcome. That is still worth having. A dog who can tell you they want to go out, rather than pacing and being misread, is a calmer dog to live with, and the learning itself gives a clever animal something demanding to do indoors on a wet week.

You record your own voice onto each button, which means the words can be the ones your household already uses rather than a stranger's approximation of them. The buttons sit in interlocking mat tiles with a non-slip backing, and that detail does more work than it appears to: a button that skids away under a paw teaches a dog that pressing does not work, while a fixed one lets them build confidence. Buttons can be recorded over as the vocabulary grows, and the tiles clip together as you add more.

• Record your own words onto each button
• Re-recordable as your dog learns more
• Interlocking mat tiles with non-slip backing
• Choice of Macaron or Stain Resistant mat
• Available as a set or as a six-button recording version
• Suits dogs of any size

Two things worth knowing. The exact contents differ between the set and the six-piece recording version, so check which you are ordering. And results depend almost entirely on your consistency: press the button yourself every single time you say the word, and accept that some dogs take months and some never take to it.

Who it's for: Patient owners of bright, food-motivated dogs who enjoy training and want a project rather than a gadget.