Training exercises to build up to button use?

Hi everyone! I got my dog buttons for christmas, and have been trying to teach him to use them. Right now I just have a voice recording saying “button” on them. He already knows shake, so I held the button in my hand and asked him to shake; that went well. He will also press the button if it’s directly in front of him on the floor, in between us. The problem is, he doesn’t seem to understand that he’s supposed to push the button specifically, not just doing the stomp/shake motion. When I move the button a few inches away, he just paws the floor in front of himself where it used to be, instead of moving slightly in order to press the button. I did also try putting a treat under the button, but he mostly just scratched my hand instead. I do leave the buttons out, so I can catch if he presses or steps on it while we aren’t in a training session, but that hasn’t happened so far. Right now I’m just focusing on getting him to understand how to deliberately press the buttons. Once he can do that, I’ll then add in some actual words like “scritches”, “backyard”, “rope toy”, etc. and getting him to understand the meaning and that he can actually request things.

I don’t think he has hearing or vision issues because he functions fine otherwise and listens to my commands. I don’t think he’s too stupid for the buttons either. I’ve done basic training with him: sit, come, lay down, wait (to eat treat until i say ok), spin, shake, and jump up onto something. When we’re visiting friends for a few hours and I forget to put out water for him, he’ll go find their kitchen sink and scratch/whine near it (this was untrained, he just figured it out). He is rather spatially unaware though: he stands in the way a lot and has been tripped over a few times. So maybe he just isn’t paying attention well to where his feet are?

Anyone have training exercises that could help him build up to deliberately pressing the button?

I have some ideas but they aren’t great: * walking across a ladder laid on the floor, to build foot position awareness * similarly, make a “floor is lava” course with cinderblocks to walk and jump between * teaching him to boop the button with his nose instead * setting up a button to control the space heater he likes to lay in front of * putting peanut butter in a deep narrow jar so that he has to deliberately put his foot in and scoop in order to get the peanut butter out * somehow training him to stand with his feet in specific spots