*Sigh* Well! I guess I owe you guys a follow-up. I struggled a little with the remote too at first. I thought in order to create the number twelve I needed to press one then two and then the large button. I later learned that each button was an actual number. One through six was all along the left side of the remote and then seven through twelve was on the other. I ended up Skyping a fellow forum member who guided me through the whole voice-training process and told me when the dog's eyes changed colors as I worked through the eight commands. Two solid green eyes meant the dog heard and accepted my words, one red and one green meant "huh? You blew that. Try again.". I had to change a few of them from what they were in the manual. Take a bow ended up being "Showtime!" In a very high, loud voice. "Stay" changed to "Don't move" in a very threatening loud, police officer type yell. Guard changed to "protect me" which I kind of stole from the Zoomer's command book. I also decided- because of this creature's difficulty to understand- that he is a she. I ended up calling her Goldy. Not very imaginative I know but I tried so many names and she kept doing red-green eyes so I just said, bump it I'm calling you Goldy. The name took thank goodness!
As far as the voice-commands, they are definitely tone and accoostic-sensitive just the same way as a pleo. My current difficulty is determining when she starts listening to me. At least with the pleo, you can start speaking right after the "I'm listening" sound finishes. With this bot, you have to wait several heartbeats longer before the lights turn green. Either I've forgotten my tones or I'm a rotton judge of timing. Even the clap commands are sometimes bothersome. Most of the time I just let her walk around and I pat her once in a while on the light sensor to keep her from falling asleep.
I have managed to read some of her basic emotions by the position of her tail. These bots are very sparse on vocal sounds. Happy is pretty obvious. The tail is straight up. I think angry must be when the tail is just sort of straight level with the back. Sad and sick look almost the same with the tail pointing downward slightly- well as far downward as it can go. The one clue that I have to tell the difference is a vocal they make when they are sick. They whine and then sneeze and whine again.
Talon