Training Maybe.

[moonvoice]

I can now add 'sit' to the list of things that Maybe knows from a verbal cue.

She doesn't like to sit (although, you know, today I think she didn't mind. She offered them pretty quickly), and she'll still sometimes claw from a sitting position, but I'll take what I can get. But it's pretty much solved the problem of 'Maybe trying to steal Moet's treats when he gets them.' He does a trick, gets a treat, I ask her to sit, she sits and gets a treat, and now she's realised that that's a much more successful way of getting treats. Especially as she tends to get more treats for a sit, than what she can steal from Moet.

She no longer gets regular food rewards for going to the top of the tower, since she loves it so much and it's pretty ingrained. So she gets rewards for getting *off* the tower. Lol. She's gotten better at getting 'off' things. That is slowly reflecting in the every day, when I don't always have a clicker or treat with me, and have to ask her to get off something (i.e. ALL THE TIME).

But I'm so glad she's offering really nice sits now.

I can also chain things together with her really really easily. Today, for example, we did this:

Maybe -> Follow Me (into another room) -> Up (on the table) -> Run (along the edge of the table) -> Off -> Tower (to the top) -> Off -> Sit! -> Click/Treat. She did everything awesomely. And everything fast, including the sit.

In fact, aside from sitting, it's not often I get her to do solo cues anymore. It's more challenging to her (and therefore exhausting, huzzah!) to do a whole bunch of things in a row and stay with me and pay attention, than to ask her to do one thing.

Incidentally, I did this training session immediately after breakfast, but they were still really responsive. Awesome. (They are always hungry). I think I could offer them like 15 training sessions a day and...well at least Maybe would be into it. While Moet doesn't run up to me, he still magically shows up for every training session. Heh.

Now - while I've been writing this entry - Maybe is sitting lovingly by my feet and looking up at me creepily. Patiently. Like a freaking dog, yall.

Also, Moet is still going to the toilet in the litter tray with little complaint (there was some last night, like five meows? That's NOTHING compared to the four hours it used to be) and it's amaaaaaazing. We love you, Moet!

Comments

[white9-fox.livejournal.com]

Now make her jump through flaming hoops and do the dishes :D

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Hoops! HOOPS!

That's a great idea.

I'm gonna get her a hoop to jump through.

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

I've been planning to do that with Minnow!

[white9-fox.livejournal.com]

If you seriously do that, you've GOT to take pictures!

[singingnettle.livejournal.com]

That's awesome.

I will eventually work on serious training for Minnow but I think she needs to be a little more solid with us and her environment.

[ellenmillion.livejournal.com]

*laughs* Maybe sounds awesome. I had a cat who would follow me on walks, but none of them wanted to please me (for treats or otherwise) enough to train...

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

Of *course* your brilliant princess likes complicated stuff. :D

Are you interested in training a "lie down"? If you can train lying down (in sphinx pose) you can actually work that into a fair bit of self-calming too. (And of course the branches off that like "play dead" and "roll over" are cute as well as fun for the animal once they get the gist.)

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

I'm still working out how best to get a lie down. I have never seen Maybe once naturally enter a sphinx pose, like Moet does often. She either lies down on her side, or she hunches over herself, but no sphinx pose of calm. It's rare for her to even sit, when she's awake. There's pretty much 'awake, standing, running around -> sleeping on side.'

I can't capture a behaviour that she doesn't do, so I'm mostly thinking about... how to encourage it. I'll figure something out!

[silverjackal.livejournal.com]

Have you tried luring her straight down from a sit? What I mean is you get her to sit, put the reward between her front paws. Reward her again when she bends forward for it. Then you gradually shape the position by holding the treat further and further out, always directly in front of her and on the ground/substrate. If she stands or reaches to grab it with anything but her mouth it goes away. It might take a bit of jiggling, but I think you can eventually lure it that way.

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Yeah I will give it a try, it will definitely have to broken down into teeny tiny steps for her, but that's okay, if I can get *her* to lie down on cue? Woah.

Heh.

[sidheblessed.livejournal.com]

So, to train Maybe and Moet, do you just use standard clicker training?

[moonvoice.livejournal.com]

Yeah, basically. Although I've read in a few places it's dead easy to get clicker training wrong by not marking the exact behaviour (i.e. clicking for the motion of a sit, instead of their actual butt on the ground), or by expecting too much and rushing between steps (and dead easy to get it right, so I suppose it just depends).

I spent two days clicker conditioning them, which is just going click/treat, click/treat, click/treat (treats must always be given within 1.5 seconds of the marked behaviour, generally, otherwise... don't use a click, and say 'yes!' or 'well done,' or whatever, and treats must generally always be given with clicks, otherwise, again, don't use the clicker) about 20 times.

And that seems to have done the trick. :)

Now, Maybe is so in awe of the power of the clicker, that she takes it off my table and presses it, to try and get it to click. Never works. Very amusing.

[cazzyline.livejournal.com]

When do we get to see them in a blockbuster movie, and can I get paw-printed autographs?