Maybe got her whole body in the box three times today. :D This is post that training, where Maybe and I were casually working on 'touch,' and mostly the cats were grooming themselves post-training.
I'm interested in how you learned to do the clicker training - I'd like to start to train the foster cat I have here now (Peggie) but I have no idea how to get started!
There are some good books around; though I haven't used them. *blush*
With clicker training, the basic principle is that you use the click sound to mark a behaviour, and the click is immediately (within three seconds) followed by a food reward. The click has a benefit over vocal markers because it doesn't vary in pitch (some dogs and cats are so smart that to them, different tonal qualities of the same word, come to mean different commands), and because it can very precisely mark exactly what you're looking for (i.e. the exact moment a cat's bum hits the ground in a sit position!) The idea is you click that moment, offer the treat, and the cat learns to connect the motion with a click and a positive reward. The better the response to training, the more treats the cat (or dog, or other animal) gets.
As the cat reliably starts to offer the behaviour you're encouraging them to do, you can add a vocal command or physical signal to what you're doing. I find that my cats won't often do 'tricks' or commands if I don't have food rewards for them (being cats, of course, and because they are fed regularly, so they're not desperate for treats), but if I get out the food rewards and the clicker, they will do a great deal!
To get a animal used to the clicker, you start by getting teh cat used to the idea that clicker = food. So you condition the animal to the clicker. It's very simple. About 20 times in a row you go 'click!' = treat. Over and over again. To biologically condition the idea that the click is like the greatest sound in the world. Sometimes this needs to be done more than once. But I only needed to do it once with my cats before I could move onto training.
From there, it can be easy or complicated, depending on what you want to do. The idea is you break down the behaviours you want into little steps. So if you want a cat to sit, first you need the cat to respond to its name with eye contact. So if you call its name, and you get eye contact, click/treat. And then as you go, you can shape the behaviour by using a food lure to encourage a cat into a sitting position, if it squats it's legs just a little bit, click/treat. And so on. If the cat stops understanding what you're asking it to do, or gets frustrated (i.e. walks away, meows in frustration, gets bored) you need to break it down into smaller steps, or give it a break, or think of an alternative approach. The treats also need to be pretty tasty! I'm lucky in that Maybe likes the mental stimulation so much, that I use regular kibble now for regular training. But if I'm asking her to do something hard, and when I was just starting, I used tastier treats.
It's easiest to get behaviours that a cat already naturally engages in - sitting, for example. And it's harder to get behaviours that involve a cat engaging in a behaviour it dislikes engaging in. In those cases; more treats, and short, fun training sessions, are the way to go. It's also important to *always* make it fun, and to never criticise the cat if it doesn't get it. Basically, if the cat doesn't understand what you're asking it to do, that's a handler error, not a cat error! And it's time to go away and really think about what you're asking. The animal should always enjoy training sessions; even difficult or stressful ones.
Um... yeah, so if you google clicker training and keep these notes in mind, or look for clicker training sites that focus on these sorts of things; you'll be headed in the right direction! It's a lot of fun. :)
Thanks, that's really helpful! I'm checking out some websites other people linked in your comments on one of the other training posts too. Must away to eBay to grab me a clicker next!
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dobcfo-eBRY
(put on mute if you do view it, the baby screeches when she laughs)
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*ahem*
Lovely pictures!
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I'm interested in how you learned to do the clicker training - I'd like to start to train the foster cat I have here now (Peggie) but I have no idea how to get started!
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With clicker training, the basic principle is that you use the click sound to mark a behaviour, and the click is immediately (within three seconds) followed by a food reward. The click has a benefit over vocal markers because it doesn't vary in pitch (some dogs and cats are so smart that to them, different tonal qualities of the same word, come to mean different commands), and because it can very precisely mark exactly what you're looking for (i.e. the exact moment a cat's bum hits the ground in a sit position!) The idea is you click that moment, offer the treat, and the cat learns to connect the motion with a click and a positive reward. The better the response to training, the more treats the cat (or dog, or other animal) gets.
As the cat reliably starts to offer the behaviour you're encouraging them to do, you can add a vocal command or physical signal to what you're doing. I find that my cats won't often do 'tricks' or commands if I don't have food rewards for them (being cats, of course, and because they are fed regularly, so they're not desperate for treats), but if I get out the food rewards and the clicker, they will do a great deal!
To get a animal used to the clicker, you start by getting teh cat used to the idea that clicker = food. So you condition the animal to the clicker. It's very simple. About 20 times in a row you go 'click!' = treat. Over and over again. To biologically condition the idea that the click is like the greatest sound in the world. Sometimes this needs to be done more than once. But I only needed to do it once with my cats before I could move onto training.
From there, it can be easy or complicated, depending on what you want to do. The idea is you break down the behaviours you want into little steps. So if you want a cat to sit, first you need the cat to respond to its name with eye contact. So if you call its name, and you get eye contact, click/treat. And then as you go, you can shape the behaviour by using a food lure to encourage a cat into a sitting position, if it squats it's legs just a little bit, click/treat. And so on. If the cat stops understanding what you're asking it to do, or gets frustrated (i.e. walks away, meows in frustration, gets bored) you need to break it down into smaller steps, or give it a break, or think of an alternative approach. The treats also need to be pretty tasty! I'm lucky in that Maybe likes the mental stimulation so much, that I use regular kibble now for regular training. But if I'm asking her to do something hard, and when I was just starting, I used tastier treats.
It's easiest to get behaviours that a cat already naturally engages in - sitting, for example. And it's harder to get behaviours that involve a cat engaging in a behaviour it dislikes engaging in. In those cases; more treats, and short, fun training sessions, are the way to go. It's also important to *always* make it fun, and to never criticise the cat if it doesn't get it. Basically, if the cat doesn't understand what you're asking it to do, that's a handler error, not a cat error! And it's time to go away and really think about what you're asking. The animal should always enjoy training sessions; even difficult or stressful ones.
Um... yeah, so if you google clicker training and keep these notes in mind, or look for clicker training sites that focus on these sorts of things; you'll be headed in the right direction! It's a lot of fun. :)
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