NEW THREAD PG 7

[Marley.&.Me]

I'd like to be added as a
member!

Username:Hazza;
Species: Cats and dogs

[caf.]

I'd like to be added as a
member!

Username:Hazza;
Species: Cats and dogs

hiya, welcome!!
sorry for my absence, everyone, i've had quite a bit of schoolwork and haven't had time to write up a post! hope everyone's doing well!
i'm going to start work with clicker training with my horse today if anyone would like to hear about that? clicker work isn't terribly mainstream in the equestrian industry but it's certainly growing and i had great success in the past with using it with my old horse! in fact, i have some videos of my clicker sessions with that horse if anyone would like to see.

[Luzien]

i'm going to start work with clicker training with my horse today if anyone would like to hear about that? clicker work isn't terribly mainstream in the equestrian industry but it's certainly growing and i had great success in the past with using it with my old horse! in fact, i have some videos of my clicker sessions with that horse if anyone would like to see.

sure would be interesting to see
may i ask if you know any easy to click, and more silent type of clicker to buy ?

[caf.]

my experience with my old gelding was essentially an experiment to see whether i could teach him to play soccer with a yoga ball! since i sold him before i could finish, he still hasn't quite mastered 'kicking' it, but we made quite some progress in our time!
month 1:

month 10:

and here's another video of his nose-touch in action as he was being introduced to the larger ball! i definitely had a good time teaching this 'silly' trick to this horse and learned a lot about positive-reinforcement training in horses so that i might apply it to more useful skills. from this behavior i shaped 'targeting' which was useful for things like clipping and bridling; if he didn't want something near his face i could ask him to target it to get his brain in the right place. i look forward to starting up clicker work with my younger horse and hopefully i can eventually try it under saddle! i actually have started with this horse on targeting behavior with the end of a dressage whip:


as for clickers, the truth is that the generic "clicker" is just a tool of convenience. the truth is, anything can be a clicker if you make it so; a bell, a snap of the fingers, a tongue-click, even just the word "yes" or "good boy/girl." you just have to make sure the reinforcement is constant! so if you're going to make "yes" your marker/click, make sure every single time you say "yes" you give a reward, and be careful that you don't accidentally say "yes" if you don't mean it, even if you aren't talking directly to your animal!
but yeah, for all anyone cares you could use "noodles" as a marker word, so if traditional clickers aren't your fancy, experiment with different noises until you find something you and your animal both like!

[Winstalgia]

I spent ALL day with my grandparents dogs, the ones I mentioned who were a bit crazy and wild? Well, since I was dog-sitting turns out they've grown calmer, although the girl has a jumping problem.

I got them up to speed with Stay and Sit and Lay down. They did extremely well for their personality/s and short attention span! I only used treats for Stay because it motivated the girl, but they didnt know I had them and soon I dropped the treats.

The whole time I had been snapping my fingers. Two snaps was stay, which they caught up on. One was sit which by the end of the day I could snap once and they'd sit.

It went really well and soon I'm hoping I can go weekly and train them more, working on the girls behavior and jumping and the boys...well, I don't know what he needs work on although since his owner wasn't there he was kind of down all down.

[spectacular.]

@Sahrotaar
That's awesome. The snapping thing sounds interesting. I really mostly do visual commands with my dogs. And when I do use voice commands I keep them short and simple. "Hush." "Sit" "Off" "Down" And the one I'm working on currently is "Wait". They know what it means but mine often forget (or ignore) when I say it to them.


Any who me and Lucy (my sister's dog) are making good progress. She is sitting when asked, we are still having a problem with laying down. But it's a venerable position and she is a very anxiety driven dog. I'm taking her out, working on her greeting people. She would often shy away from touch and things like that. She is very friendly just a very broken dog. We are also working on jumping, A HUGE problem for her. Every time I come over she jumps on me and leaves large cuts down my legs (I mostly wear shorts) I have begun to ignore her crossing my arms and turning my back but nothing seems to help. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.


Another thing I'm making progress with is my dog. She is six years old, Lays down, sits, shakes, begs, stays and so on. We are currently working on off leash work. I have yet to take her out off leash, I have a small four-foot leash that I use for her. When I walk with her I simply remove my hand and place the leash draped over her back. When she walks away from me a little too far I quickly correct her with a voice correction. She is picking it up pretty quickly. Although when another dog is around she will often ignore my commands. I also stop mid walk and make her stop with me before treating. Next, I wanna work on walking between my legs although she might be too big for that. haha. She currently tips the scale at 110. Yes, she is overweight something I'm working on.

[liv :)]

ah! a training thread!


I'd like to be added as a
member!
Username: bahz
Species: cats


anyone have any treat pouches or fanny packs that they'd recommend for holding treats during a training session? something inexpensive but practical would be nice.

[munson.]

I'd like to be added as a
member!

Username: clique.
Species: Dogs and Horses

[Winstalgia]

I need tips for training cats. Chip is so lazy and spends a lot of time outside. I've been wanting him to sit on command

[liv :)]

I need tips for training cats. Chip is so lazy and spends a lot of time outside. I've been wanting him to sit on command

My first piece of advice is to find a reward that your cat really likes. Something that is very valuable to them, so they will feel very rewarded for performing a desired behaviour correctly, and wish to perform that behaviour again. I recommend something like small, cooked chicken bits as a treat. Before you feed any type of treat, make sure you do your research and talk to your veterinarian about if the treat can be fed to your cat. However, some veterinarians receive very little nutritional training, and may give biased/incorrect treat advice. By no means does this apply to all vets. For example, my cat's veterinarian reccomended Iams as our cat's main diet, and some sort of Royal Canin food. Both of the foods they recommend were low-quality, and had grain/corn fillers, and unnamed animal fats/by-products. Overall, not what I would want to feed my cat. This is why your own research will be very important.

The trick to treat feeding is moderation. Treats should be fed as seldom as possible. Keep in mind that there are a great deal of cats who can find equal value reward-wise in something other than treats, like praise and toys. If possible, it would be great to use those as a reward instead.

The next step would be to find a "marker" for the correct behaviours. Something like a click of a clicker, or a sharp "yes!" would work great.

It's important to note that you should never use physical or verbal punishment on your cat during training. The one exception I would give is a "no" command. However, some trainers I have spoken to have said that using a "no" command on their animals has made the animals less willing to perform new tricks. I do not say this from personal experience, though, as I don't use a "no" command on my cat, Pepper.

(Sources for positive-reinforcement training over punishment: The Importance of Consistency in the Training of Dogs, The Relationship Between Training Methods and the Occurrence of Behavior Problems in a Population of Domestic Dogs, and Training methods and owner–dog interactions: Links with dog behaviour and learning ability)

These studies were all done on dogs, but I am positive that the same discoveries apply to cats. Basically, punishment will lead to fear, and fear leads to a reduced willingness/ability to learn.

Since you want to train Chip to sit on command, I'll go over the steps I used to train Pepper to sit on command. I trained Pepper using treats to lure her into the position. If you'd like to train Chip to sit using toys or praise, I would recommend experimenting by observing his behaviour for a little bit. When playing with a toy, does he ever sit? What did the toy do to make him sit? When petting/praising him, does he sit? What way did you have to pet him to make him sit? Once you've figured that out, it'll be easy to implement that style of luring into the steps I'm providing for teaching your cat to sit.

1. LURE THE CAT INTO THE DESIRED POSITION: Hold a treat roughly 20 cm above the cat's head. Adjust height depending on cat's height/tendency to rise on hind legs to get treat. The cat will likely sit down under the treat.

2. MARK AND REWARD THE DESIRED BEHAVIOUR: The moment the cat's hindquarters drop to the floor, click the clicker or say "yes!". Immediately follow by rewarding with a treat/praising/letting the cat play with the toy.

3. SOLIDIFY DESIRED BEHAVIOUR: Repeat the luring until the cat is performing the desired behaviour consistently. You can also proof the behaviour by first luring with a treat, and feeding the cat with the hand that you lured them. Follow up by luring them without a treat, and rewarding them by feeding out of the hand you didn't lure with. Do this randomly. It will teach the cat that they will always get a reward, regardless of whether you are holding a treat or not.

4. ADD GESTURE: However you choose to lure your cat into the position, the cat will eventually learn that when you do this, he will have to sit to get the treat. Since Pepper learned to sit because I was holding a treat above her head, I turned raising my hand into a gesture. I slowly made the holding the treat above her into a subtle gesture, by altering the motion a little bit every time. Since I altered it so little each time, Pepper responded the same way each time. Keep doing this until the cat responds to your desired gesture.

5. ADD VOCAL CUE: Now, the fun part. The vocal cue. Start off by saying your desired cue before you even move. I find this most effective. Say your command ("sit", perhaps) and then do the gesture. Make sure that the word and the gesture do not overlap. Click/say yes and reward. Keep doing this. Eventually, your cat will learn that when you say "sit", they can perform the behaviour and receive a reward.

I hope this helps! I'm so sorry that it's so long. If you'd like me to follow-up on anything, just ask! I'm more than glad to offer more detail if need be.