Finally, Some Work

I took the bonito flakes and sat in an x-pen waiting for Orrick.  Well Set jumped in first so we started doing some targeting, then orrick joined in and I started working them both.  They both were targeting well, but Set got stressed with Orrick, who has been such a pain, intentionally harrassing Set, that he stopped working and started sniffing around.  Danu joined in and she actually was working for food.  So the bonito flakes will help with that.  They both did very well. 

I took Set in to the bathroom to work.  It was a pretty novel environment and one that really belongs to Orrick.  I did notice though that he does better when I click and then set the container of bonito flakes down and let him take a bite rather then hand him a flake or put it on  a plate.  Next time I will probably lock Orrick and Danu in the bathroom and work Set.  He should be more comfortable that way.

Bonito Flakes

Orrick's bladder infection seems to have cleared up.  Finally!  I was really starting to get worried.  Now I am planning on getting him and Set neutered next week.  Hopefully that will curb some of their fighting.  It will at least making training easier.  I got some bonito flakes and they really are like kitty crack!  I had every cat in the house following me around like I was the pied piper. 

I tried to click and treat Orrick and Set for looking at each other, but if there isn't enough distance between them then Set gets stressed and won't take food.  I was working on my desk so being able to work on the floor is a must.  They did better until we moved. Now there isn't enough places for them to get away from each other and we are having problems. My current plan is to teach Orrick to go to a mat and keep him on the mat while I work with him and Set.  That should give Set enough room to feel comfortable and give Orrick a job so he isn't in Set's face.

EEK!

I am just as bad as all those other people who almost never update their blogs. Things have been a little crazy here, but basically I have done no training. Orrick has a bladder infection. We had him on antibiotics for two weeks, which helped but it still flared back up. Then we tried pills. I have never before had an animal dog, cat or ferret that I couldn't medicate. Until Orrick. After a week on pills (sorta) we went back to the liquid. Now we are on our third and hopefully final week of antibiotics. I haven't wanted to use food to train because I am putting the drugs in food and I want him hungry enough to eat all of it.

I can't find the cat dancer either. It is probably in a box still at the old house. I will start training again after we get Orrick fixed up. Silly as this sounds I don't want to train the others and not him. I feel guilty enough working with the dogs and not the cats. It really is great to me that clicker trained animals enjoy there work so much.

Moved (sorta)

Well the cats and I are in the new place all though I haven't really finished moving out of the old one yet. The cats have settled in fairly well, though there are lots of places for them to hide for now.

Orrick has a bladder infection and is on anti-biotics. I am not his favorite person since I am capturing him twice a day to shot medicine down his throat.

On the plus side I finally found a food that I can reinforce Danu with. Spray cheese. So I just finished her first targeting session. I used a verbal sound as a marker instead of a click or even the clicker plus sounds. I didn't really want to change the clicker plus settings unless I knew it was going to work. She was touching the end of the spoon no matter where I held it, but she wasn't ready to take a step first. Hopefully she this will work as reinforcement at least until I find a quick and easy method of delivering babyfood.

Kitty Zen and Eye Contact

Well we started on kitty zen. I was using the raw food from the tube which probably wasn't the best thing to use since they could get some food off my fingers from licking, but it didn't seem to hurt the training too badly. I worked Set first on kitty zen. I need to keep training records when I train but by the end of the session Set was staying off my hand and I had worked him up three seconds. Then we went on to eye contact. None of my dogs have ever had a problem with eye contact. Set has looked in my eyes before, but not as intently as the dogs. I started clicking any glance even toward my eyes. By the time I was done he was offering eye contact everytime I looked at him.

Orrick I basically just worked on Kitty Zen. My timing was better, but he was more interested in the little bit he could lick off of my fingers. He was staying off my hand when I offered maybe 60% of the time. He decided he was done. Sometimes training can be streesful so I let him walk off so he could assimilate. When I let Set back in to the room and he went back to offering eye contact everytime I looked at him.

Danu just wasn't interested in the food. She climbed in to my lap for attention, she has learned to walk up to me and stare and purr for attention. Now if I could just get that channeled in to a real training session.

Evil Kitties Strike Again!

My cats fried my hard drive. Yep, I cleared the area behind the desk out so I could stack boxes up there leaving the power bar the computer is plugged in to exposed, ran out for just a minute while the computer was running and when I came home the cats had bounced off the button on the power bar while my computer was running and now it no longer sees my hard drive.

I suppose there is a slight possibility that the cats aren't to blame, but they were chasing each other from the top of the china cabinet and down around the boxes. But don't think for one moment I think it was an accident. I am sure this is another step in there nefarious plans for wolrd domination.

Kitty Zen

Time to work on kitty zen.  Danu won't really work for cheese which is a little strange since she usually loves cheese.  So I switched to chicken baby food and was quickly surrounded by cats.  Orrick was getting the idea of waiting then getting to eat, but he isn't big on patience and we will need to work on duration.  

I also bought some frozen rolled cat food, similar to the natural balance rolls at the health food store, Orrick chewed through the wrapper so it should be high enough value to be used as a reinforcer.  So on to Kitty Zen.