The Dudes are my two young siamese cats (technically Simba is a colour-point shorthair and Batman is an oriental shorthair).
So I'm going to practice on them in the next month while I wait for Nino. They should enjoy it, mmmm....liver bits, yum.
First, loading the clicker....but, I'm not using a clicker because I don't want to drive the non-trainee nuts, so the first experiment is "can a whispered marker sound" be loaded clicker styles.
Simba gets sss, Batman gets bbb (so I don't fry my brain). Future Dog (see, I've stopped calling him Nino, incase the home visit fails, don't really want to set myself up for really feeling bummed if things don't work out).
Session 1: Simba.
Easy peasy, I'm waiting for looks, click & treat (except my click is 'sss'), then movement, and while I'm loading the the click I'm shaping turning. Cool, we are on our way to shaping a spin.
Which tells me two things. Simba is respond to sss and a brief clicker session I did with him many months ago left an impression, even if the marker sound and behaviour marked is changed. (last time I loaded and then began target shaping).
Fun.
Session 1: Batman
Bring Batman into the room, say bbb too loud, Simba's crying at the door, Batman leaves to find Simba (Simba is locked out). I leave my little cubby and find Batman, resume. I start out marking eye contact, but he can't find the treat (I'm dropping liver crumbs), then I realize I'm skipping steps (because Simba was such a good student and had a head start) so I c&t rapidly (duh, that's where it's supposed to start) a bunch of times. I think he gets it, but I'm not sure. Either the bbb is just not cutting through, or he was too distracted by Simba's cries, I was training too much at once (skipping a step), or he did just great for a complete newbie. Obviously, I need to be sneaky next time or train Batman first.
Everybody got a wet catfood party afterwards, in a different room.
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