Training the rats to go to specific areas of the cage depending on where I am standing is going well. About 75% of the time the rats are going where I would like them to go. Now, I am planing on raising the criterion for the amount of time, because they are currently rather slow on the uptake.
I thought that working with two animals at the same time might be a little difficult. If they heard the click how would they know which one got the click? But it has turned out rather useful. For, when I click and treat, and the other rat doesn't get one he looks to see what the other rat was doing, then runs and copies him earning a click and treat himself. Who knew rats were social learners?
Feeding Sparticus outside the cage in a dish has proved to solve the trick. He still isn't accepting treats reliably without his bowl present, but progess is progress.
Halted training:
Charlie has developed a skin allergy. Training will be halted until the problem is cleared up as a rat that is focused on scratching is not focused on training.
I have read Karen Pryor's book, 'Reaching the Animal Mind' and I must say I absolutley loved and enjoyed it.
Kind of
My situation is a little unique, I have worked with others' dogs on dog training with the clicker, but it is mostly the people I am training, not the dog itself. So, I don't really get a good feel on the flow of training with an animal and trying multiple different things to get a desired behavior if one doesn't work out. And really building that relationship. I live in an apartment which does not allow dogs, unfortunetly.
Anyways, when I was in high school I tried clicker training my guinea pig. It worked out well, but I was really inexperienced and not conistant at all. Surprisingly, I did manage to teach a few behaviors, target, spin in a circle, putting his front feet on the cage bars, and run around his cage.
Training my rats was really the first time I was able to work with an animal one-on-one, build a relationship, and was consistant in the training. I was much more knowlegable about training then I was in high school. It was the first time I really watched what was going on and how my training affected the animal. I really began to 'experiment' what I could do with them and what I could do with training them. If something didn't work out, I really thought about what I could change. Whereas with my guinea pig, if what I was doing didn't work, I stubbornly tried to pursue it instead of being creative.
My rats are wonderful teachers, and I have learned so much from them.
Sorry to hear about Charlie's skin allergy
Are these the first clicker training experiments you've tried?
Seems like you figured out Sparticus pretty well. To me it's just fasinating that animal have superstitions just like us.
RB