Someone Really Likes Clicker Training

  

Thunder sitting in the middle of his hoop.

Someone Really Likes Clicker Training

The first animal I ever tried clicker training with was my cat, Thunder.  He learned how to follow a target, jump obstacles, jump on boxes, go through tunnels and walk through a hoop.  He seemed to enjoy the games, but once his belly got full, he walked away.  With a tiny cat belly, that didn't take very long.

I then started to use clicker training with my horses.  Anything that can work so well with cats has to be good for horses.  I often recommend that people practice training their cats before trying clicker training with horses.

When I got my dog, Maggie, I used clicker training with her.  She was such a very bad dog in the beginning, that without clicker, I probably would have sent her out to live with the coyotes.  Clicker training was the only way I could reach her.  She was a rescue dog, so I have no idea how she began her life.  I do know where she was found, though.  Years later, I figured out why she may have been so clueless to everything--she came from a neighborhood that had a lot of Puerto Ricans.  I think I may have been talking the wrong language, and she was just very confused.  She must have come from a Spanish-speaking household.

She learned the language of clicker very quickly.

The problem was that when I would try to play it with Thunder, she wanted to be involved.  If I put her outside, she would just bark at the door.  I tried to do it with both at the same time, but Thunder kept getting distracted by Maggie.  Eventually, I gave up.  There were a lot of other games that Thunder liked to play that Maggie didn't.

Fast forward many years later, I remembered how much Thunder seemed to like to play clicker.  He was going through a phase where he wanted to spend a lot of time upstairs where Maggie isn't allowed to go.  Maggie doesn't hear as well as she used to, so I thought that maybe we could play up there.

I use a tongue click with Maggie; just like I do with the horses.  I lost my real clicker long ago.  I asked my sister if she had an extra one, and she gave it to me.  

I got out Thunder's old target toy with a handful of treats, and I was ready to go.  He touched the target, I clicked--and he got scared of the sound!  This never happened before!  I quit and went back to the drawing board.  I decided to try and muffle the sound of the clicker in a sock.  It didn't work.  He was still getting startled by it.

A few days later, I read online that some cats are afraid of the sound, and they recommended using the clicker from a ballpoint pen.  Thunder was downstairs when I tried it, but since the click was so quiet, Maggie couldn't hear it!  

It worked.  I started some simple targeting--and Thunder burst out into purrs!  He never used to purr during our clicker sessions in the past.

We practiced every day for about a week.  I gradually added in more and more of his old tricks.  He was sitting up, doing slow spins, going through his hoop and his tunnel, jumping over his tunnel and going from box to box.  Each time, he would purr the whole time--talk about positive reinforcement for humans--I'll do anything to make him purr--the greatest sound in the world.

One morning, he was sitting in the area of the living room that we use for our clicking, and he started to roll around to get my attention.  I went to see him and told him how cute he was and walked away.  I was watching him.  He started going from box to box.  I thought it probably meant nothing.  Maggie went to see him, and he pounced her, turned around and jumped his tunnel.  He ran about, came back, pounced Maggie again and ran through his tunnel. 

It wasn't my imagination.  Other than the Maggie part, he was doing the tricks we were had been practicing.  I grabbed his target toy, the pen and a handful a treats--and he burst into purrs.  He got his way.  How could I resist?  We played a session of clicker.

The following morning, I had a few minutes before I had to leave the house so I went to talk to him in the living room.  He got up and went through his tunnel.  I went to get his treats, the pen and his target.  He burst into purrs.  He now has me completely trained.