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Re: Jack - Back in training
What I decided to do with Zac quite a while ago was to (most of the time) cease to focus on and reward behaviors (like sitting) which is what I'd tried at first (ie sitting as an alternative to jumping up as is usually recommended) but to train for attitude instead. I started out rewarding incrementally calmer and less full-on behavior and then shaped it til he could just "hang out" without having to mug me all the time. Most of the time around me now (and the two girls who've also followed my line) he acts almost sleepy and lethargic a lot of time, if nothing is arousing him and even then he returns to a quiet state very quickly as he knows this is how he gets my attention, treats, clicks etc. I can now rev him up with a game and then have him calm and dopey looking within minutes.
With my husband and the boys he isn't quite as good as they just don't seem to quite get it!
They tend to respond to him running up to them wriggling and squirming and the next thing they know he's jumping on them. My husband has recently got a bit better but he does have trouble overcoming his natural tendency to just ignore the dog when he's being good and talk to him when he's a nuisance. He was like that with the kids when they were little too!
Of the two boys the younger one (14) is a bit too short term in his focus and the older (19) is such a sentimental sook he feels sorry for the poor deprived doggy!!!
Cats are really easy to train - they are very materialistic and don't waste brain power wondering if you love them etc the way a dog does. When I was a child our cat was "trained" to leap around the kitchen from bench to bench like a circus lion before his dinner. He was part siamese and very human oriented so even though we didn't have a clue about training cats he had sort of got the idea of targeting more or less by accident and then we reinforced it with food. They also copy one another so once one has mastered a behavior you'll likely have the others wanting in on the action if the reward appeals to them. You can train just about anything that has a brain - even a very small brain (maybe the smaller the better!) I've trained our fish to color up and put on a display (usually a territorial behavior) to get fed - they learned that faster than I've ever seen anything learn anything!
Alison
What I decided to do with Zac quite a while ago was to (most of the time) cease to focus on and reward behaviors (like sitting) which is what I'd tried at first (ie sitting as an alternative to jumping up as is usually recommended) but to train for attitude instead. I started out rewarding incrementally calmer and less full-on behavior and then shaped it til he could just "hang out" without having to mug me all the time. Most of the time around me now (and the two girls who've also followed my line) he acts almost sleepy and lethargic a lot of time, if nothing is arousing him and even then he returns to a quiet state very quickly as he knows this is how he gets my attention, treats, clicks etc. I can now rev him up with a game and then have him calm and dopey looking within minutes.
With my husband and the boys he isn't quite as good as they just don't seem to quite get it!
They tend to respond to him running up to them wriggling and squirming and the next thing they know he's jumping on them. My husband has recently got a bit better but he does have trouble overcoming his natural tendency to just ignore the dog when he's being good and talk to him when he's a nuisance. He was like that with the kids when they were little too! Of the two boys the younger one (14) is a bit too short term in his focus and the older (19) is such a sentimental sook he feels sorry for the poor deprived doggy!!!Cats are really easy to train - they are very materialistic and don't waste brain power wondering if you love them etc the way a dog does. When I was a child our cat was "trained" to leap around the kitchen from bench to bench like a circus lion before his dinner. He was part siamese and very human oriented so even though we didn't have a clue about training cats he had sort of got the idea of targeting more or less by accident and then we reinforced it with food. They also copy one another so once one has mastered a behavior you'll likely have the others wanting in on the action if the reward appeals to them. You can train just about anything that has a brain - even a very small brain (maybe the smaller the better!) I've trained our fish to color up and put on a display (usually a territorial behavior) to get fed - they learned that faster than I've ever seen anything learn anything!
Alison
We only got part way through it.
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