New answers tagged training
1
I use to have a kitty that was all sorts of attention hungry, which was as endearing as it was annoying at times, but he figured out that if say I did not see him and his black fur running up the steps in the morning and accidently kicked him that he would get cuddles as I went to say sorry and make it all better. And the first two times it happened I Felt ...
0
I honestly think you are making a mistake by trying to comfort her.
You write:
If I let her out and try to cuddle her in bed, she doesn't want to even do that. Won't stay under the covers.
If a dog is anxious, it doesn't want to be cuddled. Cuddling limits the mobility because the cuddler either holds the dog down or is in the way in case the dog wants to ...
2
Summary: Keep feeding and protecting it. No action can be stronger than that for an animal.
There is no such thing as apologizing to an animal. You can feel sorry for something you've done to it, yes, but not convey it to your pet.
Non-human animals don't exhibit such sophisticated understanding. A pet will be your "friend" as long as the benefits ...
3
NEVER use a slip leash or slip collar! You can cause your dog chronic pain, nerve damage and difficulty breathing with them and they don't magically stop your dog from pulling. There are very sensitive and vulnerable tissues in the neck that can be irritated, pinched, crushed, dislocated or otherwise injured if the dog pulls too hard or too often:
Image ...
5
As Stephie and Opcode and Jonathan Wood all said, don't give a kitty a treat for this: treats act as rewards for the kitty herself doing something good, such as letting you comb out a knot or clean her eye, or doing something you personally think is a good idea. (In Skinner-Psychology terms it's reinforcement, part of Operant Conditioning.)
It's difficult ...
2
I don't see the purpose of giving your cat treats in this particular case. What I do in this case is gently pet the cat and give it positive contact.
This counters the bad experience by reinforcing the positive experiences with you, and demonstrates that you are not angry or otherwise intending harm.
33
I don't think there are many animals that understand the concept of apology, as a high level concept as such, except for maybe some other advanced primates. MAYBE elephants, dolphins, whales or belugas.
But an apology has fundamental parts which you can communicate.
Every animal genus has its own language (some are universal).
What you would want to ...
3
Going to preface this by saying I'm not a professional dog trainer but I'll share the knowledge and experience I've learned over the years in hopes that it points you in the right direction. I have a 6 year old husky-lab mix with reactivity issues and have been researching different dog behaviours and training methods.
The crate
It sounds like there's ...
61
I wouldn’t start giving treats for small accidents - what kind of behavior are you trying to reinforce? The cat won’t understand the concept of an “apology” via treats. And if careless weaving results in treats, kitty may end up with receiving more kicks trying to elicit treats from the human who is stumbling to the bathroom at night.
My preferred way to ...
1
Oh boy, that's the lab coming through. This is a hard behavior to train for specifically because like you said, there's not a lot you can do that will motivate her more than the ball she already has (other than another ball like you have been doing, but that defeats the point).
Is she motivated by any other types of play or attention? Tug maybe? A toy she ...
0
You haven't said how old she is, but you say she is smart. Try training her to bring the ball in and leave it in a specific place, such as her basket, pillow, whatever.
Bitches often 'adopt' toys as a substitute baby, but from time to time I seen similar behavior among older dogs.
She wants it in with her...and for sure a wrestling contest with a pittie mix ...
1
If possible, alternate the timing of the medication. One cat receives meds in the AM and the other in the PM. This won't work if it's a twice daily medication and it's not ideal to make an abrupt switch, but may be possible depending on your circumstances.
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The best solution that comes to my mind is squirting water at her. It's a method often used by professional dog trainers to discourage unwanted behavior without punishing the dog or causing her pain.
Usually people use a small water bottle with a sports cap that allows them to squirt the water a meter or so away. If you don't want to leave your car, you may ...
5
It sounds like your dog thinks you're trying to play. If you watch dogs (especially young dogs) play with each other, you'll see them bow and twist rapidly, which is probably similar to your stretching.
You have a few options: two different approaches to training or the environmental method.
Environmental
It might be possible for you to just not exercise ...
3
Frame challenge, what you really need to do is medicate two cats successfully, not necessarily at once. Or in other words, medicate one cat without showing the other cat that it is an unpleasant thing.
I'd advise against trying to press the issue when your cats are already resisting or fleeing. While you might be successful this time, you'll make the next ...
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