Introduction and Training Sessions

Everything about this blog, including the blog itself, is an experiment.  It's my first blog and may be my only one depending on how this goes!  I will be posting about my training experiences with two silician cats.  I have trained dogs for a number of years but never any other animal.

Just as a background about the cats, I was in Italy for 1 1/2 years.  Two young kittens were found by a friend.  They were stuck on a flightline with jets, helicopters, and noisy equipment.  And of course, I ended up with them.  A great friend used to tell me that even though I said I only wanted dogs, if a cat needed a home, it would end up with me.  Well, she was right.  The small balls of fur grew up into lean, slender young cats.  They have lived in multiple houses and had an airplane ride to America with my italian sweetheart.  They are approximately one year old now and are still as lively as ever.  Because I live in an apartment now, I can not have dogs, only the two cats.  As Liam, my border collie, is enjoying time with his "pappy" (my father), I am stuck without a dog of my own to train.  It's something I dread and dealt with for too long.  So, I decided to train the kittens... it will be an adventure for sure.

The first two training sessions I had with them were just to load the clicker.  The first night, Dewey seemed to think the floor was magically giving him treats.  My thought was "Oh, goodness!  What am I doing?"  But I enjoyed watching his amusement.  Harvey was next.  He seemed to realize that the clicker had some significant role in what we were doing.  But he didn't quite get it.  He is a very busy and excitable cat so his focus isn't the greatest.

The next training session I had with them was again, loading the clicker.  This time, Dewey caught me by surprise.  He got the idea that the click meant a treat.  Everytime he looked away or sniffed something and I clicked, he would turn back to me expecting a treat.  I was very impressed.  He had understood in just two short sessions which were less than five minutes each.

Today, I decided to train them again.  First up was Dewey as always.  He very quietly waited as I broke treats up in my hand.  Then we played loading the clicker for about 10 clicks.  After that, I decided to play around a little with him.  I worked on getting him into heel position about 4-5 times.  My goal for this exercise was to get them familiar in being on my left side.  Then, I decided to have Dewey target a toy.  I'm not sure how I decided this or why I even picked the toy up off the ground.  It is a small chicken that is no bigger than a half dollar.  I showed the chicken to Dewey and he leaned over to sniff it.  Click/Treat.  Again, I showed the toy to Dewey, he leaned towards it.  Click/treat.  It was interesting to see him work through the process.  His brain was obviously trying to figure out what made that weird click noise happen.  He started to look at the toy.  Then he would lean towards it slightly but stop to think.  Then he would touch it with his nose.  He did this beautifully a few times.

I then decided to use my hand instead of the toy.   Again, he would stop and think before he touched my hand with his nose.  We did about 5 repetitions of that and stopped.  He did an awesome job.  I was very surprised at how quickly he picked up on things.  I was also very surprised that he was actually thinking through the process.

Harvey was next.  I brought him out and he immediately tried stealing my bag of treats.  He was excited and definitely not focused.  We did the same thing I did with Dewey.  First, loading the clicker.  It went well although I can't tell if he understands that the click means a treat yet.  Then we practiced getting him into heel position about 4 times.  Yeah, he didn't get it.  Instead of getting into heel, he would come up on my left and start rubbing on my leg or hand while I was trying to give him a treat.  It was funny though.

Finally, we did the targeting exercise.  He wasn't very focused but did lean towards the toy and softly touch it with his nose.  Each of them would either barely touch it or just put their nose very close to it.  I accepted either.  The fact that they were targeting it at all impressed me.  Then, I moved to my hand.  He would sniff at it a few times.  We stopped after three.  He doesn't concentrate on me while training so my sessions with him are shorter than with Dewey.

It is a very interesting experience.  I am really enjoyed working with them.  The one thing that I've noticed that I didn't expect at all is the speed at which Dewey learns and understands.  I think Harvey would be very fast too if he was more focused.  I would like to work on some focus exercises with him once he gets the idea of training with me, probably in a few days.  It will be so cool to see how he reacts to focus exercises that I use for dogs!