January 2006
Monthly Archive
Training31 Jan 2006 03:38 pm
Sure, I’ve read about the differences of training cats and dogs, but now I’ve experienced it for myself. And yes, it’s different. I’m not quite sure why.
As Drs. Foster & Smith point out in “ More Than One Way to Train a Cat“:
Cats can learn, but not like dogs. People who are used to a dog’s quick obedience response are sorely disappointed to find out that cats do not respond to the same training methods. In order for a cat to learn something, she must want to do it. If a cat is not inclined to want to do something, the trainer must make her think that she wants to do it.
People are just amazed when I tell them that I train my cats. And I’m not talking about training them where to scratch, or to use the litterbox either. My cats know sit, down, come, go to your mat, crate. They jump over hurdles and through hoops. They run through their tunnel. All on command.
Yet I must admit that training Chester has been easier. Do dogs really have a need to please? More and more elightened trainers don’t think so. Yet how do you explain the fact that within 6 weeks, Chester has learned a pretty reliable sit, a not bad down, a decent leave it, shake, and more? I think it took the boys months to learn most of that — and they don’t have a “leave it” nearly as realiable as Chester’s.
Is it that dogs learn differently? I don’t think so. I think the principles of learning are pretty much universal, frankly — even down to us humans. As written in “Basic Cat Training or How Cats Learn“:
The key to training is to make sure that whatever you want your cat to do is exceedingly rewarding and pleasurable. Whatever you don’t want your cat to indulge in must never be rewarding or fun, in fact, it must be unpleasant.
This is true for dogs, too. And humans, btw (which is why nagging rarely works).
Now, some dogs will train for things like play, or walks, or just even praise. Not Chester. Chester most resembles the boys when it comes to training: he lasers in on the treats. The way he stares at the treat bag is a tad disturbing, frankly.
Generally he prefers training to play. Not always, of course, but if you try to start training something while we’re playing (drop it, for instance), he’ll lose all interest in playing. Once he’s earned the first treat, you just can’t interest him in playing again — he wants more treats.
The boys have almost the same focus on treats, but they don’t have the same attention span. Sad, isn’t it? Chester is almost 5 months, and the boys are almost 5 years old. But the boys will get tired of doing the same thing rather quickly. Chester seems pretty happy to repeat the same thing, as long as he understands what he’s being asked to do and the treats keep coming.
The bottom line is that both cats and dogs can definitely be trained. For whatever reason, though, dogs just seem to be more eager to train and quicker to learn.
OTOH, it may be that I’m a better trainer (ha!) than I was 4 years ago, or that the help we’ve gotten from our puppy kindergarten classes has made it easier to train Chester.
Technorati Tags: training cats and dogs, train my cats, need to please, principles of learning, attention span
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Uncategorized& Fun29 Jan 2006 03:25 pm
Anyone want a Chihuahua puppy?
Ok, so I’m not completely serious here. But Chester certainly does have his good days and his bad days.
Friday was such a good day . . . he was so mellow. Yesterday was ok, but he didn’t want to walk with my husband when we took him out for a long walk. Today is not starting out at all well.
Actually, I suppose it started out ok, but when we went to let him on the bed (in his own bed), he just wouldn’t settle down. Oh sure, he’d get into the bed, but then he’d get off, try to eat the paper, and just be generally annoying.
Then Simba decided to come in. So now I had to give both of them treats, but I also had to try to make sure that Chester wasn’t leaping at and nipping at Simba. So much for reading the paper (which I never did get to).
Then I took him out again, and usually he needs to poop the first and second times in the morning. But he didn’t this morning, so he needed to be watched more carefully. I let him back into the bedroom to play, but he decided that my slipper made a better toy. I finally just lost it with him and yelled “leave it” (which he certainly did).
I know that you’re not supposed to yell at them, but I’m human! I’m tired, yesterday wasn’t very relaxing, today hasn’t been so far, and frankly he’s been a bit more hyper than usual. Usually on Sundays, when we have him on the bed, he eventually goes to sleep in his own bed and I’m able to relax and finish reading the paper. Obviously not today.
And that’s the way it is with any young animal: there will be good days and there will be bad days. There will be days, like today, when you think you’ve made a big mistake and wouldn’t life just be simpler if you’d stuck to your two cats?
Don’t worry, Chester isn’t going anywhere (except to doggy daycare today, which should make him a much calmer puppy — and maybe let me relax just a little bit).
Technorati Tags: nipping, cats, doggy daycare, puppy
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Training28 Jan 2006 06:09 pm
Yesterday was a record: Chester only had to go outside 6 times (7 if you count the time he went to the back door, but didn’t actually have to go).
That might sound like a lot for a 5 month old puppy, but consider that when we first got him, I was taking him out 12 times a day and he was still having accidents.
I’d never [tag]housetrained a puppy before, and it was driving me crazy. It didn’t help that my husband went on a business trip a week after we got Chester.
There are many different housetraining “systems”. Many people with toy breeds prefer to paper train, use puppy pads, or use a litter box.
Technorati Tags: housetraining, paper train, puppy pads, litter box
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Fun27 Jan 2006 07:58 pm
|
You Are a Chihuahua Puppy |
 Small, high strung, and loyal. You do best in the city with a adults - young kids could crush you! |
Ok, I was poking around blogthings.com for something fun I could post here.
So I found the “What breed of puppy are you”? quiz. I’m not really big on these sorts of quizzes, I admit, but you’ve got to take it to get the code to put on your own blog. Now, how funny is it that I came in as a Chihuahua puppy when now I’ve got one? Not too bad a description of me, I’ve got to admit. And that pic could almost be Chester . . .
Technorati Tags: breed, puppy, Chihuahua
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Behavior27 Jan 2006 04:16 pm
Is your cat a social butterfly?
Many people also get cats because they believe that they’re independent souls. Unlike dogs, cats aren’t pack animals. They’re solitary hunters, and they don’t form packs . . . or do they?
According to “Social Cats“:
The third species in which long standing social groupings are found is that of feral domestic cats - domestic cats who are no longer ‘cared for’ by humans and have reverted to a wild lifestyle. By no means all feral cats are social, but in certain locations studies have found communal living in large non-overlapping territories, similar to that of the lion. Here there is often collective rearing of kittens by females as well as the sharing of prey - however, unlike the lion, feral cats do not hunt together and in many cases scavenge the majority of their food supply.
The bottom line is that if you get a cat because you think they won’t have much need for you (which begs the question of why you want a cat in the first place), you may be in for a rude awakening.
Technorati Tags: cats, dogs, pack animals
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Behavior26 Jan 2006 08:50 pm
Pack theory — true, false, or somewhere in between?
There are those people who will tell you that your world, as you know it, will end if your dog goes out the door ahead of you or gets on your bed or couch. The theory being that this puts them in the alpha role, or leader of the pack. They will then view you as a subordinate, and what are subordinates there for, after all, if not to take orders from the leader?
In pack theory, the alpha dog decides where the pack goes. The alpha dog gets to eat first, and they get the best sleeping places. So if you subscribe to pack theory, the couch or bed is a coveted sleeping place (not to mention it puts your dog on level with you), and if you allow your dog on it, they’ll think that they’re now the leader.
Technorati Tags: pack, alpha dog, pack theory
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Health25 Jan 2006 04:10 pm
I have scheduled the boys’ first-ever dental for next Wednesday. I think I’m already a basket case. Other than when I travel, I have never been apart from the boys from the day we got them. Since I work from home, I’ve never had to drop them off at the vet; I’m always there when they have wellness checks or whatever.
I suppose I should correct that. Of course they were away all day when they were neutered. I admit, I forgot about that. But that was soooooooo long ago.
Technorati Tags: dental
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Uncategorized23 Jan 2006 03:55 pm
I am quite short; just a tad over five feet. I can remember my Dad always telling me that good things come in little packages.
When I started looking at dogs, I knew that I wanted a small dog for several reasons:
- Small dogs generally live longer than large dogs
- Small dogs wouldn’t be a big threat to the boys
- Small dogs eat less
- More apartments accept small dogs than large dogs
We never expected to own a dog that needs clothes. I’ve never quite understood the need to deck out dogs in bows and bandanas. I anthropomorphize with the best of them, but I also believe in letting dogs be dogs, to a certain extent, anyway.
Technorati Tags: dogs, small dog
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Behavior22 Jan 2006 02:42 pm
Seems everyone is making a break for the great outdoors recently.
Yesterday my husband went to get the mail. Our mailboxes are like apartment complex mailboxes, a group of them together, not by each individual house, so it’s a little walk to get the mail. I suggested he take Chester with him.
I’m sitting on the couch, watching some tv, when I hear pounding feet & a frantic shout of “Chester!”. Apparently my husband dropped the leash (yes, this has happened to me, too) when he was near the mailbox and Chester took off. Wouldn’t stop no matter what, and DH never managed to step on his leash. The interesting — and very lucky — thing was that he pretty much ran straight home.
Needless to say, a very winded DH was not real happy with Chester last night.
We keep working on loose leash walking (say that 3 times fast!), and while I’d certainly say we have a long ways to go, he’s come a long way with it, especially considering when we got him two months ago he’d never worn a collar or harness, much less walked on a leash. He seems to do best on the “routes” he knows — walking to the mailbox, walking around the neighborhood, etc. Take him to a park, though, and it can get frustrating; even a park we take him to a regular basis. But he is improving. He’s only 4 1/2 months.
Simba also got another taste of freedom lately. This summer, he manged to pull down the grill we have blocking the window screen, and popped out the screen (very easy to do) when he saw another cat outside. I was getting dressed when I heard yowls I knew weren’t the boys fighting.
Both of them were outside the window. Gizmo hopped right back in when I called him, but Simba refused to. I slammed shut the window, grabbed the carrier, and went out to tackle him. He took off chasing the cat. He chased him to his own yard, where the stranger cat jumped the fence, and luckily Simba didn’t considering they have a large German Shepard mix puppy. But he still ran away from me.
I was finally able to grab him on the corner of the house and stuff him into the carrier.
Well, a couple of weeks ago my inlaws were visiting. They don’t have cats. My MIL decided to go get a hat when we were in the car getting ready to leave. She walked in and left the front door wide open, which I didn’t notice — until I saw Simba sauntering out (our front door is recessed; you can’t really see the actual door from the driveway).
Luckily, my MIL isn’t a big animal lover, so she didn’t panic and just held him down til I got there. But my FIL was holding the door wide open still, forgetting that Gizmo was still inside!
I swear every one of my numerous gray hairs have come from my animals.
Technorati Tags: leash, loose leash walking, collar, harness
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us
Behavior18 Jan 2006 09:37 pm
Why can’t a dog be more like a cat?
I often think about the differences between cats and dogs. I ponder why dogs are “made” the way that they are, and why cats are so different.
Take baths, for instance. Other than the flea bath I mentioned earlier, I’ve never had to give a cat a bath. They groom themselves, naturally. In fact, sometimes the boys come in just filty from rolling around in the dirt outside. Even my neighbor commented on how nice & white their white fur is, though. They groom me, too. They even groom my husband. It’s just hard wired into them.
Now why would a higher power create dogs that get dirty — in fact, often revel in getting dirty — but don’t groom themselves? I mean, what purpose does that serve? My husband said rain is nature’s bath. But cats get rained on, too! They still groom themselves.
Above is Chester all nice & clean after his first bath in our home. He took it well, simply clinging to the edge of the bathtub while we had our way with him. And he was so nice & soft afterwards! It almost makes you want to bathe him every day, even though I know that’s not good for them. Lots of dirt came off that little dog, too.
Technorati Tags: cats, dogs, flea bath, groom
Related posts:
Bookmark on del.icio.us