Today I took Anastasia with me to the Springer rescue volunteer gathering in Birmingham, because Millie wanted to cat-test her foster, Jeffrey. Jeffrey is about two years old, does well at doggie day care, and loves people of all kinds too. I made Jeffrey a little blanket, and I brought along some treats (Bil-Jac semi-moist) to help him associate good feelings with cats. When I met Jeffrey, he appears to be a typical young Springer, exuberant. I also saw Freckles, Millie�s own senior dog, and I gave both dogs some treats. When I opened the cat carrier in the livingroom and took out Anastasia, Jeffrey was excited and pulled on leash, but did not bark or appeared to be aggressive. So I held Anastasia for Jeffrey to sniff, he tried, but Anastasia swiped her with her paws (I intentionally did not clip her nails this week). Jeffrey backed off, but he started barking. Anastasia appeared to be annoyed by the loud barking, so I let her off to walk around on the ground, while I took out the treats. When I did, Jeffrey immediately focused on me and the treats, and completely ignored Anastasia. This is a good sign, because it means at least he�s trainable around cats, and does not appear to be too obsessed about them or have high prey drive toward them. I was able to get Jeffrey to sit for treats, even when Anastasia�s walking around exploring Millie�s house. Also I tried to get Jeffrey to down, I did a lure/capture combination, just kept some treats in my fist, and put my fist on the ground, under his nose. At first Jeffrey sniffed and nudged my hand, tried to bite my hand, but I still would not give up the treats. Finally, after several seconds, he downed and I immediately released the treats. Jeffrey is very smart, because when I tried that again, within a couple seconds, he downed on his own. However, Jeffrey has his mischievous side also. Freckles stayed on the kitchen mat while we did the cat test, and after he walked into the livingroom, and I tried to pet him, Jeffrey walked right between us and pushed Freckles away. Millie said Jeffrey does that all the time. I did not want to reward this pushy behavior, so I followed Freckles and went to pet him instead (luckily Jeffrey is not aggressive, so we didn�t have do any walk-out-of �the-room type training). Anyways, Anastasia behaved really well in the unfamiliar environment with a hyper dog. I forgot to take pictures during that day, but here are some pictures of Jeffrey, contributed by Millie.
Thursday, March 29, 2007
Last night I started adding the verbal cue ("Target") to Oscar's target training. Also Oscar now does target at one or two feet away without seeing treats first (I hide the treats behind my back, also I hide the clicker behind my back so the sound wouldn't be so loud).
Last night Anastasia was sleeping next to the TV stand and Tara was lying next to me while I was watching TV. Then Tara stood up started pacing (sniffed something, going to get a drink of water in the kitchen?). Anastasia was being so persistent/stubborn/dominant, or whatever you want to call it, but the 8-pound cat refused to move, and as the 43-pound dog walked right into her, instead of jumping up and move (Anastasia knows Tara's blind, it took her a couple months to figure it out, but she does know now), Anastasia rolled on her back and hissed and batted her paws at Tara's face! Tara immediately backed up and licked her lips (nervousness?), but did not attack Anastasia (which she would've when she could see), so I went up to Tara and touched her to reassure her and lead her around the cat. Anastasia still did not move from her spot at this point, such a bully, luckily she's an indoor-only cat and only 8 pounds..., but I do think she knows her limits (since Tara had pinned her to the ground once about two weeks after they first met).
Last night I gave Oscar her weekly supplements. We are still struggling with the water dropper (for crab apple), but the capsules (Vit B complex, glucosamine, and I also gave her a capsule of probiotics) are much easier to give this time.
Friday, March 30, 2007
This morning I found both of the cat water bowls to be low, now I'm not sure which of the cats is drinking a lot of water, or both... I'll probably take both of them in to the vet, Anastasia for teeth cleaning and blood test, Oscar for vaccination and urine test, in about a week. This morning around 6:30, Oscar patted the cat clicker training book I got from the library from the table down to the floor, trying to get me to wake up to feed her. I refused to give into her demands and pulled the covers over my head and pretended to be asleep. Five seconds later, Oscar started vomiting, so I quickly woke up. She threw up a big pile of water on the table, and a small pile on the carpet was a small strand of hairball. I was going to give her another fiber capsule again today, but I guess one day too late, even though I've been giving her hairball malt everyday, except yesterday. I'll try every seven days and see if that would help.
Oscar's getting tired of Bil-Jac treats, so I'm going back to using tuna flakes. Instead of picking out a few flakes to put on the table each time after I click, I decide to pour out larger amount of flakes into her food bowl, and after each click, I would present her with the bowl, and let her eat from it for a couple seconds, just like the British guy who trained his cat to press the light switch (that we saw from the internet). Maybe when the cats see there are more treats, then they are more willing to work (unlike dogs, who are okay if we dispense treats from a non-transparent pouch). Anyways, it worked this morning! Not sure if it has much to do with I did it right before breakfast time, but certainly Oscar was willing to target this morning, would ran half way across the room to sniff the tip of the stick. Now instead of saying "target"/Oscar's nose touching tip/click all three at the same time, I am lengthening the time between "target" and her sniffing tip/my click, now it's about one second between the verbal cue and her sniff (yes I have to watch her closely and time her and say the word when I see her walking toward the stick and getting close to touching). Hopefully after a few more sessions, she will realize "target" means sniffing the tip of the stick. The cat clicker training book is pretty helpful, and funny, it's certainly for cat people and those who think cats being independent is a good thing. The first trick it recommends is target, and the second is "mat" (using a mousepad to get the cat to sit on it on cue). It says for target training, it recommends not to lay the stick around at first (it needs to be stored off somewhere when not in training), because if the cat touches the stick and does not receive a reward (when the handler's not watching), then the cat would get discouraged. But later when the cat knows she will only get reward when she does it on cue (and no reward when she doesn't hear the word first), then it's okay to lay the stick or even the clicker around. Anyways, I'm getting a mouse pad so the next trick Oscar will learn is to go to "place" on cue. The book also says to teach visual cues (hand signals) before verbal cues, because cats read body language easier, but personally right now I'm not sure how to hold the bag of treat/hold a stick/hold the clicker/do the hand signal all at once, it seems like I would need four hands, LOL! But many trainers have done this before and I'm sure there is a way to do it, just like I found a way to do three of the above at the same time earlier this week. Anyways, I'm going to stick with verbal cue for now, since Oscar has sharp hearing anyways.
I'm still giving Oscar crab apple remedy in water with dropper, and it's getting easier. I figured out that when I lie Oscar on her back, the reason she spits out half is because, like Anastasia, she can't swallow the entire dropperful of water, it's just too much, so now I'm only give half dropper at a time, and it's getting better.
Just one hissing/chasing incident yesterday between the cats. Oscar is still afraid of Tara when the dog gets near her.
Yesterday I took Tara and Anastasia to the dog park, as promised. Another young dog (Chow mix?) came up to sniff Tara (Tuesday it was a young Lab), she actually acted really nice and happy and let him sniff for a couple seconds, and then went on to sniff him. About three months ago, I tried CC&D with Tara at the dog park, that I carried treats with me, and that when she met other dogs (she's always leashed, the other dog comes up to sniff her), I would take out the treats and either lure her away or give it to her right after the other dog leaves, to reward her for being nice. I did that for two visits, but stopped (kept forgetting to bring treats with me). Occasionally if I take the treats out too early, then the other dog would push Tara away and wants the treats for himself. I used to ask the other owner if I could give their dog treat or just gave the dog treats without asking if the dog appeared to be hyper and my dog was acting annoyed, but I don't do that anymore. I'm a little annoyed that Tara got pushed away and she can't do anything about it because she's blind. Anyways, the other owner usually calls/pulls their dog away, and so far Tara has been acting nice and wait patiently for her turn to get the treat. I think after those two visits, she actually looks forward to the other dog sniffing her, because she thinks she would get rewarded after for it for being nice. And actually when I forget to bring the treats, after the other dog leaves, I would pet Tara and use that as reward. But I will try hard to remember bringing treats next time to work more on CC&D.
The cat clicker book also said to have a clicker with you at all times, so that whenever you see the cat doing something cute/desirable (rolling on her back, meowing, sit, etc. all can eventually be taught to do it on cue), then you can click for that. I tried that last night, but Oscar isn't just as "dog-like", she doesn't really follow me around, so when I am in the livingroom watching TV at night, 80% of the time she's not even in the room. So I gave that up. I'll just try a few short training sessions per day. And the book says it's harder to train older cats, who don't know to offer various behaviors to get click, but so far I think Oscar, who's ten years old and had never heard the clicker sound until a week ago, is doing very well with her training (or "my" training, as the cat clicker book says, that the cat enjoys training us to click, and since this is mutual, clicker-type training suits cats' innate behavior very well).
