A click diary

I was digging around some files on my laptop today, and run into this. I didn't quite remember at first that I had written this; indeed I intended to keep a clicker training diary, but then I never made it beyond that first entry. It's hilarious, so I decided to post it here for your entertainment!

01 Dec 09

Finally I have assembled all the training supplies (clicker, chopstick, pack of beef mince, little pot) and I can start! It’s just before dinner time, and the cats are eagerly (not to say annoyingly so) waiting to be fed. As usual P cries the loudest. I entice her to follow me downstairs by giving her a whiff of the meat pot, but she’s confused: we’re off to the bedroom, that’s not a ‘normal’ food place. Finally she’s in the room, and I close the door before the others can follow.

She’s interested in the treats straight away (of course) and I’m c/t -ing for a while just to get her used to the click/treat sequence. It looks like she gets it immediately. She tries to get to the meat pot a few times, but I can fend off with my leg, and it works, she’s focussing back on my hand quite quickly.

I get the chopstick out - hmm. Having trouble to hold stick and clicker in the same hand (need the other hand to dish out the treat morsels). I try to get P to follow/touch the stick, but my clicking is slow, and not always accurate, and I can’t make up my mind whether I want her to nose-touch or paw at the stick. I click both, but I feel I’m muddling through and I’m not happy with my accuracy. Must practice the stick-and-click motion, I think. In the meantime I get so distracted with the click practicalities that I click far too late several times.

It’s not obvious to P at first that she has to focus on the stick hand before the meat hand dispenses a morsel. But then she gets it. She is amazingly focussed and is actually purring while she ‘works’.

I repeat and repeat, it seems to work - but I’m feeling unhappy with my often ‘muddy’ clicking, and wondering if I should be more accurate? The cat seems to get it… or is she? She does follow the stick around when I start walking with it - not sure if this is too easy. But I don’t dare to up the odds (raise the criteria) in fear of confusing her, so I just keep repeating my ‘touch’ cue (also delivered rather inaccurately). Still, P stays quite focussed, and purring until the meat pot is empty. Didn’t watch the time - did we work for 5 mins or 10? In any case she is not tired of this game yet, but I don’t want to overdo it.

I leave the room, the idea is to get L next. P follows me into the kitchen, watches me refill the pot, and then of course eagerly follows me back into the bedroom, while I’m trying to be quicker than her, having grabbed L and pot. Of course P sneaks into the bedroom, and O and M too, and I have to spend two whole minutes trying to get them out of the room and close the door. Very inelegant this. Not sure how to stagger training sessions and feeding without them either all running after me and the training meat pot, or all of them eating at the same time. Hmm.

At last, me and L in the bedroom, door closed. She is keen on the meat treats. Not sure she gets the c/t sequence quite so easily, so I move on to the stick, in case she gets bored. She likes the game, that’s clear - she’s purring like mad - but she gets far too excited, running after the meat hand, then getting at the pot (leg defence works again), then jumping at the stick. I decide I will click all stick motions - jumping, pawing, touching. Half of the time L tries to touch the stick hand rather than the stick itself and I’m feeling a bit lost again - is this OK or not? I feel like I’m muddling through it again. This can’t be accurate enough, but I’m scared to be too selective in case she gets confused and frustrated. She gets following the stick (or hand), and follows the stick up on the bed. Then I try the same thing with a stool, but that seems to confuse her. I decide to go back to simple stick following/touching. Her interest is now waning a bit, or maybe I have confused her. The meat pot is almost empty so I decide to finish the session.

P still waits in front of the door, so I decide to spend the last few morsels on a repeat session for her. It works, she seems to remember, but isn’t as focused as before (neither am I). Maybe this was a bad idea; I should stop now. Can’t really bear more cat wrangling to get another kitten alone into the room while keeping everyone else out, so I give up on the rest. Maybe later, maybe tomorrow. 

Feeding time for everybody! After dinner P looks more relaxed and content she has been all last week.