When Trix first came to live with us, we had a difficult time training her to climb up on the sofa or get into bed. After consulting many training manuals, we were able to train her with consistent positive reinforcement. Every time that she would hop up on the furniture I gave her a treat and told her what a good dog she was.
This change in behavior does not happen overnight! You must be persistent!
Sometimes even now, when I walk into the bedroom and find her on the bed, she cowers a little, as though I might beat her. I just speak softly and give her a gentle pat.
How did you train your Pit Bull to get up on the couch?
-
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely right. When Kelly adopted us, we had to think fast about how to raise a cat who had been on his own. I remembered first a TV show that described how elementary school teachers had told some students what good work they were doing, while others doing the same quality work were not similarly encouraged. The results were as you might expect -- the ones who were praised did better going forward.
ReplyDeleteSo I started telling Kelly he was a good cat every chance I got, and not surprisingly, he learned he *was* a good cat. Even if he did something "wrong", we knew it was because he was just following his instincts, doing what cats naturally do... in other words, he was being a Good Cat. (And so, when I started a web page devoted to them, it wasn't hard to give that page a name.)
I love your good cats! I think that you're exactly right!
ReplyDelete