"Lose? Not in my vocabulary."

March 7, 2018 4:32 PM

UseYourClicker.com, home of epic rat tricksters (previously), also features Shorty the opossum, Horatio the hedgehog and Zed the coatimundi. But the stars are Kaiser the Bengal Cat, Nana the Border Collie and the aforementioned rats. In a contest of Dog vs Rat vs. Cat, Who Will Win? [various bright musics]. Many more videos on the video page.
posted by Johnny Wallflower (3 comments total)

Those rats have quite the vertical leap!

I don't have the time or the space to be a full time animal caretaker right now, but man I would love it if people would just bring me their animals to teach dumb clicker tricks to and then take them away again. Maybe I'll do some chicken training this summer.
posted by soren_lorensen at 6:23 PM on March 7, 2018

I knew a working border collie once. His job was to keep a farm and an adjoining golf course free of stray or feral dogs. He had the run of the whole place. The golfers treated him like a pet but he was ferocious with intruders. You could walk outside and call his name once. He might be half a mile away but would soon coming running up to you. The smartest and most dedicated non-human I have ever had the pleasure of knowing...
posted by jim in austin at 7:32 PM on March 7, 2018 [4 favorites]

I tried to train my dog with a clicker. First step is following the click with a treat, so the dog builds a positive association with the clicker. Dog's fear of clicker outweighs his love of treats, so he just became afraid of treats. I would pull the bag of treats down off the top of the refrigerator, and by the time I'd opened it he would be hiding behind my bed.

Took me a while to un-train that fear.
posted by MrBobinski at 5:24 PM on March 8, 2018