Pet Training
Like children, animals need rules to live by. The cat must use the litter box, and the dog can not bite the mailman. Establishing these rules and others, is called training and even some of the smallest animals can be trained in the basics.
Now I am not talking about training spiders, or snakes. But because training involves linking desired behavior to a reward, even fish can be trained to swim to the surface of a pond by providing food every time you appear. A neighbor of mine raises Koi and they all swim frantically to the surface of the water when he walks to the end of his dock. It looks very cool and some will even eat from his hand. Very cool.
Birds as small as parakeets can be taught not to bite and to do simple tricks. I had a parakeet who spent her days in my college dorm removing all the items she could carry off my desk. Pens, small scraps of paper, and clips were dragged to the edge of the desk and pushed off. She would dwell at the edge long enough to watch the item hit the floor, then turn around and look for more. This behavior could easily be turned into putting a small paper basketball into a hoop if I had tried. Many a person has told me that they have “potty” trained their parrot–or at least trained them not to go on them, (which in my mind is just as good). Bathroom training should be everyone’s first priority!
Training builds a bond between you and your dog that only gets stronger the longer you do it. It shows the dog who is the leader of the pack and gives them a job to perform in that pack. A dog who knows his place and has a job to perform is a happy, well adjusted animal. I highly recommend at least basic obedience training for every dog, young and old. Yes, old dogs do learn new tricks and they will benefit from the activity and attention they get from their human family.
Cats, rabbits, chickens, and rats are also fairly easy to train. If you are interested in working with these animals, check out the internet or library for books on the subject. If the animal ever was in a movie, there was a trainer who trained him and probably wrote a book about it. As for training your horse to talk like Mr. Ed, that is another subject. Who needs another family member telling me to hurry up and get the food ready?
August 14th, 2007 at 7:37 pm
[…] Pet Training A dog who knows his place and has a job to perform is a happy, well adjusted animal. I highly recommend at least basic obedience training for every dog, young and old. Yes, old dogs do learn new tricks and they will benefit from the … […]
October 7th, 2007 at 4:56 pm
[…] Pet talk » Blog Archive » Pet TrainingLike children, animals need rules to live by. The cat must use the litter box, and the dog can not bite the mailman. Establishing these rules and others, is called training and […]
October 7th, 2007 at 11:23 pm
[…] Pet talk » Blog Archive » Pet TrainingLike children, animals need rules to live by. The cat must use the litter box, and the dog can not bite the mailman. Establishing these rules and others, is called training and […]
October 26th, 2007 at 3:53 am
[…] Pet talk » Blog Archive » Pet TrainingLike children, animals need rules to live by. The cat must use the litter box, and the dog can not bite the mailman. Establishing these rules and others, is called training and […]
October 27th, 2007 at 8:51 pm
[…] Pet talk » Blog Archive » Pet TrainingLike children, animals need rules to live by. The cat must use the litter box, and the dog can not bite the mailman. Establishing these rules and others, is called training and […]