[nagdu] Talking and singing to animals

[Tami Kinney]

Two words: Smelly treats!  /lol/ For a long time, I used dehydrated lamb
lung to reinforce recall, and boy do thoese smell! But the expert who
put me on to it explained that, since dogs taste as much with their
sense of smell as we do -- and thus get more taste from smell with their
more advanced smelling apparatus, they are more tempted with smelly
treats and mroe rewarded by them. So when you pull a smelly treat out of
your pocket, it is more tempting for the dog to come and get it instead
of running around as if the sound of your voice does not exist. /lol/
Mitzi also used to like to turn around when I called her and flash by,
laughing her head off because she knew I couldn't catch her and that
this would drive me crazy. Holding a smelly treat out to my side gave
her a better idea! Yum! She was a pup then, so I didn't have to worry
about her getting fat from them. Whew! I sure did go through a lot of
them back then. Now I use a low-cal smelly treat that doesn't set off
Daisy's allergies, so even Daisy has gotten really good at recall. Most
of the time. /smile/  I also found with Mitzi that the clicker was
*very* useful in reinforcing her when she turned to come to my call.
That worked into future clicker work with boundary training and the
nifty thing she does I call jingle guiding or squeak guiding. Gotta love
that clicker. /grin/

Anyway, smelly treats as bribery is the best way I've found for teaching
recall. Also, rembering the rule: Always reinfoce recall. Doesn't matter
if you want to kill that dog with your bare hand by the time she gets
within reach. Always praise and treat and make a big deal out itof . r
at least announce your desire to commit bodily harm in your happy,
praising voice. Worked for me.  /grin/  

Tami

On Sat, 2011-07-16 at 20:10 -0400, Sean Moore wrote:
> Yeah Franklin seems to listen more when I talk to him.
> 
> Now if I can get him to come when called.
> that would be nice.
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Mardi Hadfield" <wolfsinger.lakota at gmail.com>
> To: <nagdu at nfbnet.org>
> Sent: Saturday, July 16, 2011 7:47 PM
> Subject: [nagdu] Talking and singing to animals
> 
> 
> > Tami and Sean,I talk to all my dogs and cats as if they were human.They 
> > seem
> > to understand me much better than if I just use a word or two.I also sing 
> > to
> > them.I often have to say to some of my dogs, "if you don't come in now,you
> > won't get a biscuit."When I just say come, I seem to get ignored.Even the
> > cats understand when I ask "are you hungry?" If I just call out," food
> > time",they don't come to the kitchen to eat.I have a blind bearded dragon
> > lizard and he loves it when I talk to him.Some times, the only thing that
> > will get him to eat is if I sing to him.Some people think I am "nuts" for
> > talking and singing to my animals but they do respond to it so I don't 
> > care
> > what people think. I will continue to talk and sing to them. People are
> > amazed when I ask Shaman to find a seat for me, or find the trash can or 
> > the
> > door or elevator, and he does what I ask. I think animals are much smarter
> > than we give them credit for.I think they like the sound of a soft voice
> > speaking or singing to them and they respond in a much more positive way
> > than if you just use word commands. JMHO.  Mardi and Shaman and
> > Nala,retired.
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> > -- 
> > http://wolfsinger-lakota.blogspot.com/
> > http://wolfsinger2-thegoldendragon.blogspot.com
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