Saturday, May 31, 2008

Repetition is the key ...

We taught one of our dogs to sing, on command. Whenever he heard a siren, he would throw back his head and howl. By repeating his name and the word "sing" while he was doing it, we eventually had a dog who would throw back his head and sing on command. Kids loved seeing him do it.

Most of our dogs were taught to relieve themselves on command using the same method. While they were *going,* we would say "Lobo, hurry up" or "Ranger, hurry up" during the process. After a while, they got the urge to go when they heard the phrase. It was a convenience to take them outside and use the command just before we went to bed ourselves. Or in the rain, it was especially useful for a quick out-and-back-inside.

One would not think this would work on cats. It does, after a fashion. BigEd tells Mew, "time to go to bed." She will run to the room where her sandbox is, use it, and then demand to be let out of the room. Thereupon, the used sandbox would be cleaned. I am not sure who trained whom, however.

Clean sandbox goood ... for everybody.

3 comments:

Big Ed said...

Hey! I'm the one giving the commands around here. She goes when I say so and not a minute later or too soon.

Zeta said...

Body Guard and Mimi Me slept on the on the bed in the guest bedroom last night. Shhhh. They left traces of cat hair which came off with painters tape.

Anonymous said...

How good to have a cat who knows her place. Her place is where ever SHE wants to be, huh Big Ed?

And Zeta, think of those traces on the bed in the guest room as a sort of a room deposit? Something they left for having slept so well and now they're maybe looking forward to sleeping in your hotel again? They already know the food's good.