I seem to have developed a knack for training unwanted behavior chains. :madgo:
First with Ares. He likes to eat poop. I somehow managed to teach him that if he goes over to a poop pile (usually resulting in some level of interest/sniffing/tasting/eating) and then comes to me, he gets rewarded...demmit. I wanted him to ignore the poop and just come to me. I was able to finally get him where I wanted him, but it took a while.
Then I taught Morgan to come onto the porch for treats. Which resulted in her coming onto the porch, getting her treat, leaping off the porch just so she could come back up there for another treat. As cute as she is, it got irritating quickly. I was able to break her of it though by switching her to a jackpot reward inside.
Now I've done it again with Frodo. He gets rewarded for calling off Tyr's cage. (He likes to chase Tyr's tail and it pisses off Tyr in ways I've never seen Tyr get pissed off.) So now Frodo seems to have decided that the game is to go harass Tyr, then come to me for a treat, then go back to Tyr, then come back to me for a treat...ugh. I assume it needs more time and more generalizing and more reinforcing of him not even going to Tyr in the first place.
But...is there a way to not create the unwanted chains in the first place?
First with Ares. He likes to eat poop. I somehow managed to teach him that if he goes over to a poop pile (usually resulting in some level of interest/sniffing/tasting/eating) and then comes to me, he gets rewarded...demmit. I wanted him to ignore the poop and just come to me. I was able to finally get him where I wanted him, but it took a while.
Then I taught Morgan to come onto the porch for treats. Which resulted in her coming onto the porch, getting her treat, leaping off the porch just so she could come back up there for another treat. As cute as she is, it got irritating quickly. I was able to break her of it though by switching her to a jackpot reward inside.
Now I've done it again with Frodo. He gets rewarded for calling off Tyr's cage. (He likes to chase Tyr's tail and it pisses off Tyr in ways I've never seen Tyr get pissed off.) So now Frodo seems to have decided that the game is to go harass Tyr, then come to me for a treat, then go back to Tyr, then come back to me for a treat...ugh. I assume it needs more time and more generalizing and more reinforcing of him not even going to Tyr in the first place.
But...is there a way to not create the unwanted chains in the first place?