Hey so I've been trying to train River to come to me when I click my tongue. What I've been doing is feeding him his favourite treats (which he will run to me if he hears me cracking or shaking the bag) while clicking.
Today I clicked first, out of sight, and River came up to me, and I fed him treats whilst continuing to click. The fact I clicked without having to let him know I had the treats first shows it's working - my question is, when can I stop having treats on me? Obviously I'd like to be able to summon him to me wherever in the house I am regardless of if I have treats on me or not - otherwise I'd just do what I had been doing before and shaking the bag to summon him. But I don't want to stop giving him treats too early in case I stop reinforcing the positive association too early. From other people's experience, is there a good amount of time where a cat will associate something (e.g. my clicking) with something positive to the point where they don't need the treats to reinforce that?
Cheers all!
Today I clicked first, out of sight, and River came up to me, and I fed him treats whilst continuing to click. The fact I clicked without having to let him know I had the treats first shows it's working - my question is, when can I stop having treats on me? Obviously I'd like to be able to summon him to me wherever in the house I am regardless of if I have treats on me or not - otherwise I'd just do what I had been doing before and shaking the bag to summon him. But I don't want to stop giving him treats too early in case I stop reinforcing the positive association too early. From other people's experience, is there a good amount of time where a cat will associate something (e.g. my clicking) with something positive to the point where they don't need the treats to reinforce that?
Cheers all!