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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2015 1:28:22 GMT -5
Minus the litter and bite training, how long roughly do you practice training your ferrets per day?
Any specific routine for the training, or specific treats for that you use for only training? In general, what is the easiest approach to training a young ferret? I'm interested in hearing about how others train their ferrets. The information would be very helpful to me for when i move onto teaching them some simple tricks. Thanks~ ^^
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2015 3:22:09 GMT -5
I've seen some videos in youtube about training your ferret, and the girl recommends about 10 minutes a day. Or just enough to keep your ferret with a feeling that he wants to do more tricks with you. Never train until the ferret is tired because that is how they will percieve the training activities and will not be very willing to do new stuff.
I'm not really into training ferrets, so I can't help you much more with that xDD sorry! Hopefully someone more experienced will help out.
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Post by RedSky on Jun 23, 2015 3:32:10 GMT -5
To begin with I kept training really short, as in 1 or 2 'commands' at a time. Slowly building it up, now I can work with them for about 5 minutes, we will continue increasing the time SLOWLY, but for me three 5 minute sessions is better than one 15 minute session anyway. Gives them time to think things through and give you a break especially when training a behaviour that takes a while and needs to be broken down into parts.
I train the same way I trained my dog, lots of luring, praise, patience and if they get it wrong remove the treat from vision, say 'try again' and set them back up in the starting position. If they aren't getting something then I move onto another behaviour and have a think about how I can teach it a different way or if I'm asking for too much.
Treat wise I used 100% duck breast or chicken breast cat treats, they are dehydrated and are easy to tear into tiny little treats, you don't want them to spend so long chewing the treat that they forget what they are doing. At the end I give them a slightly bigger treat (or the rest of the piece I've been tearing bits off) and that helps signal we are finished.
Always end on a good note, ask them to do something they find really easy, even if it's just shuffling away and asking them to come (even lure with the treat if they are new to 'come').
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2015 10:32:43 GMT -5
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Post by ferretbrah on Jun 23, 2015 13:16:24 GMT -5
Look up JoeyTheTrainedFerret on YouTube  |
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Post by Celene on Jun 23, 2015 14:30:50 GMT -5
This is a video of when I first taught Nova to roll over (she got much better at it but I didn't bother posting another video). If I'm teaching her a trick I'll spend a couple minutes here and there until she loses interested or gets frustrated. I usually break a single FDR (freeze-dried raw) treat into 5-6 pieces so she gets a little reward each time without have too much treats. Sometimes I'll go a few weeks without practicing any tricks and start up again and she usually remembers right away! Ferrets actually have really good memories. I know some people also use salmon oil as a treat (see Katt's video that @poncesmom posted) but I find with Nova she gets too distracted and just starts licking everything  I think some ferrets can't be trained to do tricks either. Mocha is actually more clever than Nova, but she's just too independent and proud to be so easily controlled by a human. There are also a lot of non-trick things that I think ferrets can be "trained" to do. This sort of thing is not so much active training, just following a routine and being consistent and they learn on their own. Some examples of this: - They come when they're called. They know their names individually, and also that "girls" refers to both of them. They know that when I call them it's usually because I want to play or have something interesting so most of the time they come, but it isn't always urgent.
- When I make a tsk-ing sound they know to make a b-line and come to me immediately. They also know that this sound results in salmon oil 100% of the time.
- When I say "food" in a certain tone of voice they run to the food shelf in their cage to await dinner. Sometimes they'll immediately run back down and play, but they'll always come check and sniff just in case it's something good.
- When I put a particular green hand towel down on the floor, they know in a few minutes there will be a couple dishes of egg appearing so they sit on it and wait. One time I got an important phone call before I could crack the eggs and they sat there and waited for 20 minutes!
- When they hear my cleaver chopping, they know there's a reasonable chance that I'm prepping their food and there will be fresh meaty bits available. Of course I'm often just cutting veggies for dinner, but they still come stand at my feet and give me kisses and beg.
- If we're in a room that is normally kept closed/off limits (i.e. bathroom) but it's open because I'm in there, they know once the lights go off it means I'm leaving, so they leave ahead of me.
- If I'm cleaning litter boxes they go wait by the closet door so that when it opens (because the fresh litter is kept there) they have a chance to sneak in.
I always discover new things like that (the turning the lights off in the bathroom one is pretty recent) but they are so smart and are able to learn your schedule so well! Every morning before work when I go to get dressed they are waiting at the bedroom door hoping to sneak in when I go in to get my clothes! I still haven't been able to figure out what clues they use for that one. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2015 14:58:44 GMT -5
Celene, your girls are so smart. What do you mean that you didn't bother to post another video, Naughty Celene :slap: We need more videos, pretty please.
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Post by Celene on Jun 23, 2015 16:10:45 GMT -5
I have a million videos! Just not lots of ones of Nova rolling over. Just for fun though, and to show you just how smart and silly ferrets are, here is a video of her discovering how a toilet paper roll works: She really starts to figure it out around the 1:40 mark. |
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Post by Deleted on Jun 23, 2015 16:29:45 GMT -5
She is just so cute. So is Mocha. Nova has such a deep little dook.
How do any of us get anything done?
I could watch these all day.
(dance)
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Post by Deleted on Jun 24, 2015 6:59:38 GMT -5
Great replies~ Ferret's are so unbelievably intelligent.
RedSky, I was thinking of doing the slow start much like that. Its the same way i taught my dog and my old cat. I keep hearing everyone mention ferrets having a short attention span, (which i've come to realise now) so it really makes sense that it would be best to build up with the training. ^^ Humans wouldn't go to the gym and start heavy muscle training, so its common sense to gradually build up ^^
poncesmom thanks for the links, I couldn't find any earlier so these would be great. I'll check them out right now ^^ You should catch it on video! I would die to see a ferret do something so adorable >3<
ferretbrah, I've seen all of Joey's videos >3< Its great study material. Joey is so adorable >3<
Ahh! Celene, Nova is super cute >3< She's doing the trick very well! I don't think i'll be able to train my Haru since she gets waaaay distracted easily. But I never know. I could always give it a go each time she wonders around out of her cage >3< I'm going to have a looka t your other videos also >3< Its weird, since i got my ferrets, all i've been doing when i'm not with them is watch ferret videos and read about ferrets (Little sneakies have snuck their ways into my heart already) >3<
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Post by FerretsnFalcons on Jun 24, 2015 14:28:08 GMT -5
Oh my goodness, those videos of Nova are so cute! The only trick I've taught my fuzzies is "spin." It's super easy to teach, and it's super cute. All you have to do is say "spin," lead them in a circle with a treat, and give it to them. They catch on eventually. I've taught this trick to all my pets, from my rats to my dogs. You should probably start off with an easy trick like that, and keep training sessions short like everyone said. Good luck training them!
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Post by Deleted on Jun 25, 2015 0:52:48 GMT -5
I bet it would be super cute >3< I'll start giving it a go~ ^u^
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