"Come"
One of the first tricks that you should teach your rats is to come when called. This can be beneficial in many situations, and may very well save your rats life! Once you have taught your rat to come its a good idea to generalize the cue to different locations, in order to ensure that regardless of distractions, your rat will always be ready to come when called.
Step 1:
To go about teaching your rats to come when you call them, first decide on what noise you would like your rats to come to. You can use your rats name, but this may take longer to teach than a simple noise (I use a kissy noise for my come cue).
To start training come, simply make the noise you wish your rat to come to when your rat is nearby, then hand your rat a treat. Do this until your rat begins to look up whenever you make this sound.
To go about teaching your rats to come when you call them, first decide on what noise you would like your rats to come to. You can use your rats name, but this may take longer to teach than a simple noise (I use a kissy noise for my come cue).
To start training come, simply make the noise you wish your rat to come to when your rat is nearby, then hand your rat a treat. Do this until your rat begins to look up whenever you make this sound.
Step 2:
Next, when your rat is standing a small distance away, make your "come" noise and reward your rat heavily for coming to you. Once your rat masters this step, begin to call them when they are mildly distracted, then gradually ramp up the level of distraction until you can call your rat and they will always comes to you, no matter if they are distracted or out of sight!
Next, when your rat is standing a small distance away, make your "come" noise and reward your rat heavily for coming to you. Once your rat masters this step, begin to call them when they are mildly distracted, then gradually ramp up the level of distraction until you can call your rat and they will always comes to you, no matter if they are distracted or out of sight!
(Note: You can also very easily teach your rat to come to the rattle of a treat container, and if you keep your treats in a noisy container, your rat might already know how to come to this noise! This is a great backup to have if your rat ever ignores your trained come cue.)
Video Tutorial:
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