I Pavlov’ed My Dog

[kct29]

So I got a kitten. My German shepherd loves cats and kittens, but she’s a little too enthusiastic and scares them when she tries to rush up to them and sniff them.

So I started putting the dog in her crate and letting my kitten roam around. When the kitten was in view and the dog was calm, Phoenix got a treat. So every time she saw the kitten or the kitten got close, she got lots of treats to distract her.

So now when she sees the kitten or it gets close, she starts salivating and drooling. It looks creepy because she also learned to stay very still to not scare the kitten. So now there’s a sixty pound dog that sits very still drooling and staring at a one pound kitten.

Edit: I managed to get it on video. She only does this when she’s watching him. We also have managed to transition to short periods of him being out of the bedroom.

Nastiness

 

[pnella]

@kct29 This is genius. I'm going to try this with my crazy 8 month old. Thank you for sharing!

 

[hannahfair]

@kct29 Could you please tape this. I wanna know if it looks as funny as it does in my head.

 

[kct29]

@hannahfair I finally got it on video

Nastiness in HD

 

[innocent7]

@kct29 I trained my dog not to eat cat vomit by telling him leave it then giving him a special treat. So now anytime he hears my cat starting to get sick he rushes over and then looks at me to let me know that he sees it and is not eating it and so deserves a treat

 

[missinquisitive]

@innocent7 Haha this is fantastic

 

[intruthilive]

@kct29 That’s awesome! You’re totally knocking it out of the park by “marking” that specific behavior.

 

[afonso]

@kct29 That's a well executed training plan, good job!

(Also, never ever try to find out what Pavlov actually did with his dogs.)

 

[novemberrainstorm]

@afonso Was it butt stuff? I bet it was butt stuff

 

[rcpolk]

@kct29 I love these types of posts

 

[fancyface]

@kct29 This has me cracking up, because I also have a cat loving dog.

My poor pup only wants to love them and snuggle them like the babies she seems to think they are. Most cats are not onboard with this plan.

I'll be keeping this plan in my arsenal!

 

[hopefaith]

@kct29 This is genius & hilarious. Thank you for making me laugh

 

[john919]

@kct29 That is brilliant!

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@kct29 Hey! Any update on how this is going? Trying to introduce kittens to MIL 9 year old big dog. Have you let them interact yet? Her dog also sometimes drools and gets excited.

 

[kct29]

@imagebeastmarkbeast Unfortunately the GS passed away, but the kitten is now very snuggly and playful with my other dog.

He started jumping the gate himself so we started letting him out for periods of time and had the gate up as a place for him to escape to. This worked pretty well and my dogs started ignoring him for a while b

 

[christianagain]

@kct29 Just supervise but seems like you made an association between kitten and treats. I do not believe it is directed at the kitten itself.

 

[kct29]

@christianagain No, I understand what I did. I linked an irrelevant stimulus to food, causing her to salivate and drool when the irrelevant stimulus is present. The drooling will go away once I stop giving her treats around the kitten but the positive association will remain.

I’m not worried, it’s just funny that this was a side effect of what I was trying to train.

 

[endijs007]

@kct29 Do you plan to eventually allow her to interact with the kitten at all?

 

[maxi00]

@endijs007 I’d say that’s the goal. Once the dog stops making sudden moves, the kitten will come closer and hopefully get used to each other

 

[kct29]

@endijs007 Of course. But she gets too excited right now when he moves or makes noises, so she needs to learn that he’s going to do those things and that it’s no big deal