I read about clicker training yesterday! too funny, must be a sign. I"m going to find a clicker and see what I can do. Anyone ever trained an animal like this?
The lady I bought my used cage from told me how to litter train them. She even gave me a pan. It's a litter box for ferrets, that hooks on the cage so it doesn't slide. It's plastic, but my girls don't chew on plastic, so I feel ok about it. When they peed, I scooped the pee into the litter pan until they always went there.
ooooooh, when you said litter train I thought you meant that you taught your chin to poop in a litter box. Now THAT would have been impressive, lol. Although urine training is useful as well.
As far as "clicker training", don't even waste your money on a device! You can use anything that makes a distinct sound - a treat container, your mouth, snapping fingers, whatever. The sound should be unique though, and very distinguishable. You just have to pair that sound with something REALLY rewarding (their favorite treat) but you must be consistent with it while your chin is learning the association. During training, the sound MUST ALWAYS signal that the treat is coming in the next few seconds. They'll catch on to it quickly, most likely within a week. Also, during training you must not give the treat without the sound preceeding it. Once they've learned the association of treat and sound however, they should continue to respond to the sound, even if a treat does not follow. (Sort of like how gamblers keep pulling on the slot machine lever, even though they don't win every time) I work in a laboratory that does behavioral experiments on rats and mice so I use what I learned there on my chinchillas, lol.
Here is just an example of how your chin has probably already been conditioned: When you pull out the treats to give to your chin, I bet they know whats coming, right? The treats probably make a distinct noise and then soon after they get a treat. Now when they hear the noise they get all excited because they know a treat is coming. Same goes for dustbaths - when my chins hear me tapping on the dustbath, they make a mad dash for it because they know they'll be rewarded if they come.
And Brazilnut is absolutely right, do not use punishment for bad behavior - it will just make your chin jumpy, nervous and stressed.
