In anticipation of our continuing clicker adventures today, I restocked my treat supply at the store yesterday. I settled on a big bag of honey nuts Cheerios. Um, ok, yes, in truth, they're not actually Cheerios, but a cheap generic brand masquerading as Cheerios. We got aLOT of animals to train here folks. Maisy, in any case, didn't care that I skimped on the brand name. To say she was eager to play the treats game would be an understatement.
Maisy and Boomer both completed (separately) their 5 minutes of practice pairing the clicker with the treat. They also both revealed the same weaknesses in their previous training. Both did exactly what Maisy shows in her glam shot here. When I asked them to sit, each responded by lying all the way down. I think it's fair to say they are willing but a bit confused in their training to date. They both conflate 'down' and 'sit' and respond to either by going low and submissive. If they don't get their reward, they go even lower. Today, Boomer rolled all the way over on his back when the reward wasn't immediately forthcoming, which I don't think I'd seen him do before. Though I hadn't intended to do anything more than pair the treat with the clicker today, I couldn't resist (bad trainer, must resist getting ahead of myself) trying to use the clicker to help them clear up the intended meaning of 'sit'. So they both got an additional 2 minutes or so of 'sit' commands, rewarded by both the clicker and the treat simultaneously. Both succeeded, so I don't think it will matter that I skipped ahead a bit. If they'd failed or I had confused them more, I'd be kicking myself. See this is why I'm not starting with Thyme. I know I'm not as disciplined as I need to be yet.
On a side note, the cats were pretty interested in the treats too, but decided they'd rather play with them than eat them. 
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