rat tricks

Question
What age do I teach them to do tricks, what are the best tricks to teach and how do I teach it?  

Answer
Wow, thats' a pretty complex question, but you can start teaching them as soon as they start responding to food. The first trick most rats learn is "come" by heading towards the person holding their favorite foods.

There are LOTS of tricks. If you look online you'll find an entire organization in England devoted to Agility training, where rats do the very same tricks that Australian Sheperds do! You can set up your own agility training center using some boards, some pegs, and some dowels. There are schematics around the web, and I'm sure some folks are selling agility kits.

Mazes are fun to work with, and you can use balsa wood to create some pretty complex ones. Again, the key is to see if your rat responds to treats. Place a treat at one end of the maze, and this works best if you use something like a soft food..you can leave traces of it along the route.

Because rats can learn as early as 8 weeks old, you will find many psychology students use rats to modify behaviors. Clickers are great for behavior training. Teach your rat that whenever he hears a click, he knows he's getting a treat. Then you'll be able to show him things like.. pick a shape, hear a click, get a treat. Soon you'll be able to not click, then ask him to find that shape, and he'll get his treat! There's even a school that uses Rat Basketball as a click trained exercise for their psychology majors.

Basic tricks are often a matter of learning what your rat is good at, and then praising him for doing it when you ask him to. You may have seen my Dentist Rat trick on Animal Planet. Many rats enjoy exploring, and placing a small piece of butterscotch chips near the back of my teeth give them MORE incentive.

Raymond, one of my older blind rats, enjoys dancing. He was sick as a baby, and would walk in circles. When he did, I'd say, "dance Ray!" and give him a grape or piece of banana. Now when I say "Dance!" he goes back into that same circle behavior he did as a kit.

Rats are very much like dogs in training. They like getting praise, they like getting treats, and they LOVE getting attention. You can teach a rat to fetch! Toss  a piece of paper tied to string away from you. Say, "Give me!" then gently pull the paper back towards you. When he arrives, give him a grape. He'll get the idea fast.

Keep in mind rats have short attention spans. What may be fun for you, may bore the heck out of him after a bit. So be sure to change some of the treats around if you are doing the same tricks. Also, keep consistent. Try not to teach too many tricks at once. Three or four every few weeks is enough. If you always show him the same way, he'll figure it out. But, since he is an animal, he may decide that's not a trick he wants to do. NEVER FORCE HIM. Instead, find a way to keep him interested by varying the trick. (Instead of using string, use a tennis ball, an old sock...etc)

There are a few hundred tricks listed just in the United States. If you do a search, use the keywords Behavior training, and Rat. You'll find all sorts of nice little ways to make your ratty impress your friends.

Keep the following in mind when training:
NEVER use pain or harm your pet.
Always reinforce with kindness and positive attention.
Your pet may get tired so keep her needs and physical safety in mind.
Never train when you're in a bad mood.

I hope this helps!

Cathe