Armed with a veritable pile of snacks, Nacht was determined to spend his class off training Shade to do…something. Actually, he had just the thing to try to make a trick. See, the only thing he had ever been able to notice Shade hated was a hand slowly moving to pet her. This lead to a bat meant to say- hey, keep away unless you really want to give me scratchies!
One day, a thought crossed Nacht’s mind. That bat seemed kind of like a less well intentioned high five. Now, the day had come for him to test his theory. Slowly approaching a sitting Shade, he would ever so slightly move his hand towards her. Sure enough, she made an irritated expression and smacked his hand with a tiny but intensely cute jump. In response, Nacht cheered a bit and gave her a treat.
Shade chewed on it appreciatively, something in her eyes changing. He repeated the process one more time and Shade purred, understanding exactly what the deal was. What Nacht didn’t know was that she now expected a treat, which meant the part where he taught her how to do it without a treat would be that much harder. Thusly, he began his effort, at first trying to make the high five without a treat work.
After a couple of hours, maybe two or so, he realized there was a better way to work this. The next time he tried, he gave Shade a treat immediately after. The next attempt, he waited a bit, and then gave her the treat. “Yes! This’ll work!” By the time they were finished, the cat could wait all of thirty seconds before she started boring her eyes into the side of his skull for her reward.
“Now all I need….is to make sure I trained her well enough that she’ll hand tap anyone.” He’d mutter to himself before hearing the sounds of footsteps on the ground nearby. “Hey, would you like to see a trick? I taught my cat something!” He’d say as he turned, too happy to see that what he was saying might be weird.
One day, a thought crossed Nacht’s mind. That bat seemed kind of like a less well intentioned high five. Now, the day had come for him to test his theory. Slowly approaching a sitting Shade, he would ever so slightly move his hand towards her. Sure enough, she made an irritated expression and smacked his hand with a tiny but intensely cute jump. In response, Nacht cheered a bit and gave her a treat.
Shade chewed on it appreciatively, something in her eyes changing. He repeated the process one more time and Shade purred, understanding exactly what the deal was. What Nacht didn’t know was that she now expected a treat, which meant the part where he taught her how to do it without a treat would be that much harder. Thusly, he began his effort, at first trying to make the high five without a treat work.
After a couple of hours, maybe two or so, he realized there was a better way to work this. The next time he tried, he gave Shade a treat immediately after. The next attempt, he waited a bit, and then gave her the treat. “Yes! This’ll work!” By the time they were finished, the cat could wait all of thirty seconds before she started boring her eyes into the side of his skull for her reward.
“Now all I need….is to make sure I trained her well enough that she’ll hand tap anyone.” He’d mutter to himself before hearing the sounds of footsteps on the ground nearby. “Hey, would you like to see a trick? I taught my cat something!” He’d say as he turned, too happy to see that what he was saying might be weird.