How to train
2 Year Old Cat
I Train My Cats With PSYCHOLOGY
Sharing buttons:
cats I love my cats they're soft and
cuddly and super friendly and they're
smart too for example Loki here will
start meowing out the window if he just
hears my keys and bill is at my feet if
I open the fridge because he thinks it's
dinnertime but what's crazy is I never
taught them that so how did that happen
exactly well it turns out that there's a
little bit of psychology going on let me
tell you a story
in the early 1900's there was a guy
named Ivan Pavlov he was studying how
and why dogs salivate he understood that
they salivated when food is put in front
of them because it's necessary for
eating but he also realized that dogs
would salivate before receiving the food
if they could smell it or see it not
particularly surprising I mean I
salivate when I smell a tasty steak but
here's the kicker he noticed that if the
dog even saw the person who normally fed
them they would start to salivate that's
a bit strange they were learning to
connect the person who fed them with the
arrival of food so Pavlov decided to see
if he could take this one step further
and he pulled out a metronome right
before giving the dogs their food he
would play the metronome and have it
tick away understandably the dogs didn't
really have much of a response to this
but he only played the metronome during
feeding times after a few days of doing
this he again played the metronome but
this time gave no food and the dogs
salivated you see they connected the
sound to the food and he could make them
salivate on command even though they're
normally totally disconnected this is
called classical conditioning
okay let's put some labels on this stuff
to make it easier to identify later on
the food is an unconditioned stimulus
think of the word unconditioned as
meaning the same thing as trained so
this is an untrained stimulus the saliva
is an unconditioned response to the food
the dogs don't need to learn anything
about this unconditioned stuff they just
see the food and the body responds by
making saliva it's automatic the
metronome or the sound of the metronome
on the other hand is a conditioned
stimulus by pairing a conditioned
stimulus with an unconditioned stimulus
we can trigger an unconditioned response
eventually when the dog associates the
sound of the metronome with the food we
can remove the unconditioned stimulus
and if we see a response to the
conditioned stimulus resulting in what
was the unconditioned response we have a
conditioned response did you get all
that
so my cats learned a lot of things
without me or them realizing it but what
if I use classical conditioning on
purpose to teach my cat's a trick now
many people might say that you can't
train a cat but that's simply not true
in fact my cats have already fallen
victim to classical conditioning you see
this jar we keep cat treats in here but
they originally came in a bag so there's
no real association between this glass
jar and the cat treats other than the
fact that we've been storing them in
here for a little while and yet when I
shake this jar
alright no more wasting time let's get
to training it was my mission to get
bill and Loki to come to me on command
this is something I had never taught
them before the first step was to
identify an unconditioned stimulus both
cats are food motivated so I bought
these special treats that they would
only get while training the
unconditioned response would be the cats
walking to the tree and eating him the
conditioned stimulus was perhaps the
hardest thing to come up with I knew I
wanted a sound and preferably when I
could make myself that they wouldn't
encounter elsewhere
and then I found it so I don't know if
you've ever played ocarina of time
before but there's this one cutscene
where the fish king the king of the
Zoras is moving out of the way and it
takes forever but it makes a pretty
distinct sound I've got my conditioned
stimulus now I just need to pair the two
together and see if it works all right
so it's day one of training for the cats
I've already got something set up for
them and we're just gonna go ahead and
set up the camera on a tripod so you can
see everything as it unfolds
I've got cat treats pick these up
they're also dental treats so we're
gonna be killing two birds with one
stone training and flighting flighting
fighting black so that's good let's see
what we can make happen
you can see that the cats have already
responded to the sound of the bag they
also know the smell of the treats they
get rid of this bag now that's not an
issue so I'm just holding these treats
in my hand and what I'm going to do is
intermittently make this noise and and
then give them a treatment so noise
immediately followed by a tree and then
hopefully they pose their noise we'll be
feeding them a lot of treats I don't
want them to barf all over the place but
we'll probably reach a limit where they
no longer actually want the treat
because they're getting full but we'll
see what that level is here we go okay
point point point point point point
point point point point point point
point point point point point point
point point point point point point
point point point point point that was
great Loki was around the corner from
the table heard me make the noise and
came and looked around to see if he was
gonna get a treat and then he came to me
in order to get that tree that is
classical conditioning right there
that's pretty impressive
good job Loki bill he need improvement
what do you think you're doing you gotta
wait you gotta wait you gotta wait well
end of day one and I think generally
speaking pretty successful you know we
got a little bit of a reaction from Loki
bill I'm a little less sure of he seems
to be coming along slowly another thing
I was thinking about is they pretty much
have access to food 24/7 we give them
dry food and I feel like if they were a
little hungrier they would be more
inclined to do some of this training not
saying we're gonna starve them or
anything I mean but just
limiting their food intake to make them
hungry or when we need them to be that
sounds bad
all right day two we are doing a little
bit of new experimentation based on
yesterday's learning for example I
bought some new treats hopefully these
keep them a little bit more interested
in the training and I just mix them all
together so let me set you down here
let's get to training point point point
point point point point point point
point point point point but smoothly why
point point point point point point
point point point point point something
tells me that low key is going to be the
winner in this contest but there are no
losers just not as good winners all
right so that wraps day two and I feel
like I have learned quite a bit today
based on all the training that we've
been doing variety seems to help it does
keep them engaged and interested and I
think the next step for Bill here since
he's been having the most difficulty is
probably limiting food intake that'll
get you more interested in the treats
won't it bill low key here on the other
hand seems to be picking it up just fine
and I think that he'll learn in no time
all right well it is officially day
three of training and I've decided to
take a few more steps to sort of make
this whole experiment successful when I
went to work this morning for example I
took the cats food bowls and put them
away in the closet and as you can hear
there
not too happy about that right bill is
that I'm gonna put you up here get a
nice point point point point point point
point point point point point point
point point point point point point
point point bill is not getting this
making the noise but he's just not
coming over all right so here's sort of
what I've concluded it appears that Loki
does a great job with this he knows
exactly how to get treats what to do in
order to get treats he comes when I make
the noise bill here on the other hand is
not doing so hot for whatever reason
he's just not learning I guess it's not
that surprising me he's not like the
best trained cat in the world or
anything but I sort of imagined that
with the food restriction he would be
because that cat is annoying when he's
hungry what's up y'all it's day four I
think I'm losing track of the days
exactly but this will be the last day
that I'm actually doing any sort of
training with them so it's now or never
point point point point point point
point point point point
[Music]
boy hmm bill is not responding well that
just about wraps up today's training and
tomorrow is the moment of truth because
we're gonna figure out if Bill and Loki
have been classically conditioned I
don't have much confidence in you bill
but you might surprise me let's find out
Loki you're doing a great job today's
the day when I finally learn how to
focus a camera no but seriously
that was horrible I'm sorry about all
the crappy footage that is no joke all
right I'm here in the office and it
seems to be perfect circumstances for
what we're about to do we've got bill
down here who's being a little sleepy
and Loki who's just hanging out with
everybody so I'll get you set up in this
other room and then I'm gonna call the
cats using my signature sound and we'll
see if they come a-runnin let's make
sure that you're focused though there we
go okay so I've got no treats in my
hands the cats are in the other room and
I'm gonna make my signature noise see
what happens
boy from downtown
but where's your brother buddy oh there
it is point kill me yeah good point
good kid yeah I'm so happy I never
expected I'd be able to call my cats
using a weird duck fish noise I hope
that you enjoyed this experiment in
classical conditioning but wait there's
more because next video I'm going to be
teaching my cats yet another trick but
this time using the much more complex
operant conditioning if you want to vote
for which trick I teach our cats in the
next video you can click right here to
vote in our poll thanks for watching
this episode of mikus icon neuro
transmissions if you liked it then
please hit that thumbs up button and
subscribe to catch more videos like this
in the future if you really like seeing
Bill and Loki I've posted some extended
scenes on our patreon page you can go
there and see them you don't have to be
a supporter in order to see them we're
just gonna throw them up there and you
can find that right here as well thanks
so much for watching and until next time
I'm Micah think about it man boy boy boy
boy point one point one point one point
one point one point point point point
point point point point point
wait boy one point three point eight
point one point one
boy oh boy
