After viewing the YouTube video that I posted yesterday, someone had
written me to ask if I knew how to teach their ferrets tricks. I'm not
the most dedicated or patient person in the world ... and you do need
those qualities to teach your ferrets most tricks ... but even someone
like me can manage to get their little fur balls to be the life of the
party.

I have only seen ferrets trained as well as what you saw in that video
once before. A lady taught her ferret to actually run through a tiny
agility course using clicker training. That must have been tough and
I'm not familiar with clicker training enough to say whether you could
transfer conventional training to a ferret for such a complex task or
not. I don't know the details of how she did it. The lady on the movie
that you saw yesterday, said that she trains her dogs to do things such
as the dancing that is so popular now. She said she did absolutely
nothing different with her two ferrets. She did add that it took a lot
longer for them to learn the tricks though. She says all ferrets can
learn the tricks that she showed in the video, it's just that when a
typical owner goes to teach them they usually quit early, and they
assume ferrets aren't teachable because it can take so much longer than
a dog.

I can tell you that the rolling over trick is easy. It's a good one to
start with. You can teach your ferret to roll over on command in just a
few days or less! Use a treat that your ferret goes nuts over. His
favorite. Hold it in your hand while having the ferret stand facing
you. Take the treat, and hold it by the ferrets face (to the side). As
soon as the ferret turns towards the treat (which is almost instantly),
pull the treat towards his tail/back a little. Then as the ferret
follows your hand holding the treat, draw it across their back behind
their head. The ferret should at this point, fall over on its side to
follow the treat and to try to eat it ... hence rolling over. You just
continue on with your hand in a sort of circle for him to follow. Then
you reward him. Does that make sense? The lady in the video does it,
but it's so quick it's hard to see unless you look for it. The only
problem with this is that on occasion you'll actually get a ferret that
is too smart for this! Seriously. No matter what you do, they'll sneer
at you, refuse to play the game, and keep turning their heads to the
other side to try to meet your hand or find some other manner to
outsmart you. Other ferrets are slower, so you might have to keep
stopping before completing the little circle to give them a little
reward for going as far as they have until they learn the entire trick
in one swift move. Just remember to always reward them. If you watch in
that video, the lady is constantly giving them a lick or bite of its
treat. End result is that you command your ferret to roll over with a
circling motion with your hand and he'll roll over.

Here's a real simply trick: Using a treat as a reward, you can teach
your ferret to balance and sit on it's hind hanches for you. Hold the
treat just out of reach from your ferret above his head. Give him a
sniff or lick first so he knows he'll get a reward if he does what you
tell him. Say a command (if he is not deaf), and give a visual using a
hand signal (maybe alternating making a fist and then flattening your
hand above his head) and raise the treat up very slowly as he follows
it. At first his balance very wobbly. Some ferrets learn to do this
very, very well with practice. Others are a bit more spazy. lol. Pretty
soon, he'll balance on his haunches for you with just a verbal command
and/or with a hand signal (usually above his head). Remember, always
reward.

As far as the walking between your legs, I've never done that, but it
strikes as a rather easy trick to perform. Simply use a treat in your
hand, let the ferret taste it, give a secession of verbal commands and
a hand signal as you step out and dangle the treat just out of reach of
the ferret. Lead the ferret by your side, then perhaps swing a circle
and teach him to give a spin. Later you can lead him to weave between
your legs as you walk. Eventually, with all tricks, you won't have to
hold a treat every single time, but you will have to consistently give
your ferret a reward treat. Unlike doggies, they won't do tricks for
giggles sakes after they learn them. Not all of the time. lol. There
has to be a reward.

A trick we've taught a few but not all ferrets is to jump from the arm
of a couch into our arms for a favorite treat. Put the ferret on top
of the arm of the couch (it has to be grippy where the ferret stands,
that's why not a table). Hold the treat right in front of his nose ...
tease him with it letting him give it a lick. Then hold your other hand
flat out several inches from him, at the level of the couch arm. Pull
the treat away slowly. Start getting your ferrets trust in that you
won't let him fall if he steps off the couch onto your hand for the
treat or even jumps on your hand/arm. The first time he begins to step
off, give him the treat. Then take it step by step rewarding him each
time that he goes further after that. Some ferrets learn it in a couple
days. Others might never do it. Most of ours do. Ours eventually are
able to jump from slick surfaces as well after they have become quite
skilled at it. We had one ferret that we did not even have to put up
on a prop. We only used a specific treat for that specific trick. Upon
showing him the treat and pointing to the couch and things, he'd trot
up to place himself and wait to jump.

The trick that I absolutely cannot figure out ... is the trick where
the lady makes the ferret stand still on a specific spot. That is
soooooooo unnatural and unlike a ferret to remain perfectly still like
that for so long. I can't figure out how she did it! I can't figure out
how that one lady trained her ferret to run a course either. That was
amazing.

A new thing being done, that has already been done with dolphins,
birds, and dogs is target training. They say that even the most
unintelligent animal can learn target training. Target training teaches
an animal to touch something at the end of a stick with their nose (for
a reward). Then you use that stick with the target on the end (like a
colored round thing or something) to guide the animal through tricks.
I'm not familiar with that training much at all. You could google
target training though as it is extremely popular now. And you could
just transfer those instructions over to ferrets.

Like I said, start with the rolling over. Try the holding the treat up
for the ferret to stand up for the treat too. Those two tricks will get
you started. And if they are the only tricks that you have time to
teach your ferret, they are quite the crowd pleasers.

[Posted in FML 5499]