>From:    Ben Wilborn <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: I need to vent!!!
>When YOUR fuzzy bites to the Bone, YOU think it is ok, because they
>were scared or you mistreated them.  Make sure not to flick them in
>the nose cause that might HURT them.
 
It's not ok when a ferret is a problem biter, and I don't think anybody
here thinks so.  You do make a good point that any animal needs to be
trained out of that kind of behavior.  However, mustelids have different
behavior patterns than other animals, including human beings.  A dog
understands a physical reprimand as an expression of dominance on your
part, and unless you've got a serious problem with the dog, it responds by
being submissive (and I know that not everybody approves of training dogs
like that, but the dog does have that understanding, in my opinion).  A
ferret, on the other hand, will respond to a physical reprimand by upping
the ante, or by becoming afraid of you-- by hitting a ferret as a means of
reprimanding it, you are doing something counterproductive.  The ferret
will think you want to play rough, it will get mad at you, or it will feel
threatened by you.  End result of any of those reactions is that it will
bite more.  For me, I think nose-flicking is a bad thing not because I'm
afraid of hurting my ferret, but because I know it's not an effective
training method.
 
One of the really neat things about ferrets as pets is that they are so
similar in some ways to dogs and cats, yet in other ways so different.
It's also one of the challenges of owning ferrets as you learn that what
works for one species won't always work for another.  There's no such thing
as "pet training"-- you have to take it species by species.  There's some
more information on that aspect of ferret behavior at my problem biters
website-- Sukie Crandall gave me a lot of information for that.  The URL is
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083/probintro.html
if you're interested in reading more about this.
 
Regina
 
Regina Harrison
[log in to unmask] or [log in to unmask]
http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Lofts/1083
Electra the Brujah's page:
http://www.geocities.com/TimesSquare/Labyrinth/8096
 
When the big bomb goes off, all that's going to survive
are goths and cockroaches.
                            --Nick Cave, August 1998
[Posted in FML issue 2467]