Wiggles took his Reptilink unscented for the second time last night. I only had to starve him for two weeks this time, so that's progress. Target training while I'm transitioning him has complicated the process.
My goal for last night's target training was to target him out of his enclosure so that I could clean it. The problem was that Wiggles didn't want to come out. He was clearly interested in the target. He stayed focused on it for a really long time, but just wouldn't come all the way out. Eventually, he decided staying in his enclosure was more important than eating and started ignoring the target. If he ignores the target, I can't feed him. It'll undermine his training. That would be fine except I'm also transitioning him to Reptilinks and it's more important that he eats the Reptilink.
So, I rebooted him. I closed up the enclosure, turned off the lights, and waited a couple hours. I also decided to dumb down the training. I'd reward him for any movement toward the target. It worked. The enclosure didn't get cleaned, target training went just o.k., but the Reptilink feeding was an unqualified success. Since that was the most important priority, I'm very happy.
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