For many people who are avid conservatives and cannot stand all kinds of innovations, a rat, even if decorative, has always been a kind of personification of something not entirely pleasant. However, the world is changing and the number of those who give birth to rats and other "exotic" animals as pets is constantly growing. This is how age-old stereotypes are gradually crumbling.
Nowadays, it is safe to say that the decorative rat is one of the most common pets. This is an unusually agile and energetic creature, moreover, it is very smart and does not mind coming into contact with a person, having learned a few simple commands.
From simple to complex
The training of decorative rats, however, like the training of other domestic animals, always begins with the simplest and most understandable commands. The rat is smart by nature and pretty quickly begins to understand everything that the owner requires of it.
It has been noticed that white decorative rats are given "science" a little harder than black and painted in other shades. However, it is quite possible to teach rats of any color to simple commands, and the very process of this “training” is very interesting for humans, since each animal has its own, purely individual approach to it.
Food is the basis of training
The decorative rat pays its closest attention, of course, to food. This is exactly what should be used in order to teach the animal the first simple commands.
First, you need to take some delicacy in your hand (it can be a sunflower seed, a tiny piece of meat or a boiled egg) and give it to the animal. During this "gesture of kindness" you need to say the name of your pet several times.
Such a "lesson" should be carried out periodically, and after a while the decorative rat will begin to respond to the sound of a human voice. In order for the rat to make contact as quickly as possible, its nickname must be simple and intelligible. You should not call the animal a nickname of two or three words, since the training process can be delayed or even fail altogether.
After the first successful stage of training, do not stop there. If the animal has already been taught to respond to its nickname, it can also be taught to return to its cage. To do this, you need to pour the animal's food into a bowl at the same time and call it to you, calling a nickname and tapping the bowl of food on some hard surface. I must say that having taught the decorative rat this simple command, the owner gets rid of the need to constantly catch his tailed pet around the apartment.
The third command does not present any difficulty at all, but from the outside the next "trick" can look very impressive. The task is to teach the decorative rat to stand on its hind legs. To do this is simple - you need to take in your hand some kind of "tasty treat" like the same sunflower seeds, bring it to your pet and gradually raise it up, repeating the nickname in a gentle tone. The rat can learn this trick in just two or three "lessons".
