We’d been working on Go-to-mat for such a long time, naively focused on a behavior that’s pretty advanced even for obedience-trained dogs. It was time to have some fun, both for the cats and for me.

Thor has always liked to chase his tail. As a kitten, he used to chase it on the bed, throwing himself in circles, until he grew to full Maine-Coon size and started falling off. Now he manages his addiction a little better.

So I knew he could spin by himself. I just had to ask him to do it for me.

This video is from the third day, when he spins for the first time. It shows some of the steps we went through to shape the behavior. First I rewarded for looking to the left. Then I waited for him to offer a bit more and he started grooming his back to the left. I threw in a little Distraction by standing up, but it got him to then move to the left. The full spin came quickly after that.

For the record, I didn’t use the Jackpot reward correctly here. I was a little excited and gave him a few extra treats. Pryor says a Jackpot should be delivered as the behavior is happening, but I delivered at the end, no different than a regular C/T.