So in the case of the puppy on the furniture, I love a good old-fashioned go-to-place behavior instead.

Ideally, we want to get her reinforced very heavily with the reinforcer that she's looking for, food and possibly attention, before she gets on the furniture.

So teaching her to go to a mat or a dog bed, the principal is the same. And ideally, it's,

it's comfortable. It's a good substitute. Hey there, fellow training nerds.

I'm Hannah Branigan, teacher, trainer, podcaster, major imposter, and author of the book

Awesome Obedience and its companion, Awesome Obedience, The Field Guide, a spiral-bound,

shorter, more portable version.

And you get both of those

right now from clicker training.com. So let me start by telling you a story. Okay. So the other day,

I get this email from my aunt, who's really awesome. She's like the person in my family that I think

is I'm most closely related to, or maybe the only person in my family that I'm

actually related to. Some of you may have even met her. But anyways, she sends me this email.

Now, for context, their neighbors, my aunt and uncle, they have neighbors who have a cat who's

very, let's say like well-conditioned cat named Spot. Spot is very good at getting her

nutritional needs met, I suspect, by several different households in the neighborhood, including

her own. So here's what the email says. I've edited it somewhat for language and brevity.

Spot suddenly started coming over to our rear deck and meowing at us through the glass.

Over and over.

I checked on her and she was okay.

So I figured it's one of those mysterious cat moves.

This goes on for over a week.

Then Jeff, my uncle, proudly says, I've been teaching her to go to the front deck.

...