To train agility is to train the rat to run a course with highly imaginative agility fences. Therefore the rat must be perfectly tame and trust its owner, it must be lively and happy. The best start in agility training of rats is to let them run lose in the house/apartment/room often. Of course you must keep contact with your rats all the time. It is a very good idea to teach your rats to come when called, this is also often a part of the agility competition as a separate trick (obedient class). It is also very useful in training, to keep the rat on track, so to speak, and to be able to show the rat which fence is next.
Some types of fences you might want to build to train on at home may include tunnels, fences (like show jumping fences for horses, but much much smaller), and anything you can come up with. It seems that if you do train with your rat that is was counts to get good at agility. What you actually are training is twofold: part is the trust in you as the owner/leader and part as getting over or through obstacles. Therefore it is of utmost importance never to train if your rat does not feel up to it.
One thing you may train separately is obedience class, where the rat may have to come when called, stand up on command and other quite easy tricks.
Traning agility is not good just for competition. If that is your only goal you have missed the point. The point is rather that rats are so highly curious and easily bored animals that need entertainment on a daily basis. Agility training is just a perfect way to give the rat something to do.
I have noticed that many owners use treats as a reward to tell rat it did well. Myself I never really used treats, since I found out that my rats like to be praised as a reward. I just tell how good they are in a high tuned happy sounding voice. I can also pick up the rat and pet it (in traning, not in competition - that is not allowed). My rats just love that kind of reward! My rats tend to not wanting to eat outside their cage. When praising you really need to overdo it, so they can be absolutely sure what you mean. Actually, before I tried this, I never would have believed it would work :-)
What you say is not important, the rat have no idea what
your words are, but listens to your voice. You could say
"Good girl" or "Good boy" as if the rat was a dog doing
something really good. But the timing is very important -
you must give the rat its
reward when the rat is actually doing the trick (or
the hard part of the trick), not after.
This may be tricky. If you tell your rat it is good when
the rat is on top of the fence maybe the rat will not
jump down from the fence... Or maybe if you give the
reward just when the rat is jumping down from the
fence, and then the rat don't feel it is doing anything in
particular and therefore does not understand what you
are on about.
The best thing is to know your rat so well that you
know which parts of the course the rat will find most
difficult so you can help the rat through by rewarding
it in the right places (treats on the course are not
allowed, but praising is...)
Good luck!
Written by: Eva Johansson.
There is a whole lot more information about agility training in the booklet "Aktivering är kul!", a booklet about rats written in Swedish.
Last update: 11th of August 2006.