# Maybe A Limited Shoulder Rat? How To Give My Rat The Most Out of Her Personality?



## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Okay so I have four rats. One of them, my first rat, is a little girl named Naydeen. She isn't like any of her friends. Her friends range from shy to semi-outgoing, but really none of them are comfortable outside of their free range room. Except her. She is extremely outgoing, she's clearly very intelligent. When her brothers and sister want to nap, she wants to play. No matter what time of day it is, if I come to get her out of the cage, she comes willingly and with tons of enthusiasm. She will try anything she can, even if she's not supposed to  she will follow me around the room, and will always climb right into my hand when I put it out. She seems to always be interested in what I'm doing and always wants to be involved. If she sees me doing something she will run right over and get in the middle of it. I've taken her to Petsmart before and she did well. I brought a little purse for her to hide in, and she actually didn't like being in there she preferred to be out and ride on my arms or shoulder. She let's strangers pet her, she even started climbing down my arm to greet the cashier at checkout. I think because her personality is so different than her siblings, she isn't getting all the stimulation she needs and deserves. I was thinking maybe she could be trained to be a limited shoulder rat? Maybe it would utilize her intelligence and curiosity better. We definitely have a very special bond, she's kind of like a dog actually in some ways. Right now she's laying with me while she eats, she's the only rat who will come to me and stay for an extended period of time. Any thoughts or advice would be great! I just think she needs more as she is the most human centered of my rats. 


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## Jackie (Jan 31, 2013)

Sounds like a loooovely rat <3 You need to read up on Rat Daddy's shoulder rat writings! The thread is somewhere...


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## Jackie (Jan 31, 2013)

http://www.ratforum.com/showthread.php?51718-Shoulder-Rats-and-all-out-of-home-rat-activities


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

I have, that's where I got the idea for her being a limited shoulder rat  I could never do the true shoulder rat thing, I would be so scared she would be killed or get lost or any number of horrible things. I also don't trust myself to be a true shoulder rat owner  but a limited shoulder rat sounds good. I'm just wanting advice (especially from RatDaddy) on whether or not she sounds like a rat with that potential, and then from there what do I do to train her to be limited but not necessarily go as far as being true 


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

I'm also a bit worried about what if when I try to train her, she doesn't listen to me? What if we get to a safe site and she doesn't listen and runs away forever or something. When I take her outside/in public she never bolts for it, never startles, but she really does have an insatiable curiosity, so she might be hard to manage. In the free range room, I can call her and she will zip over, but most of the time I don't have to because like I said where I am, she is (as long as I'm doing something she wants in on of course ) I'm not really worried she will run away out of fear, I'm worried she will be so overwhelmed by how exciting it is to be outside and really be free and she'll get so caught up in exploring she won't listen to me. Is this a legitimate fear? Or do you think she'll be fine? 


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

I have seen RatDaddy mention how Fuzzy Rat would go crazy for wild boy rats, if my girl actually lives with two boys would she not be as affected? 


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## cagedbirdsinging (May 28, 2012)

This is one of those times I wish we could tag people in a thread to have them notified. If Rat Daddy doesn't pop in, I'd send him a PM. He really is the expert on things like this.


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

A fertile strong male will have an attraction for her no matter what. 

Train her first for the name, come, and up commands. I'd recommend not using treats or sound cues for training and yes it is possible but you have to give praise and get a lot of reward. 

For my limited boy, the next thing I did was take him in daylight to a secure area - I used my enclosed front porch. 

This is when he quickly fell apart and couldn't qualify for further advancement. His prey identity kicked into overdrive and he wouldn't obey. 


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Sometimes when I call her I can't tell if she's coming to her name, or just coming because I'm just generally getting her attention and she wants to see what's up. It's also a bit hard to train her as I have the other three and only one free range room, so when I called her last night everyone (except my champagne who has really bad vision and prefers to stay up high) came running. So it's hard to focus on just her when everyone is getting in the way. I also still have to think of a safe sight, I'll start looking around when I'm driving. I don't have a screened in porch myself, but I do have a friend who does, so I think I'll take her over there and see how she does. If she falls apart like yours did, then I'll know her limits and find another way to let her use her personality. 


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## nanashi7 (Jun 5, 2013)

You'll have to train her alone while the others nap, because her trust and ability to listen will matter. 

Just because she's a shoulder rat won't mean that she'll always listen. 


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Okay I'll have to wait for the sleepiest time of day and leave the others in the cage. If she already comes to me when I call her and always comes up into my hand when I put it out, if I just start saying like "come" or "up" or something while I'm doing it will that work? Like she already understands what to do and she knows her cue (me putting out my hand) so do I just start using the same word every time to form a verbal command?


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

OK, so it does sound like you have a very special rat. The one in a thousand or at least the one in several hundred that are practically born for the challenge.

The first thing you really need to understand is that a safe site is exactly what it implies... a safe place to take your rat to. There should be shrubs, but no trees your rat can climb and get out of reach. I have an 8 year old daughter that can really climb trees so that's no problem for us. There should be no hiding places your rat can disappear into and there needs to be boundaries. Now I prefer open mowed lawn as a boundary for two reasons. First a rat can't outrun most people for more than about 100 feet. Sure she can bolt and she's going to get a head start on you, but after about 100 feet you will overtake her. The older and slower you are the more room you should give yourself. Second, it's against the nature of most rats to run out into wide open spaces. They will prefer to stay around the low shrubs you have chosen to play near. It should go without saying that tall grassy areas and marshes are hazards. Boundaries can also be tall walls... here be careful, Fuzzy Rat could run straight up brick walls to a point and field stone walls were no challenge for her she went up them like they were stairs. Water makes for a good barrier as long as your rat can't see the other side. A shallow brook isn't going to slow your rat down much, but it won't try and swim across a river or lake or ocean. My experience shows that even rats that like to swim, like Fuzzy Rat did, won't swim to any place they can't see.

Larger parks offer the kind of space that works well... they often have small plantings of shrubs or flowers surrounded by lots of lawn. Cemeteries are often pretty good too. Again there are small plantings of shrubs surrounded by short grass, corporate parks are nice, and even school yards can be good places. 

You can use mixed boundaries, for example the actual school building on one side of your safe site and the playground on the other. As half your escape area is blocked by a large building you only need half the space on the other side. The same goes true if there's a pond at the park. The pond becomes the virtual wall you can work up against.

One important footnote... chain link fences are only suitable for blocking your progress, your rat will run right through leaving you on the wrong side. Most fences are a hazard not a boundary. And parking lots with moving cars are out of the question too.

You also most likely don't want to pick a dog park or any place people are likely to have dogs free ranging. I suppose that goes without saying but it's something to consider.

When choosing your safe site take available time into account. Certain places are great safe sites times when they aren't used for other purposes. We often let our rats run on the soccer field after dark. It is well lit, but no one plays there after dark and many schools are closed in summer. Parks are often nearly empty on weekdays... so a place can become a great safe site at off peak hours.

Alright, I know it seems a little challenging to think of a safe site because you are thinking outside the box, but they are hiding in plain sight. About half of the people reading this have a perfectly good safe site within walking distance of their house and about 90% have one within a 10 minute drive. Remember, you are looking for some cover where your rat will feel safe, but you are also looking for boundaries that will encourage your rat not to leave you.

Once you get to your safe site, if you have chosen well, your rat is at not much greater risk than in your living room. You actually took a bigger chance of losing your rat at petsmart or when you walked across the parking lot from your car to the store.

So now that you are there, first walk around a little while find a nice shrub or planting for your rat to explore and sit down with her, let her sniff her way around. If she bolts into the shrub and hunkers down there and won't move or come out, that's about it for your program. If she won't even leave you to explore the shrubs or planting, again you are not heading for true shoulder rat. Optimally, she should free range around you, exploring but keeping you close by. She should come when called most of the time. You never get 100% with rats, but you should get a good idea of how she handles commands. 

Mostly start making mental notes of her behaviors, rats foreshadow and telegraph their next moves. When Fuzzy Rat smelled a boy rat, she started preening to make herself date ready, I suspect lots of human girls do the same, then she would sniff the scent trail to try and get some idea of who she is going to meet, and then she would start to slowly follow the trail with glassy eyes and a hop in her step... Boy rats don't leave trails in straight lines, so she would be tracking in the same convoluted line the boy left his trail in... Same goes if your rat is about to go and explore something, she usually stares for a while, then it circles around to invite you to follow and works up her courage and then she goes. 

The worst thing your rat can do is panic and run to hide. This is a rat you are going to lose down a sewer grate sooner or later, or it's going to run under a moving car. It will eventually get used to playing at a safe site, but it's never going to be a shoulder rat. If it will stay on you, can take it out, but you will always be on your highest alert and you can NEVER put it down anywhere other than your safe site. This is an indoor rat. There's nothing you can really do about it, especially if it actually jumps off you to find a hiding place. 

The next problem rat is one that keeps wandering farther and farther from you and become more and more independent and less likely to come back as it gets distance from you... These are pretty rare rats, but they are looking for a new pack, and they are actually looking to leave you. They can broadside you, because you won't see it coming. For female rats the most dangerous age is between two and four months old. The best heads up is that these rats won't feel bonded to you, you will actually feel them slipping away emotionally before they do it for real. As they get more competent, they also grow more distant. They are rare rats, but you are going to lose this one sooner or later. It wants to get away and it will. Basically, it lacks the bond with you that a pack animal should have. To be very honest, this isn't going to be much of an indoor rat either. It's the rat that doesn't want to come out of the cage to play and when out of the cage it prefers to avoid you and it just about never gives kisses or wants any kind of affection... I'm not sure losing a rat like this isn't actually a strange kindness to both you and the rat. But if you want to keep it, keep it indoors... This is pretty much the opposite of a true shoulder rat. At the safe site, it will either be clinging to you or more likely trying to hide from you... it won't explore normally and it generally doesn't like strangers or humans in general... Like I said, the signs will be there if you are observant. 

Now assuming your rat isn't the kind that panics or the kind that wants to get away from you, you can start to use up some of your boundaries. Try to coax your rat out into the open spaces more, and expand your play area. Do little field trips further away from the safe shrubs and see what your rat does. Some rats will always run to you, some will play for a while and then follow their scent trails back to where you first put them down. And yes, most rats are secretly leaving scent trails behind outside. After a while you are going to get an idea of how your rat acts. You are looking for your rat to run to you when scared and to stay on you when you are walking and perhaps to follow you as you lead it about. It should be interacting with you, not avoiding you. It may not be "obedient" but it has to be predictable.

At the safe site you can engineer various tests, I'll walk away and see what happens, or let my rats explore and see if they come back on their own or when I recall them, I'll introduce them to folks who walk by who seem interested. 

Learning how to work with your rat is a matter of experience and confidence. It all starts in a safe place. Once you are pretty confident of your rat and your rat handling skills at the safe site, you move to less safe places, like your back yard or a walk down the sidewalk on a street that isn't too busy, perhaps a store that isn't crowded. Eventually you can go almost everywhere with your rat. My final test is a fireworks show, I work our rats up to it, but if our rats are still with us after the show, they're true shoulder rats, we're not likely to ever take our rats to more hazardous situation than a fireworks show at night.

Fuzzy Rat actually calmed down after the fireworks started and enjoyed the show, Max enjoys it for a little while and then gets stressed, Cloud would prefer to watch from under my t-shirt. But each rat has passed the test. But remember, our rats earned enough trust for us to take them there. It wasn't our first day out with them. 

So, your first objective is to find that safe site and a safe way to get Naydeen there. Then just have some fun. After a few minutes to just a few visits you will know if she and you are ready for to see more of the great big world.

This was the last time we took Fuzzy Rat to the safe site, she was already about half tumors...

But she still liked to crawl about and explore stuff in the grass... and she was dragging herself out to see what we were up to...
View attachment 152417


Now here's Amelia... and no way was she getting out of that safe looking tree... not for me, not if the tree was on fire... And if we put her on the ground out in the open she would bolt back to the tree in terror. She eventually worked her way down to the ground and would sniff about under the tree before she passed away at about 2 years old, but she never ever went out into an open space voluntarily. We eventually moved to a clump of about half a dozen trees where she could explore a little going from tree to tree and she got pretty comfortable there, but that was her absolute outdoor limit. Even an indoor rat can go to the safe site and might even enjoy it, but when you see your rat acting like this, outdoor training is pretty much over. Amelia was safe to carry around under my jacket, but she would pee on me when we went into stores and if I put her down she would bolt for the nearest hiding spot. She was a great indoor rat and fine to take for a short walk, but I always had to be on guard for something spooking her. We could only take her outside because we were very experienced rat handlers, and we worked with her at the safe site, not because she was a shoulder rat. A very good trainer can handle a marginal rat, he or she really knows, but it's more work than fun.

View attachment 152425


Yup, Fuzzy Rat again, barely able to crawl after us... no problem with being out in the open... and never one to miss a photo op.
View attachment 152433


Max doing her final true shoulder rat test... no she doesn't exactly love fireworks, but she worked her way here from the safe site. This is no small accomplishment, even if she isn't Fuzzy Rat she's got great skills.

View attachment 152441


Every rat is different. How you handle each depends on the rat. It's a partnership between the rat and it's human and by the time you leave the safe site most of what I'm saying will make perfect sense to you. Think of the safe site as learning to walk on a tight rope with a safety net. Your chances of success is directly proportionate to not getting killed while you are learning, with rats, it's the rat that gets killed when you screw up... The safe site is your safety net.

Best luck and have fun.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

I have an outdoor deck at my house, it's very very high up and has a rail going all the way around it. The only possible way of escape is either opening the door, or getting on the roof at one spot which I could easy sit at and cover up. Would this be a good pre-safe sight to kind of do what nanashi did with her screened in porch to see whether or not Naydeen be comfortable outside to begin with? I walked round my front lawn one time with her riding on my shoulder, but that's about the extent of her experience being outdoors so far. 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

My rats love to hang their heads out my 3rd floor window, I open the screens for them. So far none have ever jumped to their deaths, but you should consider if the railing would stop a rat that's scared and panicking. Let's just put it this way, I don't poke my rat's butts when they are daydreaming with their noses 30 feet from the ground.

My very first mistake in shoulder ratting was trying to start in my own front yard... It all seemed so easy and safe. And yes, my front yard was very safe for me, hedges, thick hostas, parked and moving cars, and the overgrown field next door didn't scare me one bit. But it was in fact a rat escape paradise. It only took Fuzzy Rat about 10 minutes to realize she was literally free... Even at 4 weeks old she just had to explore everything she saw. And with only 10 feet to catch her before she hit the hedges, there was no way we could react quickly enough to get ahead of her. Now keep in mind even at 4 weeks old Fuzzy Rat was Fuzzy Rat. She was incapable of getting lost and she came back in about 45 very very long minutes... My (then) 5 year old daughter was on the verge of tears and I'm doing my best dad impersonation keeping calm and reassuring her that Fuzzy Rat loved her and would come right back, while really wondering if the pet shop was still open and if they had more rats in stock. Fuzzy Rat coming back, saved my bacon and my credibility as a dad... But that scare made me objectively evaluate what a safe place really looks like. Sure, all of my rats go in the front yard now... The vacant field is gone and there's a nice lawn there and my rats are all safe site trained and aren't going to run away or into the street.

I realize that it seems like a daunting task to find a safe site. I also understand the tendency to think of your home as the safest place in the world. And once, someone sent me a photo of their 40 acre front lawn and I had to agree that it most likely was. But I doubt most of us have this kind of property. 

To be entirely honest, Fuzzy Rat never really needed to go to a safe site, it was more for us to get to learn our craft than for her to be comfortable outdoors. But other rats we have worked with needed it very much, it's the reason we didn't lose them. For example, we found that Max likes to hibernate in tall trees. She finds a perfect perch and takes a nap. Sure she will eventually come down, but she won't respond to her recall command if she's happy where she is and in a real world situation that isn't acceptable. So, where we could just send Fuzzy Rat up any tree if we were otherwise busy, Max only gets to climb trees, my daughter can follow her up and bring her down if she gets stuck on stubborn. This is a good thing to know before you find yourself sitting on a curb under a tall oak patiently waiting for your rat to come down in a bad neighborhood in the small hours of the morning. 

I honestly can't imagine many places in the world where you can't find a few good safe sites and likely one great one nearby. The bigger and better the safe site the more you can do there, but still even a pretty basic one is better than nothing. Remember, safe sites are hiding in plain sight. You walk or drive past them every day. Normally you don't notice them because they aren't big attractions. 

One day you may find yourself at a fireworks show surrounded by strangers in the dark, or mobbed by children at a local park or crossing a busy parking lot or street, and you will be assessing dangers, evaluating potential escape routs, assessing your rats stress level and making dozens of decisive decisions on the fly every minute. And it will come natural and be easy, just like driving a car. And Naydeen will be completely comfortable knowing she can trust your decision making leadership. People will look at you in amazement as you do what looks impossible like walk your rat at heel or jog with her. But first you have to survive your first outings. Again, it's like learning to drive a car, the first time you do it shouldn't be out on I 95. You start in an empty parking lot, and then drive on quiet side streets before you hit urban traffic or highway speeds. It's not crashing in the parking lot that makes successful highway driving possible.

Some rats wash out at the safe site, which is OK too because they still get to live happy lives indoors, some rats have limits which you will learn to manage and some rats can become spectacular travel companions, but each needs a fair chance to not get killed wile you learn to handle them and they get used to operating in dangerous places.

I know I sound like I'm beating my point to death... but I really want you and Naydeen to succeed. Having a shoulder rat is awesome! It's the kind of fun for you and your rat that's hard to describe... Sometimes you get mobbed by kids and crowds and you get treated like a celebrity. Sometimes it's just chilling out on the pier with your rats napping next to you on the bench... or even swimming in a cool mountain lake with your rats... Just like all of the great places you can drive to once you learn to drive a car safely, there are many wonderful places to take your rats to once you get through your first outings to the safe site. 

There are only two absolute rules to shoulder ratting....

Rule 1) Never get your rat killed or lost!
Rule 2) See rule number 1

When you break either rule, it's what shoulder ratters call "having a bad day". And you can't even imagine how bad it feels... because in the end, you know down deep, it was because you got careless or screwed up. 

Everything you do outdoors with your rat needs to be practiced and tested until it is second nature. Then you don't make regrettable mistakes. You take on bigger challenges based on past experience so your risks are actually better managed as you get better at your craft and as the rat becomes more confident and competent. When you see the fireworks and beach photos, those were actually better managed than our initial outings. Fuzzy Rat at the beach or Max at the fireworks were relatively safe because we knew both rats were up for the challenge and we knew we could handle whatever happened. Sure there are still going to be surprises, but you can deal with them one at a time rather than all at once.

Be safe and have fun.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Hm, I guess I will have to start hunting for a safe site. Right now I can't really think of anything, but like you said they're in plain sight and you just have to discover it. There are a few isolated graveyards in my area, but I would feel weird if someone discovered me playing in the graveyard with a rat. Could my front yard maybe be a safe site? I live in the woods and I have no neighbors. My front yard is open and is on a small hill, surrounding the hill is a circular gravel driveway, and beyond that is woods on three sides and a lake on the other. Or would it be bad because of the woods? 
Here's a picture from my front porch: 
http://i1243.photobucket.com/albums...D-8BFA-4690-95F7-429EC02E254A_zpsajc9xwba.jpg


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

The house and the lake are very good boundaries unless your rat can get under a porch or something... The woods are awful. All you need is a pile of leaf litter or a chipmunk hole and your rat might be gone. And woods hide snakes, raptors, foxes and other predators. Its hard to really get a handle of the scale of your yard. If you can stay a couple hundred feet from the woods it will work as long as you can run down Naydeen before she hits the wood line. You also have to consider the chances of a bird of prey hiding in the trees, so cast an eye upwards regularly. 

I could certainly work with that much space with our current girls. Cloud is a scardy rat and hangs close to us and Max isn't big on exploring. Fuzzy Rat would have definitely made the woods, but she would have come back in about an hour and she was smart enough not to get eaten by anything. We lost a rat named Curly into a marsh, she wanted to run away and she ran under a bridge, climbed over a wall, went through a fence and splashed through a brook to do it... It was a record 100 yard plus spectacular escape effort, but she pulled it off in more space than you are working with cleverly using terrain to her advantage. To her credit she had become very outdoor competent by the time she made her great escape and used every trick she knew against us. We should have washed her out at the safe site, but I certainly hope she found the life she was looking for. I don't want to sound flip about it, even if she didn't want to be with us, it was very sad to lose her, for us and Fuzzy Rat. But when we got Amelia and she flunked the safe site, we were much more careful with her. Amelia to her credit never wanted to run away, but she would panic and that was bad enough to wash her out. There's no shame in a rat washing out at the safe site, and no risk of losing or killing her there.

When I say shoulder ratting has a steep learning curve, I mean when you screw up your rat is dead or lost... You can learn from your own mistakes, but you are much better off learning from mine. 

I'm very proud to announce that Cloud just passed her final true shoulder rat exam and fireworks test on the 3rd of July, making her our third true shoulder rat, it was close and she was stressed to the extreme but she went down my shirt rather than try to run away... she hung on by the skin of her teeth but she didn't panic and she didn't bolt during the bomb blast salvos. Of course Max re-certified, but also with some trouble, after about 10 minutes of actually enjoying the show, she started losing her nerve... But she remained manageable throughout, even if it wasn't easy to handle her when she started losing her cool. Fireworks outdoors at night are extreme even for a true shoulder rat... It's the hardest test I can think of. Even a marginal grade is better than most rats will ever do in their lifetimes. But we do it because after that, everything else is a cake walk. So we start out at a perfectly safe site and work up to a fireworks show... From daydream to nightmare... our shoulder rats deserve respect because they have earned it. They passed the safe site, they passed shopping at stores, they passed meeting and greeting and handling by strangers, they proved themselves competent and safe to put down on the ground and then they didn't panic when everything around them was exploding... But we didn't start out at the fireworks show, it was a journey.

If Naydeen is a rat that is already well bonded to you and isn't going to break for freedom your yard could be OK, if Naydeen panics or wants to escape you're way too close to disaster. I might work in a space like your yard if I had my daughter along to run back up if something went wrong and I'd work as far from the woods as possible until I really got to know the rat I was working with. 
I'd also watch out for larval deer ticks that close to the woods.

Your yard is a nice place to play with a trained shoulder rat, one you know won't run away. You will have to adjust your skills to watching for raptors and predators, urban rat trainers don't have to deal with, you should always inspect for larval ticks and sweep for new animal burrows but Fuzzy Rat became pretty forest competent. I never took her into deep leaf litter because snakes can hide there but otherwise I wasn't going to lose her in the woods.

Certainly, if someone asks, you could have brought your shoulder rat to the cemetery along to visit some distant relative who's name appears on one of the weathered gravestones... But graveyards are pretty lonely places and there aren't too many people there to bother you. And most cemeteries have an older section where almost no one ever goes. I know a cemetery that's actually back in the woods, it's still maintained but I doubt anyone has been buried there since 1920. Little flags turn up once or twice a year, but you almost never see any flowers left there. I've never seen another human being near the place even though someone must be cutting the grass and planting the flags. I'd have no problems being found there, I recognized one of the names as the ancestor of a friend and I'm there to visit that grave... Having my daughter and shoulder rat along is nothing unusual for me anywhere.

Keep in mind, shoulder rat training can be over in as little as a few visits to a couple of weeks. You are working to establish a baseline for Naydeen's behavior and to get her to be more comfortable outside. You are also practicing watching for predators, and dangers and learning how to recall her and handle her without walls. If she's got the kind of potential you think she has, she should blow right through the safe site and then you are going to be facing your back yard next... But if you called her personality wrong, you are going to be spending your time chasing her around grave stones and digging her out of small bushes, but at least you didn't lose her into the woods.

Working with a true shoulder rat in a rural area is very different than working in an urban area, I've done both. With the right rat it's still not too hard, it's just a different skill set for your rat and for you to learn. You don't have sewer grates or lots of moving cars, but you have snakes, you don't have as many dogs or toddlers, but you have foxes. And you manage space differently. I zone out marshes, and you zone out leaf litter and wood and rock piles that might hide snakes. An urban rat handler works against walls and you can work against the lake shore. As Naydeen becomes more confident and competent and you get really good at predicting her behavior and managing her you can carry her right through the deep woods like I can our rats, even if I wouldn't let a rat explore anyplace snakes abound. I mean snakes are designed to eat rodents so they have an advantage few other predators have. Also watch out for owls after dark, they are silent and fast, keep your rat close after dark, they won't pick a rat off your shoulder, but you won't know they are there either. If you live in a rural area, you will need to develop a rural skill set and Naydeen will need to get comfy in her environment. She's going to have to get comfortable in both your front and back yard and you will need to be competent to handle her there.... But don't rush yourself if there are better options... 

I'd prefer to start out a the cemetery given a choice. But with a rat I already trusted not to panic or run off, I would definitely work in your yard to prepare for more challenging environments. 

That first and second outing is always your biggest risk, you just don't know what will happen when your rat hits the ground for the first time. It's so sweet when they hang out with you and casually explore around and follow you as you walk, and it's a real kick in the head when they bolt for cover away from you. The only way to know what's going to happen is to put them down next to you, if your site is safe you have nothing to worry about, if you chose the wrong site and have the wrong rat, it's all over but the crying. 

I'm betting on Naydeen being a great shoulder rat, but I wouldn't bet her life on it. And as a rat trainer and handler working with a rat in the woods is hairy business even with a good rat. I never let Fuzzy Rat get more than 15 feet away from me in the forest. 15 feet is about the distance I can dash to keep her out of a animal burrow or away from a copperhead hiding in the leaves or from something swooping down. At a suburban park, I had no problem with her exploring at up to 50 yards away as long as the sky was clear and I could see her, basically it was as far as I could see her. Woods is advanced shoulder ratting and not something you should try your first time out whether on purpose or by accident. 

You are going to find lots of areas like your yard where great meets awful in an abrupt way, you are going to learn Naydeen's proclivities and you are going to know just how fast you have to be to catch her and how much distance you need. You are going to know if she comes or stops when she's recalled and eventually you will be able to walk a tightrope six inches away from disaster. And when you screw up, and you will screw up, you will maintain your cool and regain control of the situation by working together with your rat. 

It's a steep learning curve, so do everything you can to put the odds in your favor. There are probably only a few hundred true shoulder rats in the whole world. Out of tens of thousands of pet rats only a few hundred live the special life a shoulder rat does... You are about to give Naydeen the chance to be a very special animal, literally one among thousands. Most folks reading this will never even see a true shoulder rat or even a limited one other than in pictures. You have got a great rat, be careful with her... Prepare, test and progress and take on greater challenges as your skills and Naydeen's confidence permits and you will do fine.

Best luck.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Okay so after reading that, I don't think my yard is safe at all. I'm having a hard time thinking of a place now, everywhere I think of either has woods or roads near it. I'll have to keep looking. First I want to make sure she can respond to commands as often as you can expect a rat too. We made another Petsmart run the other day, and she was a lot more shy. It was also midday and technically nap time though (they are most active after 9PM. In the store this time she didn't like being on my shoulder she wanted to lay in her little bag with her head poking out, but when we got close to a shelf or something she wanted to get off and explore. Then of course when we were walking though the parking lot she wants to come out (I zipped the bag almost shut so she couldn't). She didn't seem scared or anything, I think she was just wanting to relax and chill in her bag while mom shopped for her. I also learned that she doesn't seem intimidated by other animals, there were dogs in Petsmart and we got within pretty close range of them at some point and she didn't care. I think I will try my really high deck next as that's the only place I can think of to do a trial run. Then I'll hunt for a real safe site if all works out. 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Roads are better than forest.. sometimes there isn't too much traffic but the leaf litter and trees are always there. Playground? town municipal complex? Corporate park? cleared and turned over cornfield? some friendly neighbor's mega lawn? (there's always some nut that clears 40 acres so he can spend all weekend cutting grass and planting gnomes) Sports areas like football fields and baseball diamonds? A smaller place that backs up to a river or lake cutting off half the escape routs? Think of a place where you can look into the distance and not see tall trees blocking your view, then if you look down you don't see tall grass or overgrowth and you are on the right track. Think big lawn or sand, it's too hot for pavement in summer. And enough distance to run down Naydeen if you need to. Or hard physical barriers like a walmart building or a water barrier like a lake or river... The safe site is there and you've seen it, now you just have to put all of the pieces together.

And yes, you are starting to make some interesting observations about Naydeen... and you are beginning to notice she is changing because every time you take her out she's adapting and becoming more competent and experienced. The first time in the store she might have been terrified and attached to you like glue, the next time she might want to explore and be much harder to control. Expecting your rat to do the same thing every time you go outside is a big mistake, she's growing and adapting and you have to do the same.... She has to learn that she has to stay on you in a store and that she can NEVER go on a food counter at a fast food place. She has to learn that she can explore but only up to a point and in certain places and she has to know when you are recalling her to come back. And you have to practice controlling her during stressful situations. If you saw us working with Fuzzy Rat you would think she was a dog and it was super easy, but it was all practiced and choreographed. Indoors she would never come when I called if I weren't holding food... Outdoors where life was dangerous she listened well, indoors where she was the master of her environment, she had no need to listen to me. No stress, no following commands. Indoors one set of rules, outdoors another. The purpose of the safe site is to create a practice environment as real as possible without the real dangers... Also watch for poison mushrooms when working in or near the woods... Some domestic rats will often eat things they shouldn't.

You can do the deck if you want to, but it isn't real world enough. You are ready for the safe site, that's where you are going to start really getting to know Naydeen and start developing your basic skills. If you can walk with her there on shoulder or on arm and control her there, you should be able to get across a quiet parking lot with her. If you can cross a quiet parking lot safely, you can most likely cross a busy parking lot. Once you can safely cross parking lots streets are not too bad a risk and so on... Your never 100% sure you can do something until you have done it, but you should be 80-90% sure before you try it... My rat stays with me or goes to the car, she doesn't panic, she's generally calm when handled, I've worked with her in the dark and she's pretty good with commands and she's OK in stores and around people and it's time for the fireworks... I'm 80% sure when I go in and I know what happened afterwards. While the fireworks are going off, I'm full on rat handling. And no, I've never put a rat down during fireworks, not even Fuzzy Rat. Its a bonding and self control test. Without a very trusted human there no rat will endure the experience out in the open on it's own. I'd like to think that our rats would jump back on us, but I'm not 80% sure so I won't try it. It's always about managing risks and making good predictions based on experience and testing under actual or very similar conditions.

Amelia was friendly and confident in the house. She listened and came when called. She was a very smart and loving rat, but as soon as he hit the ground outdoors she scrambled for the first dark place she saw. She kept to the trees at the safe site and never walked out into the open and she panicked easily everywhere else... Nothing she did indoors would have given you a clue about what would happen when you walked out the door with her.

Her failure at the safe site made it clear how limited she was. Even though we took her places she rarely ever touched the ground. It was a terrible shame she never enjoyed the great big world like her roommates, but she lived a full life and died of natural causes. If it weren't for a great safe site, her life may have ended very differently. 

I almost envy your first shoulder rat outing to the safe site, it's so filled with emotion and expectation and it's like magic when it goes well... Seeing a rat experience the great big world and free ranging under her own power sniffing new things and exploring new spaces is like watching a child walk for the first time. If Naydeen has what it takes and you bring her home safe and sound, you will know exactly what I mean. Soon she may be free ranging in your yard and swimming in your lake, but for today it's rule 1 and rule 2...


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Lately Naydeen has been acting weird. She's gotten a lot less hyper and she doesn't follow me around as much. I have no clue why. She also seems to be interpreting my behavior and learning signals more closely now. Every time I open the cage, the other three will come running, but Naydeen will wait until she's absolutely sure it's definitely free range time and not just mom sticking her head in the cage with no intention of letting her out. Then once she's sure, she's the first one to climb out. I'm a little worried about her behavior recently as it's not normal for her. She's just acting....off, but just a day or two ago this week she was acting really different. I'm going to wait to take her outside until I'm sure she get back to her old self 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

First of all, most rats go through changes as they get older, the playful pup, the more serious adult and finally the wise crone for the ladies... I've found that shoulder rats change even more dramatically...

After the fireworks show Max is more confident and around more, responding more to commands and less reclusive. Oddly she stopped taking treats for the last few days and seems to be on a diet, but is more playful and more apt to greet strangers and just hang out with us... Every experience a rat goes through changes them. Max was more outgoing last fall but then after a winter indoors with the aging and dying Amelia she became very withdrawn. She rejected cloud and spent a few weeks chasing her around trying to kill her, now they are good friends.

Fuzzy Rat was a Prima Donna, she was supremely confident and larger than life. She experienced more than most rats might in 30 lifetimes. She was bold and stubborn and determined. She could also be sweet and loving, but she had a very complex personality developed through a lifetime of experience. At her prime she would lead groups of teenagers on walks through the park at night... She would literally strut and look back to make sure the group was following... Maybe stoned teens will follow anything with a tail, but they seemed to get a kick out of it too, and we would all be making jokes and comparing stories and following a rat around, and Fuzzy was the leader of the pack and she was thrilled... When she got older and her strength started failing and she got confused sometimes she was like an old lady, more cautious, more withdrawn and more likely to spend time on her own.... She would still perk up when she was engaged and put on quite the show, but knowing her all her life, I could see she was slipping in and out... Her eyes would glaze over and then brighten back up.

Naydeen is going to change as every normal rat does as it gets older and with every new experience. That's what I mean by more confident and competent. A shoulder rat, especially a true shoulder rat isn't like a caged rat. It's a vastly superior animal. It has to face life and death situations, and it sees things and does things and goes places and meets people and is changed forever with every experience. And you treat it differently. 

At first the changes seem pretty dramatic as Naydeen goes from a cage pet to a shoulder rat. Some days she might become stressed and become withdrawn, the next day she may have a great time and become more outgoing and gregarious. It may look like mood swings... Not to worry, it won't change her core personality, but she will become more complex in her thinking and behavior. Basically, she's growing up.

It's nothing to worry about, and it's quite normal. Even in your little trips to petsmart, she's met more people and seen more things than your other rats have, she's changed already. At the safe site, she will change more. She will deal with more stress and new experiences and face her fears of being outdoors in the open, and she will either panic or become stronger and braver than is possible for most rats...

I've posted these pics before.... but take another look at them and consider what the rat is really doing...








This is Fuzzy Rat way up on a tree. Just hanging out preening... Have you ever seen a rat hanging out in broad daylight preening in a tree before? Take a moment and consider how much courage and self confidence it takes for a tiny animal to do this... 









Fuzzy Rat is heading back to the car, she's the white dot next to the black trash can... She's way out in the open and she's cool and confident and she's navigating a maze in her mind that ranges across a park nearly a quarter mile long... 









And Max at 6 to 8 weeks old hanging out on kids she just met and a busy town fair at night under the lights with generators running and rides moving before her final exam... still a little shy but in control.









And here's Max passing her true shoulder rat test... The whole world is blowing up around her...









And here's max after the test, going hand to hand not shy at all, meeting and greeting and 50 times more confident than just a few hours before... She survived the storm and she's bigger and bolder than ever before... She IS a true shoulder rat now. She's being treated like a true shoulder rat now and she knows she's someone special. She's showboating, and getting praise and respect and love and she earned it.

So, not to worry, Naydeen is going to change, she has to adapt to her new life. It's normal and it's good. She will become more serious and more thoughtful and more competent and more confident, she will learn lots of things your other rats won't know. She will do things your other rats won't do and she will will evolve. Along the way there will be some down days and scary experiences and some days when she'll be overwhelmed and other days she will be on top of the world. Shoulder rats are very complex animals. And you are going to change too, you are going to see Naydeen with more respect and you are going to handle her differently and you are going to learn to protect her and be her partner more than her owner. Basically, don't get hung up on today, tomorrow will be a different story again. When you come home from your fist safe site trip, you will have a slightly different rat and as she becomes a shoulder rat she will keep changing as she becomes what she needs to be.

But take a moment to imagine the relationship Fuzzy Rat was capable of, with all of the people she met and all of the things she did and all of the places she went, and all of the things she saw and learned... In private, she could be arrogant, and insist on things the way she wanted, and she could be intentionally destructive to get attention, and if she didn't want to come or do something she didn't. And she learned to communicate with us to let us know exactly what she wanted... Sometimes she could be hard to deal with, when she got in a snit or things didn't go her way, but she was always amazing. 

All of her advanced personality traits aside, Fuzzy Rat never changed her wonderful core personality. But she very much evolved from a pet to a partner to a friend. 

Perhaps in a most simple way, you might relate to the life of a human... A maiden becomes a woman and is changed forever, then again when graduates college and when she becomes a mother and then again when her children move out or die and perhaps again when she becomes a grandmother and retires... with every experience the girl that was is changed subtly. She's still the little girl playing with her plushy animals, but life gets more real and more serious and she becomes more deep and rich in her personality, and she understands more and some days will be hard and some will be fun and one day she will be old and look back on a life lived and hopefully have a lifetime of wonderful memories to reflect on.

Remember, you aren't trying to preserve Naydeen's old self, your helping her to become a new better rat... A shoulder rat is something a rat IS not something a rat DOES.


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## bloomington bob (Mar 25, 2014)

great seeing these pictures again - and some I hadn't seen before, such as the one where Fuzzy Rat is heading back to the car


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Wow Rat Daddy, that really gave me a new way of looking at rats and able to see how deeply complex they are. Naydeen is still growing and maturing, she's about six months old now (I think, she could actually be older or younger). I also think I might have found a safe site. There is a very very large cornfield near my house with absolutely no bushes or trees nearby. It is bordered on one side by a small wooded area, one side by a mostly vacant road, and the two other sides by fairly busy roads. I know the roads aren't ideal, but the field is huge and the roads are really really far away if you stand in the center of the field. Naydeen is black and white so it might also be easier to see her in contrast to the dead yellow grass should I have to chase her down. The only thing I'm worried about is getting in trouble for trespassing or something since it's a crop field. It's corn though and all of it has been cut down and I think the hay is gone too. 


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

This may be a dumb question, but is it really important that a shoulder rat respond to verbal commands regularly? I've never trained or really even tried to train Naydeen to respond to verbal commands. I just stick out my hand, and she comes no matter if I said "come" or "up" or if I said "banana pudding". She comes as a response to my hand. Is it important that I teach her verbal commands before taking her to the safe site?


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

The only thing you need to do with Naydeen before going to the safe site is to love her and bond with her. That's it.

Once you get to the safe site everything changes... the stress level goes up, your voice changes the sound echo's differently, the light is different there are no walls... There are thousands of new smells every few inches.... worms, bugs birds, flowers, grass other rat smells and maybe even other humans... Imagine Naydeens experience the moment she hits the ground and she's FREE for the first time in her life... She isn't prepared and you aren't prepared, you are winging it... 

Then you start to calm her, to talk to her, to pick her up and reassure her, to call her and to work with her. You try and start off near a small bush or shrub where she can hide if she's too afraid. You let her experience and you try to gently guide her... It's like her first trip to the moon and you are her safety tether...

Now that you have changed the entire paradigm of Naydeen's existence... this is where you start to train her... Real word training under real world conditions. If you want to train a rat to handle the outdoors, you have to be outdoors.... If you want to train a rat to handle fireworks, you need someone to shoot up some fireworks. You can't train a rat to be outdoor competent or handle fireworks in your living room. 

There's a big difference when you give a command in your bedroom and when you give a command and it's life or death... your tone of voice is different and your rat is thinking on a whole different level.

I know I beat the safe site to death... but so much happens so fast there. Your rat goes from being a cage pet to a competent independently thinking animal and you go from being a rat owner to a rat trainer and handler... It all happens so fast you may not even notice it as you are changing and as she is growing... but that's the idea... to make the transition as safe and as painless as possible.

The corn field sounds like a pretty good idea, scope it out before you take Naydeen and if it provides her a little cover and you enough safety, it should work a treat. As there's no corn for you to be stealing, I doubt the farmer is going to get too upset with you being there. I wouldn't let her dig too much as the field may be treated with pesticides. But it should be OK for general play and exploration.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

There's also a local pond near my house, there's the pond on one side, a large patch of dirt/grass surrounding the pond, and a road surrounding the pond as a whole. Behind the road is houses. But since it's a park there are geese and ducks there but I don't think they eat rats or anything. Would this be a better safe site? It's also got little bushes and trees but the trees aren't very climbable there's no low limbs. It's a very calm area where people come to relax and feed the ducks. 


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

I just figured out why there was such an abrupt change in her personality. Overnight it seems she stopped following me, moving slow, not wanting to climb into my hand, etc. which was just bizarre for her. I noticed tonight when we were cuddling on the bed that her back leg is hurt and she isn't using it which explains everything. Clearly now the safe site visit will have to wait until she's back on four legs. 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

I hope Naydeen feels better soon.


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## bloomington bob (Mar 25, 2014)

All the best to Naydeen


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Okay it looks like she's gonna be fine, she started using the leg again today. Which do you think sounds like a better safe site? The pond, or the corn field?


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

The pond has small shrubs and more interesting terrain. You can do more there. Go there first and scope it out, look for places where you can't recover Naydeen from gopher holes or groundhog holes, walls with holes leaf litter or places she can get into where you can't get her out. Check for mushrooms and look around to make sure you have sufficient buffer zone to catch her if she runs.... Mostly rats run to the first protected place if they panic so you should think out where you will be close to the bush or shrub to start at. Better she only has a few feet to run where she will be easy to recover. Then look up into the trees for raptor nests...

Just stop and sit down or walk around a few minutes, run through all of the possible scenarios in your head... Discount the extreme ones, like a tree falling on you, or you breaking your leg chasing her... Try to stick with the most probable things that can go wrong. You can't control everything, you are going to have to take a certain amount of well calculated risk. But your safe site should actually feel about as safe as your bedroom if not more so.

Then you are ready to go.

When you get there, you do the sky sweep with your eyes and sweep your whole safe site visually before letting Naydeen out of her carrier onto you, then once she's calm sit down near a safe shrub or bush with her and let her explore a little.... then just play it by ear. Usually you will know if you are going to have a problem in just a few minutes, then it starts getting easier, but always keep your head on a swivel for threats above or crossing your safe boundaries. Other than that watch Naydeen and where she is going... always look ahead of her by as many feet as it will take to catch her.

When she starts to free range away from you start practicing recalling her and then carrying her around walking with her picking her up etc... 

You are going to get one of two feelings.... one is real queasy, like you are out of control and Naydeen is trying to get away from your or is in a state of panic... The other is increasing comfort, like she's responding to you and she may be afraid but she's curious... If she's afraid but stays with you that's not all bad either... you may be able to work with that because you are in control...

Either way don't let your guard down during your first visit, something might spook her so be ready for action.

Mostly with the rats that will become true shoulder rats things are going to very easy, literally a walk in the park... with rats that will become limited shoulder rats, you will feel like you are working more than playing... chasing more than relaxing and digging Naydeen out of places manually rather than recalling her by command. Controlling marginal rats takes skill and is a more work than pleasure... In Naydeen bolts for cover and hunkers down and won't come out even after time to cool off and relax, and / or jumps off your shoulder and / or makes a mad dash away from you... and you can't bring this behavior under control with some patient interaction... bring her back inside and wash her out. If she dives off your shoulder when you are crossing a busy street it's all over but cleaning up the stain on the street.

As you get more comfortable you can try different things at your safe site, like walking farther away making a loud noise bringing other people for her to meet, greeting strangers if any show up... You want to get as much done under controlled conditions as you can. This is the place to learn and to screw up. When Cloud was left alone at the safe site she hunkered down under the nearest shrub, and last night at our regular local park (where Cloud ran away) when we had to chase after Max who was going back to the car, we came back to find Cloud under a trash can, not 3 feet from where we left her. I just walked over to the can and leaned it over and she came right out... It was a nice feeling to be able to leave one rat alone even if it was only for a minute. And Max of course emerged from tall grass creek side, on a straight line to the car... also where she should have been knowing how she operates. Different true shoulder rats are going to be and act differently, but they don't panic and they don't run away and they don't usually hunker down where you can't retrieve them. Although if your smart, you try to avoid hidey holes and places you can't get your rats back from just for safety's sake. Just because you know your rat will come back in an hour or three doesn't mean you will always have the time to wait. When Fuzzy Rat took off she rarely came back in under 45 minutes. Knowing she was coming back was actually very reassuring... calling and sitting there waiting while people are asking where your rat went, just looked unbelievably stupid. But those are lessons for another day...

Right now, it's basic and easy stuff and don't get Naydeen lost or killed. As long as you come home with the same number of rats you left with, you did just fine, everything else is the icing and the cherry on the cupcake.

Remember, use you eyes and ears and sense of smell and intuition and watch Naydeen in case she suddenly acts afraid of something you didn't see. Do it purposefully until it becomes second nature.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

Okay tomorrow some friends and I are visiting the pond to feed the ducks and I'm going to scope it out. I tried explaining the whole shoulder rat training thing to them and it was really difficult to explain, the best thing I could come up with was telling them I was training my rat to be like a dog. If the pond proves a good safe site then I'm going to take Naydeen soon once I'm sure her foot is 100% okay. I'll post back after the first safe site test whether or not she qualified for further advancement. Fingers crossed! 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

Your doing everything right to give Naydeen her very best chance for success. If you scoped everything out and didn't miss anything, your site is safe and you practically can't lose her. So at least you shouldn't have any disasters... That's all you can do before you actually hit the ground. 

I might try and work away from the ducks, they don't eat rats, but they can be a distraction. And you don't want a big duck to spook Naydeen, well not at first, after a while an approaching duck might make for a good test to see what Naydeen does.. just be ready to get in between.

No battle plan ever survives the first skirmish, you will still need to be thinking and reacting on the fly, you've hung the safety net so it's time to step out on the high wire.

Best luck.


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

I went to the safe site and there's a sign warning that snakes have been spotted at the pond, though I've never personally seen one. Is that unsafe if I watch her closely? Technically snakes could be anywhere right not necessarily just ponds. Another option is a small basically deserted playground area surrounded on all four sides by streets and houses. 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

When you work in an urban area, sewer grates are everywhere and there are lots of people and grubby/grabby little toddler hands pop out from every group of people you meet... and people walk right up to you and pick your rat off your shoulder more often than you believe... mostly other rat owners... but seriously people actually ask you if your rat bites AFTER they are already holding her...

In the woods and rural areas you have snakes..., But to be honest snakes stand out like a sore thumb when they aren't between rocks or in leaf litter. We don't have many tree vipers in the US although I once saw a water snake in a low tree, overhanging a lake... snakes in trees are rare. So you really aren't avoiding snakes, you are avoiding leaf litter, rock piles, field stone walls woodpiles and suspicious holes in the ground. Basically you don't avoid snakes, you avoid the terrain they hide in or blend into.

Just to make a point when I was a teenager, I walked out into a marsh to look around, when a looked down there was a huge copperhead sliding over my right work boot. I don't think it even noticed me, and it was half way across my foot before I noticed it... But if you think about camouflage and seeing a snake, that's about as up close and personal as you really want to get with a pit viper...

Let me explain zoning.... When you look out over an area, imagine it in zones... So if your walking down a driveway along the side of a commercial building... the building becomes a buffer or barrier zone, the sidewalk is relatively safe, but the road is either a deadly zone or a safe zone depending on traffic. In this case if there are cars around you don't have much of a safe margin to work with... So lets go to the pond in our mental exploration... in this case the pond becomes a barrier, the beach is safe and the woods with lots of leaf litter and rocks and wood on the ground is your danger zone. The closer you are to the pond the safer you are, as your rat heads towards the woods the less safe you are... The object of the exercise is for you to map your location in your mind when you get there or as you travel around it and always keep in mind what your barriers are where you are safe and where you are going to be in danger, then depending on the rat how much buffer you need between you and the danger zone and what areas you don't have to worry about because you have a buffer. Folks with military experience will tell you, it isn't a matter of seeing the enemy, it's a matter of knowing where they are likely to be that keeps you alive.

Now, you are going to screw up, and that's where your rat's competence becomes critical... Eventually Naydeen is going to get into the woods because you will get distracted... and odds are there isn't going to be a snake there or a fox or another predator. And you are going to recall her and she will come back and life will be good again... We've survived hundreds of these kinds of screw ups, over the years, sometimes a few a day. It happens and luck is often on your side and a great true shoulder rat makes up for most of your mistakes. Once you go beyond the safe site things get less safe, but hopefully you get better at handling them and Naydeen gets more competent so things still usually break in your favor.

I'm looking forward to hearing about your first outding.


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