# What do you actually do in immersion training?



## SneakyLord (Mar 22, 2014)

Hello. I have 2 rats and they don't like coming out of the cage but once their out their cage, they're fine. People say do immersion and I've seen rat daddy's post on the guide, but I still don't get it. All I read about was some wild rats being chased and coming out a bush and how rats are like kids. I'm still like, so I have to?? Is it just like interacting with them lots? Cause that doesn't work, if your rat doesn't like interacting with you and runs when you interact with it, how will trying to do more interaction help??!! I'm so confused. Am I just dumb and can't read or is it some complex martial art? Please help.


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## DustyRat (Jul 9, 2012)

There is a rather lengthy thread on this issue at the Behavior area of the forum. But in my case, I confine myself and my new rat in my bathroom. Very small room where the new rat has to be near me whether she likes it or not. As time passes, the rat becomes accustomed to me while I pet her, scritch her, snuggle her and talk to her. I also am sure to wear my "rat hoodie". This is my extra large hoodie that I put on over my other clothes. My new and old rats take pleasure crawling over and inside it. I try and do an hour session a day for as long as I deem necessary to get my rat and myself aquainted. Some rats seem to take to me instantly. Others take much longer. Anyway, that is my two cents worth


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## ksaxton (Apr 20, 2014)

One of my rats was at first very uninterested in me and would run and hide under the blankets during free time and refused to come near me, so what I did was I got in her face and kept talking to her and petting her and not letting her run off and isolate herself. I kept doing this and within a few minutes she was venturing to come up to me and crawl through my hair. Now she will willingly come up to me and crawl on me and let me pet her! You've got to get in their face and not let them think they can just go off and be antisocial, now that my girl is a lot friendlier it makes playtime more fun and I have a stronger bond with her. She's still my lazy, shy rat but she's not afraid to take an interest in me now. 


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## Rat Daddy (Sep 25, 2011)

So lets start out with the idea that your rats are intelligent and emotional beings. They can think and communicate. They need to understand that you are an intelligent and emotional being that can communicate too before they can bond with you. In immersion you reach out to your rat and basically open the channels of communication and understanding and that causes the natural pack/extended family bond to form across species barriers.

Now, there's a good chance I sound like the crazy cat lady to you, but I was a real honest to goodness Rutgers psychology / sociology double major long ago and I can quote operand conditioning studies in my sleep... Rats are much more than a sum of Pavlovian behaviors. They are in fact capable of forming an emotional bond with humans just like you can form one with them... Immersion is the technique by which you introduce yourself and begin the communication process... 

If you've ever read a military training manual on how to field strip a combat rifle, it's several pages long and has lots of illustrations and photos, it all seems very complex... But when you've seen an expert strip down and reassemble the same weapon blindfolded in seconds it looks a lot easier. And all of those illustrations make more sense once you field strip and reassemble the weapon yourself.

Mostly you start by getting together with your rats in a relatively confined area where you can keep in contact, then you start to reach out to your rat and try to get him or her to understand that you aren't a danger and that you want them to understand you... You try and understand them and try to respond appropriately... At first this is an extremely basic form of communication. Akin to "Hi... I'm over here... I'm not going to kill you... lets be friends" until eventually your rat will come to you for comfort, take food from you and very well might cuddle in your lap or hoodie and tell you that he or she loves and trusts you and wants to be your friend too. No, thinking about how to disassemble a military firearm isn't going to get it apart much less back together, but in doing it you feel the parts fit and you begin to understand what they do and it all starts to make sense. It's the same with immersing rats, you don't know how your rats will react to you engaging them and you don't know how to respond to their reaction because you haven't seen and done it yet. You don't know what will get through to them because you haven't tried and failed and then succeeded yet.

So basically, you settle down with your rats and try things to reach out to them, you repeat what seems to work best and you try different things when you don't see or feel progress... Both rats and humans learn in Oprah light bulb moments. You will know when your rat starts understanding you and you will suddenly understand your rat better than you did just minutes before... Like any vacation, each immersion is essentially the same, you pack your stuff, you leave the house you go somewhere and you come back home, but every vacation and every immersion is different too, you can't use the same map when you go to Paris as you would if you were going to the Amazon rain forest. The same principles apply, you should dress correctly; but you adapt your wardrobe to the specific destination.

If you stroke your rat and it runs away in fear, you would try to be more gentle, reassuring and comforting, if he turns around and charges you and bites you, you are in a combat situation and gentle and comforting is the absolute worst thing you can do... But you don't know what to do next until after you make the first move and you get your rat's first response.

Remember rats are social animals, they naturally form extended families and packs, they are predisposed to develop bonds and social structures, just like humans do... bonding is a natural and normal process for both humans and rats, immersion is simply a process to facilitate nature taking it's course... tweaked perhaps a little because we're taking the bond across species barriers.

Like field stripping a good combat rifle, which are meant to come apart and they only fit together one way and you shouldn't have any parts left over... (WW I Canadian Ross Rifle being the notable and dangerous exception)... immersion works because it's predisposed to work and it's harder to screw up than to succeed. Some people and rats get it faster than other's, but it's not a race. Some folks and rats spend hours in mortal combat and other folks are playing with their new best friends in minutes... It all depends on how quickly you understand your rats and your rats experiences with humans before you adopted them.

I hope that helps a little.


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