School for Gerbils

Ian has been pursuing a structured course of training for the gerbils and keeping me apprised of their progress.  The first item on the curriculum was getting them accustomed to human speech;  apparently, this has been achieved, and now they've moved on to more adventurous tasks.

His best student is his own gerbil, Peaches, Junior.  It seems that less time is spent in class by Peaches's compadres, Blackout Junior and Brownie (who  happens to be black, rather than brown, but I don't intrude in these matters).  I can't help but suspect that Peaches, Jr. is getting a bit of favoritism.  I'm sure the other, neglected students must be jealous.

The current class is focused around teaching them to walk up Ian's arm.  He'll put them on his hand and have them walk up his outstretched arm to his shoulder (or vice versa - I don't remember which).  If they achieve this feat, they receive their proper reward:  he puts them into their cage.  Ian has this strange notion that somehow the gerbils would prefer to be in their cage (technically a tank) than walking along his arm, so putting them back there is positive reinforcement.

But not forever:  Ian says that once the gerbils become accustomed to being held, and thus the return to the tank loses its appeal, he'll have to start rewarding them with a sunflower seed.

(November 10, 2013)