Shoulder Training

[Charliespooks]

My girl dakota will ride around on my shoulder for a couple of minutes and then will find a way down my shirt or in my sleeves. I'm guessing this might be from boredom or fright, how can i get her to trust me more and to stay on my shoulders longer?

[RKEM]

Girls tend to be more impatient and they love to explore and do stuff all the time. You're right she probably thinks that getting into your things and where she's not supposed to is far more interesting than shoulder riding.

Not sure you can "train" her to stay ... but as she gets older she might become a bit less spazzy and be happy to spend more time with you.

Just enjoy her inquisitiveness and energy ... perhaps put her on your shoulder more often but for shorter periods.

[dragynflye]

put something nummy on your finger, like yogurt or applesauce.  while you're walking around with her on your shoulder, hold your hand up there for her to lick it off.  that way she enjoys being on your shoulder.  it's worked for me! 

but then again, some rats (like my raven) are just never comfortable as shoulder-riders!

[Charliespooks]

Today i walked around the house with dakota and just as I heading back upstairs she went into sleeve exploring so i think if i continued doing that plus treats, it'll make her more comfortable with "Shoulder Transit"

[Kendra]

I've been lucky to have most of my rats be natural shoulder jockeys.  There have been a few though, that have needed a little "help" with figuring it out.  I try to start off slow, but immediately after trust-training when they're completely comfortable with you.  It goes Rat on shoulder, praise Rat, talk softly in a happy voice, tell him/her where you are going, go into the kitchen where you've pre-laid out a treat, give Rat a treat while telling him/her how good he/she is, walk back to the cage and let Rat walk from your shoulder into cage if at all possible without excessive contortionist actions.  Once they realize shoulder -> going -> food, they like the shoulder!  As time goes on, I start walking around the house rather than going directly to the kitchen.  I've only had one guy that never got it, and he's an older rescue who wasn't really handled much before he came to me.  I put him on my shoulder, he goes completely limp, every time!  Some rats just don't like the shoulder.  Gauche, the guy I was talking about, has figured out that I'll cradle him in my arms if he doesn't stay on my shoulder when I need to take him somewhere.  He prefers my arms, so he refuses to shoulder jockey.

[happybat]

I've suspect the key is patience - against all my expectations and literally overnight the guy who was too hyper to spend more than three minutes in one place decided that cuddling up to my neck for hours at a time is really what he wants to do. Who can fathom the rattie mind?

[Topaz]

3 of my rats who like shoulder rides pretty much taught themselves the fun in being on my shoulder.  I would sit one-on-one with each rat in my recliner and just let them crawl all over me, and they always end up in my hair, sleeping.  It became a favorite spot.  although only one will stay there for long periods of time when I walk around the house.

[me4rats4evr]

i have had a fare few rats and none of them really liked being on my shoulder so i trained them to follow me like a dog it is really good becarefull not to sqyuash them though
if you start by buying a harness and putting it on slowly and gentally and them giving the rat a  treat when it is on (very important) and then give them a long lead give them plentally of time like a month to get used to following you around and then evatually you can take thwe harness off and they will follow you every where it is really good because  you are boundijng lots more
bibixxxx

[Poisonetta]

In my opinion, there are shoulder rats, and there are explorers. Sometimes a shoulder rat explores and at times an explorer will like a short ride, but at heart i think they are  one or the other.

Training works to a certain degree, like I said, but at heart ... they are explorers or shoulder rats.

[AneesasMuse]

Poodah rides around EVERY where with me. He hangs out while I brush my teeth, wash the dishes, prepare food for the 'kingdom'... and sometimes, he will even stay on my shoulder while I type. More often than not though, he wants to 'dance' on the keyboard with my fingers  and we get a LOT of typos for it.

I can only attribute his shoulder jockeying to being hand raised from less than 2 weeks (he was an orphan). To keep him warm in between feedings, I would wrap him and tie him to my chest in tiny 'baby sling' fashion... so he is used to my movements and being close to me at all times of my daily routine.

I think the treats and the repetition should get your babies more comfortable with the idea, even if for only a few minutes at a time. Good Luck!

[Amykins]

I've never really had to train a rat to sit on my shoulder.  All of them have just gravitated towards it for whatever reason. 

[Zephr]

Nezumi is a shoulder rat.  She explores, but never far from me, comes back to check and make sure I'm OK, and is content to sit on my shoulder for an hour or more when I'm on the computer.