Nonverbal Consent

[marcmagus]

I think Parker [the older of my two ferrets] is learning how to negotiate consent despite being nonverbal [being a ferret and all]. Like everything she does, being the cutest thing to ever cute, it's adorable.

See, ferrets like to play quite rough, and since we brought Alec home and she has another ferret to play with, she's escalated the roughness

Comments

[ladymondegreen]

That's fascinating. I hope it works!

[mosephine]

when we first brought our kittens home, I had to do a lot of reading and research as I'd never had any kind of pet (well, a gerbil briefly, but you get my point). we learned to do basically the same thing with regards to rough play - when they do something we don't like during play the first thing we do is freeze/stop playing and ignore them. if they actually cause pain we make a loud noise and walk away. they're 8 months old now and we've had them here and home with us for just over 5 of those months... and they're so so good about playing nicely with people! they're claws stay retracted for the most part, and when they use their teeth they aren't actually biting. hurrah for the internet being right sometimes ;)