Trying to reward Timber on moments when I say hi to her and she doesn't hiss at me, but her arch nemesis is the evil entity known as "human hands," so I've had to get creative with how I bring her treats.
Long spoon didn't work. No matter how long the spoon is, there's a hand attached to it.
Churu tube works sometimes, but only on a good day
Churu on the finger works sometimes, but is a high risk/high reward treat delivery mechanism that sometimes results in a sweet moment and sometimes results in me bleeding. The Hands are too close.
Latest experiment: I take a hard cat treat (in this case a brand called Bonkers), stand across the room from Timber at her sensitivity line between where she's chill and where she starts hissing, show her what the treat looks like, then play a game of corn hole where, instead of a bean bag, it's a cat treat and, instead of a hole in a board, it's the felt pumpkin that Timber likes to hang out in.
Today she looked at me like an idiot, ate the treat, then looked at me like I'm slightly less of an idiot.
Success!
