Trained Traits

[Ricalynn]

I just had a pet that trained a fourth trait which brought him up to 7 total traits.  I noticed that a stray cat that came to the door didn't have any traits so it makes me wonder if there is a max of 5 trained traits to make up for strays or if it is possible to get a lot more. 

Anyone had 8 or more traits come up?

[candyraver69]

I had just assumed it was 5 given the amount of space, but now I am wondering if it's based on a number at all or just how many traits available to that pet type. I am also curious if traits can be unlearned without the lifetime reward, because you can still scold a pet for doing things when it has a trait.

[Chuckles_82]

Does anyone know how many times you have to reinforce a certain behaviour for it to become a trait?

[Ricalynn]

Some traits are learned by an animal doing a specific behavior.  What are you trying to train your animal to do?

[MarianT]

@Chuckles, I think I got non-destructive for a cat by praising it twice, but it had the "genius" trait.

[MoonsAreBlue]

@ Chuckles

My puppy had the destructive trait and after two negative reinforcements, he lost that trait. I assume another two negative reinforcements would make him non-destructive. However, with my horse, my sim rode him a lot on both jumping and racing courses, and he gained Fast and Agile without any reinforcement.

[Naga]

Alright, I'll take a shot here and post my experience with trait-training so far.

I believe that the maximum number of traits should be 5, and you can "cheat" it to go higher (up to 7).

Your pet starts with 3 traits. You can then train it to add 2 more traits, for a total of 5. Now, if you change those 2 traits to something else, you can re-train them to the animal. Allow me to try to make it more simple with examples:

You have a dog. Its initial traits are Genius, Friendly and Loyal. You then teach it Hunter (by praising when it does anything related to the hunting skill) and Playful(by praising when it plays with toys or other pets). The dog will have the Genius, Friendly, Loyal, Hunter and Playful traits. Now you purchase that Lifetime Reward that allows you to change the animal's traits (I forgot the name, but it's that Mid-life Crysis for pets). You change both Hunter and Playful to something else, say Noisy and Neat. The dog now has the Genius, Friendly, Loyal, Noisy and Neat traits. You can then teach Hunter and Playful to the dog again, by doing the same praises you've done before. The dog will then have the 7 traits.

[MoonsAreBlue]

I'm not sure about that Naga. My sim's horse was adopted with 3 traits, Genius, Piggy, and Quiet. Without reinforcement, just skilling, he learned Agile and Fast. Then, through reinforcement, he learned Playful. This gives him 6 traits without the pet version of Midlife Crisis.

[Ricalynn]

I had a cat receive 7 traits without any reinforcement or scolding from my Sim.  He just trained the extra four through every day actions, like peeing in a litter box, using a scratch post. None of my pets so far have had enough happiness points to get the Mid-Life Crisis Pet Edition.  He naturally received trained traits.  Not even near the same time either.  It took a total of 8 days getting a new trait once every 30 hours or so.

[Naga]

So I guess it's safe to assume that the maximum number of traits a pet can be trained to have is 4. If your pet starts with 3 traits (most common case), it will end up with 7, but if your pet is adopted from the wild, it may sometimes come with 2, or even only 1 trait, totalizing for 6 and 5 respectively.

[Chuckles_82]

Are certain traits limited to certain ages then? Because I adopted a foal, and praised it for obedience umpteen times, but it still didn't develop the obedient trait.

[Ricalynn]

Definitely.   I had a cat and a kitten and even though some actions were being done by both of them, the kitten never trained the trait when the cat did.

[Pam]

@Naga:

I don't think it's necessary to lower the font for word in parentheses.  The size of the Forum font is already small enough and anything smaller is hard to read.  We don't all have the young eyes that you do. 

[Pam]

I was just able to get a train a trait out of a kitten.  It took three scoldings and now she no longer has the destructive trait.

[rockcc12]

I don't havepets, but I am getting it tonight!!
I do have a question though. When your pet has more than 5 traits where do they list the extra ones? Is there like a little scroll bar or do they give you more space?