redearslider.com

I'm completely aware that turtles aren't social and emotional animals with humans and I definitely did not get a turtle thinking I'd be able to cuddle it all the time, but I'm wondering.

I want to have something to work on with my turtle over the years so I can stay interactive and excited with him.

Now, I know turtles don't really like hanging out with humans and being touched but I've heard and seen people that train their turtles to be more social and friendly with humans. Like some turtles who will follow you around, swim into your hands, enjoy being pet.. things like that.

I was just wondering if there's anyway to train your turtles to be more social and comfortable to hang out? Is it stressful for the turtle to be trained this way? And is anyone else out there that has done this?

If training him to be social is a terrible idea, is there any other things I can do with Wilson to stay interactive with him? I want him to be as happy as possible and have fun. 

They're not really trained, but will recognize and associate you with certain things (like food). RES are pretty social compared to other turtles, but their own personality rules over that.

You can, you just need to hang around with them more. I usually just let my turtles be so I can't really tell you what to do. I suggest you browse the internet a bit and read people's experiences with it. The only thing I remember reading about this was a blog article (from 2011):
https://kamekroten.wordpress.com/2011/0 ... ur-turtle/