Cat training?

ebony923 · 12-23-2006, 06:08 PM

Can and How do you teach a cat how to do something...lets just say such as sit... and Iam not sure if she'd do anything with treats...maybe... thanxs...

britishbandit · 12-23-2006, 06:18 PM

Well you can try, but cats are way to independant and snobbish to do "silly" tricks like a dog...LOL. Maybe it's just my cats?

Bandit does know "high five", but only does it when he's hungry for some "strange reason"..LOL.

Sorry, I'm not much help. I've never really tried to train my cats, other than to use a litterbox...haha. The "high five" came completely by accident.

ebony923 · 12-23-2006, 06:22 PM

yeah they are very independent but my friend taught her's how to sit and shake on command so I was just wondering if anyone has had success in training their cat.

thomasina · 12-24-2006, 02:39 AM

Sadly my cat Thomasina just passed away a month ago. She was 16 years old and was diagnosed with lung cancer.
I taught Tommy to sit, come, lay down and give high fives on command. Cats are pretty hard to train in comparison to dogs, however if you start training them at a very young age, while incorporating play and really yummy treats it is possible, it just takes a lot more patience.
As with teaching a dog to sit, you hold a treat right above the cats head, as soon as she sits click ( clickers work pretty well with cats) and treat. With the high fives I would have Tommy in the sitting position and gently pick up her front paw and put it on my hand, each time I would say high five and give her a treat, after a while all I had to do was touch her paw and she would place her paw in my hand until eventually I just had to give her the verbal command and she would perform. Again it takes a lot of time and patience, but it is very impressive and great to see people's reactions, when they see how well trained cats can be.

opokki · 12-24-2006, 03:11 AM

My grandmothers cat knew all kinds of tricks. I started target training with 2 of my cats but then kind of forgot about it. I used bits of cheese, cat treats, and a clicker.
A while back I saw a video clip of a cat running an agility course. I wish I could find it again because it was so interesting.

Karen Pryors book "Getting Started: Clicker Training for Cats" is a good one with lots of ideas for training cats.

Keno's Mom · 12-24-2006, 10:31 AM

You have to bribe them more with treats. My first cat Mitten was very smart - learned how to shake hands, find a treat hidden in your hand, would ask (in decent English) to go "out", for "milk", and a few other words.

He amazed people who thought cats could not be taught commands

Our current cat Ling, thinks she's a dog cause she was more/less raised by our lab and she does a lot of things the lab does as far as commands.

We are getting an ocicat kitten this coming week and they are very dog-like and quick to learn commands.