How many times have you taken a trip to Sea World to watch whales and dolphins jump through hoops? You wonder how they can train these essentially wild animals to accomplish this. Here is the secret….they are really not training the animals. They are recognizing the animal’s normal behaviors and requesting that they do this behavior on cue.
Every animal is individual. They may specialize in doing certain things. Some cats love to jump, some love to climb very high, some love to open cabinets and some cats will even play fetch.
Deciding on a “trick” you would like your cat to perform is the first task. Then you need to decide on how your cat will be rewarded for doing such tricks. Three very popular methods of rewards are treats, clickers, and a big kiss.
Training with your cat can be a great bonding experience. You don’t need to spend a bunch of time training with your cat each day. A few successful attempts each day will be plenty. You should also mind your cat’s sleeping habits and not wake them up to train. Make sure you cat is wide awake and alert before you start.
The most important part of the training is your reaction to what the cat is doing. You always want to focus on the positive and ignore the negative. You must be very quick.
One trick for example, if you want your cat to jump through a round hoop, then place the hoop on the floor. When you cat comes over to explore the hoop, give him/her praise. Hold the hoop up and allow part of it to touch the ground. Entice them to walk over it. Click away, give them a treat or praise. Let your kitty know it was the reaction that you wanted. Slowly raise the hoop off the ground to the desired height. Add additional pieces to the trick along the way, just be sure to focus on the positives.
Cats are very independent and become bored easily, you must be patient as sometimes training can be very frustrating..
So to the answer the question whether “cats can be trained?” Absolutely they can. You might not be able to train your cat to do everything you desire but you still can teach them things they enjoy doing. Remember to catch your cat doing what you want and to praise them, and never force your cat to train or make a negative experience out of it.
Robert Baker works with New Cat Condos to manufacture quality pagoda cat houses that your kitty can count on. Be sure to check out their scratch and sleep cat tree which features an abundant amount of sisal rope for your cat to scratch on.