Cat Come

Why don't people teach their cats to come when called? Usually it is because cat owners don't think of teaching their cats the basic commands of come, heel, sit, down and stay. Cats can be taught all these commands, but even if you don't want to teach all these commands you should teach your cat to come when called. It may save your cat's life.

Since I have five cats I do not use the command come to get my cats to come to me. I use their individual names instead. My reasoning is that I frequently need a particular cat to come to me, but only occasionally do I need all of them to come to me at once. I did not carefully think out and plan on teaching my cats to come to their name. It just happened over the years.

Later I did analyze the process and how it happened. All cat owners are familiar with the effect of using a can opener or rattling a box of kibble. Most cats arrive post haste at the sounds that announce dinner time. The key word here is most. A few cats, as well as dogs and horses, do not respond to food as a motivator. With these animals an owner or trainer must find alternative ways to give positive feedback.

Cats tend to like having their jaws rubbed and scratched. Dogs have that spot on their backs they just can't reach, and horses will be very responsive to being scratched on their withers and tops of their necks. If an animal won't take food as their reward it may like the scratching enough to do what a trainer asks in order to get the scratch treat.

This is how I train my cats, and dogs and horses, to come to their name. I call the individual and then, when the animal arrives I give the treat that animal seems to want most.

The critical thing to making this work is to never use an animal's name in a negative manner. If you must correct an undesired behavior make sure to correct the individual animal by methods that do not use its name or physically hurt it. Either will make the animal prefer to stay away from you.

If your cat is food motivated say your cat's name before you start the can opener or pick up the food box. The name will then become the signal that it is feeding time.

If an animal is motivated by scratches, rubs or even you backing off and leaving its space, then use the name just before you actually do the action. Again the cat will come to associate the name with the action and respond more quickly to the name.

Even if you don't use the general word come you will likely get all of your animals anytime you call one. After all, if you are handing out goodies in any shape, form or fashion, the rest of them will want to be nearby just in case you are feeling genero