Cat Tricks

Teaching a cat to sit up is a fun trick and impresses people who think cats cannot be taught anything.

Some cats will naturally sit up in what I call a meerkat pose. They sit square on their haunches and lift both forefeet until their back is perfectly straight and they look as if they are in a guarding position.

If a cat doesn't do this naturally it can easily be taught to do so unless there is some physical disability that prevents the cat from assuming the pose.

To begin with the cat needs to have a reason to want to do the meerkat pose. Usually food or a toy will be the best motivator.

1. Take a tiny bit of the cat's favorite food on the end of you finger and offer it to the cat. If the cat bites use a spoon.

2. When the cat begins to eat the food make a sound you know you won't repeat accidentally. I like to tick the tip of my tongue against the back of my palate. It is a bit hard to do and you certainly aren't going to make the sound accidentally. It also has the advantage of being a distinctive sound unlike any other you might make such as a cluck or kissing noise. A more detailed step-by-step description of this can be found in my article Clicker Training for Your Cat.

3. Once the cat responds to the sound and will wait for its reward you can move on to the next step which is to lure it into sitting. A tiny bit of the food on your finger is how to begin this step. You slowly lift the finger above the cat's head and then back. The cat will almost naturally sit as it follows your finger. When it does click and give it the treat.

4. When the cat will reliably sit then raise the finger with food on it higher until the cat lifts a paw in an attempt to reach the food. This is time to click and treat again.

5. Go for both front paws off the ground by keeping your finger, reloaded with food, over the cat's head. Slowly raise it higher until the cat lifts both fore feet off the ground. At this point how high isn't important. You can work on that later. Both forefeet off the ground is you goal right now.

6. Begin shaping the exact pose you want by clicking the cat anytime it gets closer to the pose and not clicking when it is way off. You must have the cat solid in sitting and lifting both fore paws off the ground before you try to get a more precise pose.

7. When the cat does finally give you the exact pose you can begin to extend the duration of the behavior by counting off the length of time the cat holds the pose. You begin by counting aloud "One"...then click and treat. Next is "One, two"...you will get to five or six fairly quickly, perhaps even ten before you have a break where the cat does not wait for you to click. You do not click. You start over at one, then on to one, two, and one, two, three. The cat will fairly quickly learn that breaking the behavior before you click will not get it anything. Always remember to work your way back up from the count of one though. Do not just drop down to the last successful string of numbers.

This will have your cat doing a proper meerkat pose in very short order. You can use this technique to teach your cat to jump from one spot to another on command or to rest its fore paws on a particular object.

If you want more detailed explanations for the steps of training consult my articles: Training Animals with a Clicker, Target Training: Teaching an Animal to Target an Object and Count Out Loud: Extending a Behavior.