Training Cats: Tricks and Techniques for Taming Your Cat

Cats learn best by example. Anyone who has added a cat to their household that can do something the other cats never did before can attest to this. If the new cat knows how to open cabinet doors it will be no time at all before all the other cats are opening cabinet doors as well.

In Karen Pryor's Don't Shoot the Dog, she gives an example of this. She was teaching a poodle to sit in a child's rocking chair and rock. Her daughter's cat was sitting nearby watching. When she finished with the poodle and let it go the cat promptly jumped into the chair and began rocking. Of course, the cat got a bit of food as its positive reinforcement as well.

She also mentioned that if you taught one cat to ring the door bell to get in the house soon all the other cats would learn the trick as well. Even some cats that didn't belong to you would pick up the trick.

Cats are usually quite timid creatures because while they are pure predators (a cat MUST have meat in its diet) they are also small animals that are prey for dogs, coyotes, hawks, owls and anything else looking for a protein meal. So they are careful to keep away from dangerous predators. To train a cat requires gentle patience because the minute you get upset the cat is gone.

Clicker training works best for cats. Clickers are available at most pet stores. You begin by offering the cat its favorite food then as it is eating it sound the clicker. Some cats are so nervous they will leave at this point. For them you may have to resort to using something like a click of you tongue or even a soft "good."

Whatever sound you use you are going to link it to the treat. Each time you offer the treat you make the sound sooner and sooner until you are clicking before you give your cat the treat. When you click and the cat looks for the treat you know it understands click equals treat.

Now you can begin teaching your cat a trick. For the first one it is best to select something your cat does naturally. I have one cat that will sit up like a dog and another that will jump on the cat tree every time I walk past. These are the tricks I put on cue first. The cat learned that doing something would get a click which in turn led to a treat.

Using this method you can teach a cat a large number of tricks that will surprise anyone who thought cats couldn't be trained.