Training Tips for Your Cat

A cat has a short attention and the trainer must keep the cat focused with repetitive training and treats as a reward.    In order to successfully train your cat you must implement a routine.  Plan on training your cat at the same time every day and reward them with a treat and your cats will please.  

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I clicker trained all five of my cats with a daily routine.  I use the training period to interact with all of my cats.  The time is well spent as it is good for overall cat behavior. 

 

My cats are well trained to the clicking sound.  I can easily call them to the training room even when I am sitting at my desk.  One click and my cats will stop whatever they are doing and will run to where I am, and sit all around my feet.  They wait patiently for their delicious treat.  

The cats will respond to the clicker but if I do not deliver the treat then they will become disinterested and will display signs of bad behavior; hissing, snarling and overall grumpy behavior.

Tips:

• I started training classes for my cats on a daily basis. The daily training is a good way to improve the cat and human bond.  
• Give your cat a small portion of the treat, so they get a taste.  It is better to give your cat a small treat to get their attention. If your cat loves the treats they will follow you anywhere.  Which means cats that need to shed some extra pounds will eagerly follow you and your clicker all over the house.
• Provide your cat with treat immediately after training the cat a new trick or after you click.  
• Click once per behavior, if you click multiple times you will confuse your cat.

Notes: 

• All rescued cats are clicker trained immediately as it helps with the adjustment period of being taken into the shelter. 
• It is best to get all cat acclimated to a daily routine.  I find that the training helps the rescued cat to bond quicker with the human.
• Cats that are trained with a clicker are more social.  

5 Minute Cat Training

What would you say if I told you that your cats are trained to come, sit and stay.  Would you shake your head in disbelief?   When my friend told me that she had trained her cats to do all I said No way, that my cats could not be trained to do anything more than use their litter box and scratching post.  I was wrong and a good friend of mine opened my eyes to noise-related training for cats.

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I was given a book on training my cats with a clicker training method.  The book suggested that I test my cats because chances are they were all trained to respond to noises.

Cat Test

My husband gathered our 4 cats at the far end of the house while I went to the kitchen to get a can of cat food. I pulled the lid away from the food and by doing that the lid made a clicking noise.  When the lid was completely pulled away from the can I saw that all 4 of my cats were sitting at my feet. The cats were trained to respond to noise.

I tested the cat further by walking in the bedroom with a can of cat food and there I pulled the lid away from the can and when the can makes the clicking sound, all of the cats ran to the bedroom and sat at my feet.    I had just trained my cats in a matter 5 minutes to come from the clicking noise.

Clicker Training

I decided to take the cat training to the next level and bought a clicker. A clicker is a small plastic object with a metal strip that makes a clicking noise when it's pressed.  Clicker training is the best method for getting your cats to come, sit, and stay. 

In order to train the cats to respond to the clicker, I need to click once and give them a treat.  They all caught on quickly to the clicker and from that day forward whenever I clicked my cats came running and all would sit at my feet waiting patiently for their Whiskas Temptations catnip treat. 

I really like the clicker as it’s a good way to get all of the cats in one room and it is a wonderful way to provide the cats with exercise.  I can click it from any room and all of them will come running.  I can click outdoors and again they will stop what they are doing and run home.  

View this video to learn how to clicker train your cat to do tricks.

Note:

Cats that are deaf or have a hearing loss cannot be trained with a clicker.  Other than the hearing disorder all cats can be clicker trained.  It took me a while to train the feral cats at the colony but now when I click if they are in the area they will respond and come to the feeding station.