Can You Train Your Cat?

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Once you understand your cat and are able to determine what mood they are in and if they are cooperative and ready to spend some time interacting with you, the next step is to boldly go where few cat owners have gone before and start with a basic training program.

You Can Train A Cat? In short, yes you can. It is important to not think of training a cat the same as you would train a dog. You  typically will not get the same level of obedience and response to your commands, however social cats that love human attention and interaction are actually rather easy to train with a bit of patience, a good sense of humor and big supply of tasty cat treats.

Basically cat training is a lot like teaching a very young child. You don’t expect kids to immediately know how to tie their shoes; rather you praise them for finding their shoes, putting them on and then work up towards the lacing. Training a cat by rewarding successive approximations is also the best method and in reality you are literally shaping the behavior to get closer and closer to exactly what you want. You also don’t ask cats to repeat the behavior multiple times in one session. Unlike dogs, cats will typically do a trick once, get a treat, and then they are ready to do something else of their choosing. Repetitive training is not a good option in working with your cat.

Cats can be trained to follow several basic commands with the easiest being the “Come” command. Cats will quickly learn the sound of their name and will come on call to you, even if they are busy doing something else. Training your cat to sit, lie down and even fetch is also not difficult, however you have to take your individual cat’s personality and natural behavior into account. Cats can be trained to walk on a leash or even to be tethered in your yard, although they should never be left on a tether unsupervised, as there is always a safety risk. Often in cities with restrictions on cats off of the property this is a better option that hoping they won’t climb your fence or keeping them in a small run in a yard. In addition cats are very intelligent and will quickly learn a variety of words including “treat”, “dinner” and “outside”.

Positive Reward Training. There is only one way that you can successfully train your cat and that is by focusing on what he or she is doing right and simply ignoring when they do the wrong thing. If you use any type of negative training or punishment your cat will simply disengage from the training session and you will be left with a full pocket of treats and