Ever Tried To Train A Kitty?

[Quasimodem]

Other than to use a litterbox, I mean. The greatest animal trainer in the world (in my opinion, anyway) Gunther Gebel-Williams, said in the closing of his autobiography that the only animals he has never been able to train were his wife's , Sigrid's housecats.

My little Himalayan-Persian cat Susie is no exception. I did see her trap a housefly between her two front paws once, but other than that, just meeting me at the door (and bitching) when I drag my sorry ass in from work every morning, and snugglin' up when I go to bed are her only tricks.

Still, I'm curious. Does your cat "fetch" or anything? Susie likes to chase the laser-pointer light we play with and sometimes she brings stuff to bed like those twist-ties from garbage bags, but I don't know if I could actually train her to do stuff.

This may be some of the "mystique" of cats, do you think? We love them (those of us who do!) because we cannot figure them out?

Thanks

Quasi

[AHunter3]

My dad trained our cat Smudge to scratch on the screen door of our sliding glass door whenever he wanted to go out. You see, the cat had gotten in the habit of occasionally using the screen as a scratching post, and had done significant damage to the horizontal wires, and my dad decided he would teach the cat not to scratch on the screen door, so he proceded to pitch the cat out the door whenever he caught him at it.

Go back and reread the first sentence.

[BiblioCat]

My cats are trained to come running when they hear food being poured in their bowls.
;)

[Hanna]

I trained one of my cats to kiss me on the lips. No, it is not gross, it's not like he gives me the tongue or anything. Just a quick little peck, I've never gotten any dreaded cat diseases from him.

Take a tuna fish sandwich. Eat it. Call the kitty. Pucker up.

No, I don't let him kiss me anywhere else, pervs! :)

[The Punkyova]

In one of Karen Pryor's videos (I think it was Clicker Magic, but I could be wrong) she showed a woman who clicker trained her cat to do a whole series of obstacles. It actually isn't that hard. The trick is finding out what will motivate them. It takes a lot longer to convince a cat that click=treat than it does a dog, and many cats will not work for just any treat, they demand something really special. If you find the right treat, charge the clicker thoroughly, and break everything down into baby steps, it is pretty straightforward. Also, if you train the family dog, a cat will often watch the entire thing, then do the trick for the reward. ("Copy cat" is a cliche for a reason.) Go to this site (http://www.karenpryor.com) for more information. (I notice that they are preparing training kits for cats, so you might see what they have to say.)

[wayward]

Cats learn what they want to learn. My cat often leaves presents of dead mice on the doorstep which we used to pick up by the tail and throw in the bin. Now she bites their tails off and leaves them on the doorstep! Sometimes two at a time! Fantastic!

[White Lightning]

my cat knows his name, and my voice. he's 13 years old and still comes when i call him. my mom's always been allergic, so he's only been in her room a handful of times over the course of his life. he knows not to go there. he knows he's not welcome on the dining room table or the kitchen counters, and doesn't go there either. he meows to go outside and to come in when he's ready. he doesn't do any BS tricks like "fetch" or "roll over" though, those being the true hallmarks of pet stupidity.

[TV time]

I think you have it backwards. Cats train people - not the other way around.

Any trick you think you have trained them, in fact is a ploy of theirs to get you to do something for them.

My cat, a good hunter, has been attempting to train my wife how to hunt mice, birds, lizards, snakes and other wild creatures for years. Two or three mornings a week the cat brings injured critters into my wife and drops them at her feet. At which time they go scampering off and my wife begins jumping around and calling my name. The cat will return in a few minutes with the training aid (the injured animal) and once again drop it at my wife's feet, increasing the level of shouting and dancing.

It is usually at this time, I arrive on the scene and take the beastie away and am followed by the cat. Who gives me questioning looks asking how I could marry such an ignorant woman. I try to point out to the cat that she does know how to open cans of cat food and empty the litter box, but that doesn't seem to suffice.

I noticed my cat asking questions of some of the other cats on the back fence and it sounded a great deal like, "Does your human 'fetch' or anything?"

TV (reasonably well trained by Honey, Livestock and Spam)

[Sam Stone]

I think you can 'train' a cat about the same way you can 'train' a sea-monkey. In other words, you can get it to do things, but only those things that it instinctually wants to do anyway.

For example, you can train sea-monkeys to swim in a circle. How? By shining a light in a circle. Shrimp instinctually follow light. Likewise, you can get a cat to chase a toy mouse, because cats want to do that anyway.

But try to get a cat to sit on command, or bring something to you on command. They don't do this naturally, and almost certainly won't do it for you.

Dogs, on the other hand, have brains that are wired for social interaction, which means they can adapt their behaviour. That's what makes them trainable.

[Mauvaise]

My cats are trained for one thing .. to come when I whistle. If I whistle for the one cat while the other is sitting right by me, they will meow at me as if to say "Um, I'm right here".

They are "trained" to come running to the kitchen crying as though they haven't eaten in 3 weeks if they hear dishes clink together.

I think Tawney has trained herself to be my backup alarm clock. :rolleyes: During the week I get up at 5.30-6.00am. I look forward every weekend to sleeping in and every weekend I'm disappointed. 6.30 Saturday morning rolls around and Tawney starts this semi-crying meow. She will not stop until I am out of bed. Same thing Sunday.

[Creaky]

Well, I wouldn't have believed this if I hadn't seen it. My buddy Warren has trained his two cats to "sit". That is, he gets a handful of food in each hand and raises his closed, food-filled fists in the air on either side of his body. The cats stand underneath the food-hands, meowing and drooling.

Warren says, "Sit."

Most of the time they sit right away, with very little pussy-footing around.

I asked him how long it took him to get the beasts to do that.

He was like, "A long time."

[Creaky]

Oh, yeah.

Then Warren gives them the food treats. Duh.

[Brynda]

I trained my cats to come to the sound of a wind chime. I wanted to have some signal that would get them to come running no matter what, which is useful for checking to see that no one slipped out the door with the delivery man, scooping up cats for the vet, etc. Because they hear their names so much and the sound of your voice even more, cats are notorious for not coming when their names are called. It is hard to train to that sound since it is not as unique as something else and will therefore be less predictive of treats to them. I chose a wind chime I had hanging indoors for my sound, but you could use anything, really, as long as it is not a common sound. To train them, I waited until they were in the room, then rang the windchime and gave them a treat they really liked (Pounce, which is kitty crack in terms of its effect :) ). I did this three or four times, then waited a few hours and repeated the whole thing. The next day, I did it again. By the third day, they came running when I rang the windchime. Voila!

By the way, the nice side benefit of this was they stopped expecting treats whenever I went in the kitchen, which was driving me bats. Previously, I had kept the Pounce there and had given them a treat occasionally and randomly. Being unable to predict, they expected/wanted one every time I was near where I kept them. After training them to the chimes, I continued to give them treats, but only after I rang the chimes, so that I could keep that in force for them.

[Persephone]

I have a cat. His name is Telecatster, Tele for short. Even with a name as terminally hip as that, he won't come when called. He's mellowed a bit with age (he's about a year old), but when he was a little bitty kitty, he was the rowdiest little f***** I've ever seen. Hassled the crap out of the dog.

I don't much care to train him, really. I mean, he's a cat. The only useful thing he could do is catch mice, but we don't have any mice here. He caught a bird a few weeks ago, and left half of it on the porch. We petted him and told him he was the Coolest Cat in the History of Cats, and he seemed pleased with that. What else can ya do?

But what's this clicker training thing? I'd like to try it on my kids. :D

[GingerOfTheNorth]

My sister's cat, Zap, uses the toilet. Not a litter box.

Ginger

[Spavined Gelding]

Mrs. G. once trained her cat to piss on the carpet.

[UncleBill]

My beast comes running when I whistle for him (no food involved), walks on a leash very well, and jumps off my lap when I turn off the TV with the remote at night.

Nearby (Key West) there IS a trained house cat show at Mallory Square. They jump through hoops and do other trick. A photo is on this link.


http://www.mcs.net/~south/cat.jpg

[Guinastasia]

I've heard of cats being toilet trained...

[Grok]

A friend of mine used to have his cat trained to roll over and lie down.

Once he went away for a week and I was left in charge. At this time he was in the process of training the beast, and I was sworn to continue the procedure every day. This involved putting his food in his bowl, standing between the cat and the food, telling him to roll over (with an accompanying hand gesture), and then letting him eat when he did it.

Fucking thing nearly shredded me. He got to skip his training for the rest of the week.

Hijack:

I've read that when cats place dead, or nearly dead, animals at your feet, they are actually expecting you to eat them. I even seem to remember reading that to make your cat feel good about being a hunter and all, you were supposed to PRETEND to eat the mouse or whatever in front of the cat! Anyone else heard of this?

[straykat23]

I trained my cat Skit to bite me on the ankle. When she was a toddler she and a neighborhood cat got into a scuffle. I turned a hose on them and Skit bit me. Now everytime it rains the little she-devil blames it on me and I get the bite.

[handy]

My sister got a kitten & a few days a go I showed her this nifty test to see if your cat is aggressive. You give it the test before buying it. Just put it on its back & put your hand on its tummy lightly, an aggressive cat is gonna bite you --but a passive one won't. BTW: I couldn't teach that cat to stop jumping on me & slashing with her nails so I gave her the name 'Slasher'.

[elfkin477]

Mine are also trained to come when you whistle. It has never had anything to do with food, though, but it's handy to get errant cats to come in for the night. They also come to me when I snap my fingers, which I didn't think was unusual until I tried getting a friends' kittens attention that what- they just stared at me.

They understand more than we give them credit for. On of my cats understands "Get down" (even in a normal speaking tone) and will immediately get off the table or counter. Doesn't stop him from climbing up on it, though.

[Wonko The Sane]

Jack puts his front paws on top of his food bin when he wants to eat. I started by putting his feet on top of his food bin just before I fed him. Now, he does it by himself, whenever he wants food.

[Peregrine]

My cat doesn't perform, but he behaves. I trained him to wait quietly for food. He was an especially noisy, demanding cat when he first adopted us, and my Mom would feed him to make him shut up. But I would slowly move his food toward him while he was quiet and quickly move it away when he meowed. He caught on. Now he's the world's quietest kitty.

I trained him to stay off the kitchen table. Whenever I caught him on the table, I threw him out with much yelling and foot stomping. Once though, he was sitting on a stool next to the table, and that seemed all right. So after that he would sit at the table while quietly waiting for food.

I taught him not to take food that wasn't his. There was often food on the table not meant for him, and whenever he reached for it I would stop him with a sharp ah!AH! and maybe a little bop on the forehead. (Most cats won't tolerate a bop on the forehead, but this one found it only mildly objectionable.) Soon I was able to put a plate of fish right under his nose, indicate that he was to leave it alone (ah!AH!), and leave the room. The first time I did this, I watched him in a mirror from the next room. As soon as I was out of his sight he made a move toward the fish, until he heard my ah!AH! Then he settled back into a resigned-looking waiting mode. After that he was perfectly trustworthy. He's so civilized, we let him join the family at the table when we get together.
We've reached some other agreements too, but people seem most impressed by his table manners.

[DMC]

I was sitting at the swimming pool at my (then) apartment complex. A cat came up to a couple, who were it's obvious owners. The manager came out and told them that no unleashed pets were allowed in the pool area.

They told it to go home and wait on them, whereupon it ran off in the direction of their building. I asked if it would really go home and hang out. They stated that it would be sitting by their front door when they went back. Sounds like a dog in cat's clothing. That's the only time I've seen anything remotely like a trained cat.

[SwimmingRiddles]

My 9 year old Siamese knows "get up" to mean get off my lap, I need to get up, and comes when she's called. If she's doing something bad (ie: on the counter, or scratching the carpet, she'll stop when I yell at her, but that's probably just tone of voice.

My 9 month old kitten is a freak. He fetches better than most dogs I've met. He has this chicken doll that is about four inches long that he carries around the apartment in his mouth. He knows where this chicken doll is at all times. If you toss the chicken, he will haul ass to retreive it and return it to it's rightful location (where he had originally put it.) You can continue this tossing game for hours. But he's not doing it for my amusement. I'm currently trying to teach him to fetch his chicken on the command "Where's your chicken?" but at the moment, that just gets a confused look and a cocked head.

Between the two of them, there is constant fighting...I mean "playing" in the Swiddle household. And the little one LOVES to get his belly rubbed, so I'm not sure how right on that test is, handy. He's a demon to his big sister, but if a human is around, he's all about the belly rub.

[elfkin477]

My dad just told me that he's trained the cats to come running when he turns the porch light on and off, so he doesn't have to call for them. I'll have to try it.

[moggy]

I trained one of my cats to come eat by calling, "Crunchies!". I thought it might be the tone of my voice, not the word, so I experimented over about a week's period of time. I used different voices, ie one day I called her in a deep voice, next day I called her in a high-pitched voice. She came running every time. I dunno.
I had an indoor/outdoor cat that would sleep in my room at night. She would jump up on my outside windowsill and rub against it, and the tags on her collar would bang against the window, letting me know she was ready to come in. I'd either open the window & let her in, or go let her in at the front door. In the morning, she'd scratch on my bedroom door to be let out, I'd open the door and she'd run straight to the front door and wait to be let out. Did I train her or did she train me?
One of my cats loves it when I sing. (I sing opera and I used to sing in an Early Music Ensemble) I got her when she was just a little bitty 2-week-old scrap of fur, and after I fed her, I'd lay on the sofa and let her crawl around. When she got sleepy I'd hold her on my chest and either hum or sing to her. Now, whenever I sing, she comes running, and rubs up against me and purrs and gives me kisses.(Which makes it difficult to keep singing if I'm sitting down) If I'm practicing with the keyboard she usually walks all over it, too. So I guess I trained her to like singing.

[Skelji]

I have two cats, Rocky and Chili, who each come running when I call their name. If I call one, that's the one that runs in.

When they feel like it, they both sit on command (yes, it took a long time).

They both come running if I whistle.

Chili talks back to me all the time. One day I'll figure out what he's saying. I probably don't want to know.

Rocky plays fetch better than my retriever does (who doesn't retrieve at all). Ball up a piece of paper and he comes running like a fiend. He'll bring it back for as long as you feel like tossing it, and he catches it in the air, as well. The cat is a freak.

If you have patience, you can train a cat. Well, most cats, anyway.

[truthbot]

Shoogie and Merci both fetch. They have been behaviour modified not to scratch the furniture, or jump on the counters. I gave up on the dining room table, though. Their furry butts OWN it! They disdain the (rather expensive) cat tree I purchased for them (You got that for the dog, right?)

Conversely, they have me trained to get out of bed by 5:00am each and every morning of the week. Even before the alarm goes off, Merci will start grooming my eyebrows with his sandpaper tongue. I reward this 'trick' by feeding them the wet goo from cans that they so sluttishly crave.

Shoogie's big thing is to get stuck behind the washer/dryer.
He'll start meowing and chirping pathetically, Um, kitty mistake? A little HELP here? One of these days soon I'm going to throw my back out retrieving the furkid. He's only eight months old, and already weighs 15 1/2 pounds!
Does anyone know how to train a cat to use a treadmill?:)

[OpalCat]

Originally posted by handy

My sister got a kitten & a few days a go I showed her this nifty test to see if your cat is aggressive. You give it the test before buying it. Just put it on its back & put your hand on its tummy lightly, an aggressive cat is gonna bite you --but a passive one won't. BTW: I couldn't teach that cat to stop jumping on me & slashing with her nails so I gave her the name 'Slasher'.

Um. Generally speaking female cats do not like to be touched on their tummies. Male cats often like belly rubs.

[The Punkyova]

Persephone asked:

But what's this clicker training thing? I'd like to try it on my kids.

It works quite well on kids, or so I've been told. It is basically operant conditioning, also known as behavior modification. Scientifically, it is based on the work of BF Skinner, among others. Try doing an internet search, I'm sure you'll find a lot.

[missdavis102]

My two older cats and I used to go for walks when we lived downtown in a good sized city. I'd put them on their leashes and they would walk just as nice as anybody on a leash. One rather warm Sunday morning, we set out, and we may have been going a bit faster than usual. Two blocks to make it home and Frances began to pant, signalling it was time to stop Right Then. She's not a carrying kind of cat - she likes to assume the large-awkward-parrot-backwards-on-a-pirate's-shoulder position when handled - so just toting her home wasn't really an option. We were right in front of a church, just at the time people were going in before the service began. I parked them both under a bush, and said, "Edie, Frances, wait here. I am going home to get the car and will be back for you in a few minutes. Do not go into the church. Do not interact with the people. Wait right here until I get back. Do you understand?" And I looked at them very hard. They gazed back, like, "yeah, ok, so we'll just wait here," and off I went. Five or so minutes later, when I got back, they were waiting under the bush and hopped into the car.

Around the same time, Edie had some kittens, one of whom understood what Taco Bell meant. She would say Mew! in a way that meant "bring me a soft taco supreme".
My cats have trained me to provide them bites of whatever I'm eating - they put their front paws on the chair and lean forward expectantly, and like clockwork, my fork lunges forward to their little drooling mouths.

FTR, Edie always walks with me and the dog, and Snuggles walks sometimes. I try to get them to go back home and wait, but they don't know Go Home. Edie used to make me carry her most of the second half of the trip (picture an 80 lb dog dragging a girl carrying a cat), but she's gotten better at pacing herself and her stamina has improved. Frances never walks.

[Many Crows]

"Kiss kiss" will get me a peck on the cheek.
"Paw" will get them to put their paw in my hand to shake.
One of my cats travels with me and hates to be left behind. All I have to do is hold up the harness and she'll run right over to me so I can get it on her. She'll then walk to the door and look back at me if I don't move fast enough. They are not allowed out of the yard and if I catch one trying to escape I tell them to go to jail. They go. I have had several cats who would sit up and beg. Oh yes, they can be trained.