A friend has a, more or less, exclusively indoor cat. What is the possibility of taking it outside for a walk to get some fresh air and sun, on a leash, so it will not get squished by a car?
Fool’s errand or not?
Oh my! That’s a good one! You owe me a new keyboard as a result of the coffee I spewed all over it laughing hysterically at the thought of a cat willingly walking on a leash.
But seriously, some people have been able to train their cats to do this. These people fall into one of the following categories:
- Insanely smart.
- They can truly “talk to the animals”.
- They are secretly the “King” or “Queen” of the cats.
I wish some of my monsters would take to a leash, but I can’t get them to go more than 20 feet before it’s time to lay down, roll, sit, cry, graze on grass, etc, etc.
The Cat Whisperer
IMNSHO, it’s a fool’s errand. Can you get them to take a collar? How do they react to being on a leash indoors?
If you can get them to accept a collar or a harness, and if they don’t go nuts when you put them on a leash, you might have a decent chance. I’m just not betting on it.
Of course it can be done. I have personally trained my own cat to walk on a leash because he is an indoor cat and I like to take him on picnics. It takes a couple of months of patient teaching, but it’s fully possible. Just get a cat/small dog harness and a thin leash. First just have them wear the harness around the house and watch them to make sure they don’t get it caught on anything. Then progress to carrying them around outside with them in full gear. Then start putting them down, and so on.
I get a lot of comments along the lines of “Oh, look at that cat! It thinks that it’s a little dog, isn’t that sweet?” and even “…Uhm…is that a…cat?” But he’s a ham anyway and loves attention.
So-possible AND worthwhile.
K.
If it’s a choice of being called “King of the Pussies” or letting Meowkins play dodge 'em with the cars, Meowkin’s had better get in training… although on reflection
“The Pussy King” might … well… never mind. Forget the leash.
I used to have a cat that I took out on a leash occasionally. He seemed to thoroughly enjoy it and never objected at all. The only problem arose when he got off the leash. He could take you by surprise and lunge at a bird or get startled and try to run. If I wasn’t holding the leash tight enough, or if the harness wasn’t strong enough, away he went. Unlike a dog, a cat will not come when called (at least this one wouldn’t). On the two or three occasions when he got away, we lured him back with a freshly opened can of tuna.
I’m doing it right now with my cat. We just started training him with the harness. It took about a week for him to get used to the harness (about 10 minutes a day). He doesn’t like the leash when inside, but he gets so happy when we take him outside! We’ve only gone outside with him twice. He starts slowly…walks 3 steps, lays down, walks 5 steps, etc. However, after about 10 minutes outside, he’s walking normally. They’ll never walk like a dog will, but you can get them outside and happy, and they’ll walk fairly well. I think after our cat gets used to it, he’ll be fine. He was meowing at the door tonight wanting us to take him out, but we didn’t tonight (he cries when we bring him back in!) Anyway, it’s definitely doable. You shouldn’t have a problem with them getting out of the harness, at least if it’s as tight as it’s supposed to be. (Should only fit 1 finger between harness and cat).
Jman
Yeah, that’ll teach him not to do that again.
But I’ve had cats, and I know at some point you throw the psychology books out the window and just do what works.
Yes, cats can be trained to walk on a leash. Also, you can buy a cat proof fence that will keep YOUR cat in YOUR backyard. All my neighbors have outdoor/indoor cats and they poop in my yard. Anyday now I will be calling animal control!!!
I’ve had exactly one cat (out of the four I’ve raised - they each lived to be 15 - 19 years old) who would walk on a leash. we’d pick up the chain and he’d run to the door. Suspect he was training us.
I had this wonderful black cat named Merlin whom we used to tie onto a leash that ran across the clothesline outside. That way he had an area of about 70 sq.ft. to roam around.
On top of this, I was able to ‘walk’ Merlin without a leash. He would simply walk right next to me on the sidewalk, ignoring distractions like chipmunks and squirrels and stuff (I must say, dressing as the grim reaper for Halloween and having a black cat walking next to you leashless was pretty cool).
And amazingly even though he had no front claws and was more or less tied up, he could still kill animals outside. Many were the times I’d go to get him, and there’d be a fresh, headless (his modus operandi) mammal corpse out there.
Just hope you’re patient.
I saw this method on TV once (Discovery or Animal Planet).
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Put the cat in a harness.
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Clip the leash to the harness.
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Drag the cat around the kitchen for awhile (or anywhere else that has a smooth floor).
Ok…that’s the brief version but that’s the whole upshot. Once in a harness and on a leash the cat usually hunkers down. The cat drags quite easily (and harmlessly) on a smooth linoleum floor and eventually it gets tired of being dragged and will walk instead.
The whole deal might take a few weeks for your cat to get used to but eventually you should get there.
Of course, the day a dog runs over to sniff your cat you may find the cat semi-permanently attached to your leg…nails and all.
When I was small, we had a cat called Smokey. Smokey thought he was a dog. He would demand to be taken for walks and would always walk to heel. He never learned to bark though.
I tried just putting a collar on my cat, and it walked around backwards, frantically bumping into things, until I took it off. Apparently it thought it could get away by walking backwards.
Don’t try to force your cat to do anything, its futile. Cats can’t really trained because they do whatever they damn well please.
Dog people like dogs because they like to have some creature they can dominate and force to their will. Cat people are more relaxed, they’re satisfied with having an animal that is independent, they have no need to be dominant. Cat people are better people, IMHO.
My home town has an ordinance (universally ignored) that extended the dog-leash law to cats. Its author, Bob Scharnowske, was roundly ridiculed. The law stands, though. I am told that cat-leashing is possible. My last cat went into a screaming panic every time a collar was applied to him. My present cat prefers to slip out of his collars outside, so I can’t find them. I once trained a spayed female cat to ring the doorbell when she wanted in. I had to install a second button about four inches high on the door frame. It took two weeks, but once she figured out she’d get in and get a treat every time she pushed that button, she was hooked.
I once saw a woman walking her cat on a leash at the end of the trail to Mt. Michell in North Carolina (6684ft, I think, tallest in the East). While it’s not that far from the parking area to the top, I was more amazed by this than the spectacular view.
I just wanted to stress that a cat should never have a leash attached to a regular collar - you must ALWAYS use a cat harness. A cat can be seriously injured or killed if he runs to the end of the leash or gets caught in something if the leash is attached to a regular collar.
Cat harnesses come in two basic configurations - a “figure 8” and a “T.” I find the “T” style to be harder for the cat to remove accidentally on purpose. They are pretty inexpensive - maybe $6 each. Don’t use a dog harness - a cat will be able to easily get out of it.
AskNott - WOW on that doorbell thing!
I have a cat, who is not particularly bright, who seemed to show a great desire to experience the outdoors. So, being an apartment dweller, I figured I’d get him a leash. But I couldn’t get the harness on him for the squirming. So, I decided that first, the cat had to learn to sit. it took me, oh, about 6 months to firmly establish the “sit” command to where he’ll do it without seeing a treat in hand. Ultimately, we were able to go for catlike strolls, which is to say that the cat sniffed every single thing within a 40 foot radius, then we went back indoors. In sum, it is possible to bring your cat out on a leash, but do not expect your cat to heel like a dog.
Also, several times he got frightened by something he’d never seen before, like a bycicle, and tried to bolt. You MUST have a firm hold on the leash at all times.
On a cross-country drive that involved having the cat in the car for hours at a time, we want to give our indoor cat the opportunity to stretch her legs whenever we stopped to stretch ours. We tried the harness and discovered that seemingly no matter how tight the thing was, we could do a little Houdini act and get out of it. Turns out, as my wife noticed, when we would get near her with the harness, she would ‘puff-up’ and make herself look bigger so that the harness that was seemingly tight on her was actually loose enough to escape from. After nearly loosing her at a number of rest stops however, we finanally put the kibosh on her nifty magic trick and really tightened the thing to the point where I thought it was hurting her.