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Teach your cat some tricks! Your cat can come when you call him, shake hands, sit, or stand on his hind feet ... all at your command! Sound impossible? It's not! I've trained a cat to do all these things, and more. I've even seen a cat that would sit on the toilet, instead of using a litter box! Here's how it's done. First, you must remember that any animal can only be trained to do things that are already instinctive behaviour for that animal. You can train a dog to fetch something and bring it back in his mouth, because he already knows how. But you can't train a dog to draw pictures with a magic marker, because dogs don't naturally do things like that. Similarly, you can train a cat to shake hands, or sit, because those are natural behaviours for a cat. But you won't have much success trying to train a cat to meow when someone comes to the door! The next thing you need to know is that 'training' is really fooling the animal into doing something by 'instict', or 'without thinking about it'. Your cat probably already has some of these behaviours. When you open a can (of anything), does he come running? That's because he's associated the sound of the opening can with something good to eat, and he can't help himself ... he has to come, even though nine times out of ten there's no food forthcoming. What we'll show you how to do is to make the cat associate a behaviour with an action and word from you. The third thing you need to know is that instinctive behaviour must be thoroughly reinforced. Teaching your cat to shake hands will only take a few minutes ... but if you want him to continue the behaviour, even after you stop rewarding him, you'll have to continue the training regularly for about a week, and reward him every once in a while after that.  O.K., here's how it works. You'll need something to reward your cat with. This usually involves food, ideally some sort of treat that your cat absolutely adores ... but doesn't get very often. The smellier the better. I used little bits of sardine, but fishy cat food (especially if your cat's normal food is dry bits) will work great.As an example, let's use 'shaking hands' as the behaviour you want to reinforce. With a little bit of the treat in the center of your hand where he can't see it, reach down to your cat, and wait for him to reach for the food with a paw. If he tries to stand to get it with his mouth, start over. (You might have to show him the food first, or even have a little taste). As he reaches up with a paw, say 'SHAKE' in a firm voice. Then let him have the treat. The combination of you bending over and extending your hand, and the word 'shake', is the stimulus you want to associate with 'yummy food'. Do this a few more time. Then try it without any food. Very quickly, the cat will learn that when you bend over, extend your hand, and say 'shake', he should reach up, because there just might be something good in your hand! Let him actually take the treat with his paw, if he can. Do this every once in a while, for about one week. After the first day or two, start doing it more and more without any treat. The cat won't care ... he'll keep reaching up anyway. Just make sure to actually include the treat once in a while. After a week, your cat should reach up and put his paw in your hand whenever you bend over, extend your hand, and say 'shake'. The behaviour is so strongly implanted, you probably won't even have to say the word! Just remember to reinforce the behaviour every once in a while after that, by actually giving him the treat. And as with all learned behaviours, it has to be practiced once in a while, or he'll forget! Pretty easy, right? Now you can try teaching your cat to come when you call him, or some other instinctively natural behaviour, using the same techniques. And if you manage to teach him to turn on the TV, let me know ... I want to take pictures!! |