Cat Training: Extra Tricks

To train a cat, first you have to consider that any animal can only be trained with things that are instinctive to them. You can teach a cat how to sit or stick out their leg, but you wont succeed if you want it to meow when someone knocks on the door because cats don't do that naturally.

But, What is training?
Training actually means to fool your animal to something out of instinct, inertia or without thinking about it. For example, remember the time when you would open a can or bag (of anything), didn't the cat come running? It is because cats associated it with something good to eat and cant help itself from doing it. It needs to come even if the probabilities of obtaining something is minimal.

So, training means making your cat a behavior with an action and a word coming from you. It is to provoke an phenomenon action and reaction instinctively. For that you will need patience, time, prices, caresses; but at the end, the final reward is the result of all efforts.

Reinforcing behavior
Instinctive behavior must be reinforced ( awards) constantly. You can teach your cat to give you the leg, for example in a couple of minutes. If you wish for his behavior to continue, even when you are not awarding it anymore, you have to continue training regularly for at least about a week and then you can start rewarding it again from time to time.

How to start
First, you will need something to use as a prize. Generally food, something that your cat loves and don't give it too often. The more it smells, the better. You can use small pieces of sardines or flavored food for cats (specially if it is not their normal food).

Practical example
For example, lets show them how to give the leg:

• Hold on to the first prize and hide it between your fingers, extend your arm out towards the cat placing it right in front of it (as if you were offering it).
• Wait for it to try to reach your hand with his paw. If it tries to stand and grab it with its mouth, start all over again. At first, it is possible you might have to show the food first o have it taste some. When his paw touches your hand, you have to say, "greeting" or "the paw"( it is not important what you say, the important thing is to always say the same) and reward it.
• Repeat the previous thing over and over again during several days. The combination between the physical and verbal language is the stimulus you want to associate with the prize.
• After several times, do the same, but without any food on your hands. Soon it will learn that when you extend your hand out and say greeting, it should touch you with its paw simply because something good to eat can be in your hand.
• Repeat this several times during the day for a week. After the second day, start doing more often without the food. The cat wont care, it will still continue greeting. You just have to make sure from time to time, it receives a reward.
• After a week, your cat should put its claw on your hand every time you extend it and say "greeting".

This behavior will have been implemented in such a way that it is probable that you wont even need to say the order: "greeting"

• Just remember to reward its behavior sometimes. And like any other behavior, should be practiced from time to time so it wont forget.
• Practice everything we advised you and try to come to you when you call it or to sit down or any other natural behavior (jump, climb on your lap, get down from the furniture…).