Training to Come on Command

Believe it or not, it's pretty simple to teach your cat to come when it is called. It's convenient to teach your cat to come at command, so that no matter where you are, you will always be able to find it since it will come running to you. Cats normally learn to spontaneously come at the sound of their name, and even more so when it is mealtime. This is the trick to teaching a cat to come on command, by initially using food.

Coming on command step by step

1. Always call the cat by its name before serving it its food. Most cats eat several times a day and these are perfect times to practice.
2. Call your cat right before serving its food even when the cat is right in front of you. You should call the cat by its name along with the command word that you intend to use when calling it. For example "Fur ball, come!" and immediately after, serve the cat its food (feed it food it likes eating). If the cat does not obey, try to lure it by offering it a treat or a toy, and if the cat still ignores you, try again later as this probably means that the cat is not hungry.
3. During the next few days, call your kitten or cat a few minutes before serving its food. This way you will make the cat react to the sound of your voice instead of just the sound of food being served on in its plate.
4. Little by little go increasing the distance between your kitten and you before calling it. You might need someone to help you with this. Ask the other person to play with the kitten in another room. You would then call the kitten from another room before giving it its food. If the kitten does not pay attention to your call, don't get upset at it, and do not go looking for it either. Resolve this by not feeding it yet.
5. Give the cat different types of treats each time it heeds your call. Make sure to not only call the cat for its meal times but during other times of the day as well. Make sure to always prize the kitten each time it obeys with something the cat likes (like a toy or a treat) This is really the only way that it will learn, so don't stop doing this until the cat has achieved what you want.
6. Make sure to never call you cat or kitten when it is about to go through an unlikable experience, like when you need to spray it with insecticide, when you need to bath it or before clipping its nails. This is not recommended because the cat will associate any call with a negative experience and it will not obey next time.

Stay sweet: Cats are intelligent creatures and they are able to learn lots of things just like dogs can, but everything they learn must be taught with a lot of love and patience. If you get angry at your cat for having done something naughty, the cat's reaction will just be to avoid you more. If you find yourself getting frustrated, just stop the training and start again later.