Learning Tricks is Not Just for Dogs – Your Cat can Learn Tricks too!

You may not be able to teach your cat to brush his own teeth, but cats can learn tricks just like dogs ~ they learn and respond in different ways. It has been shown that cats respond better to working for food than for positive reinforcement like many dog trainings methods.

SET THE FOUNDATION

To lessen the likelihood of upsetting your cat’s diet have moist or dry cat food as a treat on hand. Like dogs, cats also respond to praise, so when your cat performs a task you have asked of her, be sure to not only reward her with a food treat, but also with verbal praise. You will likely have more success if you work with one command at a time. As with any training effort, with humans or pets, your training effort will be more successful with consistency.  Be sure to let your cat learn at his own pace. But when you see an even slight glimmer that your cat understands the behavior you are trying to teach, reward her enthusiastically.  Here are commands for you to try:

COME

This command is best taught at mealtime. Use your cat’s name as you tap her food bowl and use the command “come.” When she comes to you, praise her and then give her the food.

SHAKE HANDS

Sit your cat in front of you and touch her paw and say, “shake. In the beginning you may need to gently lift her paw as you say “shake.” As soon as she reacts and lifts her paw, shake it and giver her verbal praise along with a treat. Consistency is key and repeating the command the same way each time. Our cat Bingo has mastered this command after my daughter worked with him using these training methods.

WAVE

Cats naturally swipe at a piece of food, which helps to teach this command. Hold a treat in your hand and place it in front of the cat’s nose but just out of reach of her front paws. Then, awaken your cat’s natural instincts, by moving the food back and forth with your hand in a waving motion while telling your cat to “wave.” As your cat is reaching for the food with her paw, it will appear that she is waving. Once her reaching motion resembles a waving behavior, praise her and give a treat.

SIT-UP

Gently place your cat into a sitting position. Hold a treat over her head and say “sit-up.” Do not give her the reward if she stands or grabs at the treat, just repeat the command and wait for her to try. When she accomplishes the desired behavior, give her the treat immediately and repeat the command several times.

In no time you’ll have the best trained cat on the block.