Have you trained your "un-trainable" cat anything?

[Napoleon Dynamite]

I've heard before you can't train a cat to do anything, they aren't dogs. I disagree. I don't understand completely how to do it yet, but can see Marat, my cat, is more than capable of learning when he wants to. He made the connection between the can opener and good food in just a day. I tried doing something else. Whenever kitty play time started, I played a song, "The Lion Sleeps Tonight." At first when he was in another room, I would call to him. After about a week, I didn't have to call to him. Once he heard the song, he came running for play time. Now my only problem is that flea and tick prevention commercial (not sure who) where they play the song. When it comes on, Marat is ready to play, not understanding I didn't play the song. Either that or he doesn't care, but just wants play time. Hmmm.. maybe I'm the one trained after all.

He does come when I call his name too, to a point. He will come to within sight of me, then decide whether to come closer, just in case I'm calling him to trim his nails. :(

[demnan]

1. Yes

[Napoleon Dynamite]

2. that is one I'll never be able to do

For whatever reason, my cat has a extreme fear of outside. I don't think I could throw him out if I wanted to. I tried holding him once and going outside to tell someone something, and he went wild, scratching me and ripping three holes in my shirt. I made a similar mistake a few weeks later, holding him while cracking the door to tell someone in the garage something. Repeat of the above event. I no longer try holding kitty while anywhere near a door or going outside.

[Lorien]

3. Yep, Lots of stuff

Like Demnan, Puck and I go for our evening stroll around the neighborhood. Of course, the neighbors think I'm a tad eccentric:



Oberon is clicker trained. He does "come" "sit up" "jump up" "get down" (off of furniture), and "high five". He's used "high five" to train ME at this point. If he's hungry, or if I'm holding something that he wants to see, he assumes the "high five" position (sitting with one paw held aloft, or repeatedly try to smack my hand with his paw). Confuses the heck out of guests when he does it to them!



The book I used was "getting started, clicker training for cats" which I found at www.clickertraining.com

[Odonata]

5. Hmmmmmmm, you just piqued my interest.

I just ordered the starter kit. For $17, it's worth a shot!

[demnan]

6. Yes they really do think you are eccentric if you walk a cat!

Especially where I live now. I get curious stares from all my neighbors.

[kestrel91316]

4. Eddie comes when he is called (sometimes, lol) ...................

and for a few years I could tell him very firmly to LAY DOWN if he was stomping on the bed at night and he would look at me, then circle and immediately lay down and then wait for me to praise him. He also will jump up onto any piece of furniture I snap my fingers over and say "Eddie, upping!"

[Patiod]

7. Calm during nail cutting and comes when called

Both are rewarded immediately with cat treats, which are reserved for training only.

The calling works better when the dinner dish is tapped with a spoon...

[Eurobabe]

8. My older cats respond to NO! and OFF!

They're just too smart I guess. The Daemon knows he is not supposed to go on the counters and if I say off he'll immediately jump down.

The kittens, though, that's a whole 'nother story?! Egads, the cord chewing crew.

[City Lights]

9. My daughter has.

She taught one of our cats to open doors for a science project in school. We have lever handles, and she taught one of them how to open them. She put pieces of lunch meat or a cat treat on the handle, and when he reached up to snag the treat he pushed down on the door handle. The downside to her teaching him this is two of our cats are on special diets and need to be separated from the others at night. We used to be able to just shut the doors, but Watson kept letting them out during the night. Now we actually have to lock the doors from the inside, and pick the locks in the morning. :eyes:

Watson also plays fetch with toy mice. We toss them, he runs after them and brings them back to us to throw again. We didn't teach him this, but assume his old family did.

Alex used to answer the phone. We had a phone with a ringer that he didn't like. He used to jump up on the bed, grab the cord in his mouth and pull it until the phone stopped ringing. We frequently found the receiver on the nightstand.

Alex also taught himself to open the screen door on the slider. Whenever we are in the yard he works the screen door until it's open enough for him to squeeze through. One time we didn't realize he had done this until 4 of our cats were in the yard. Now we have to put a stick in the track of the slider on the outside whenever we are in the yard whenever the temperature is mild enough to have the door open.

[funkybutt]

10. I trained my cat to roll over for a treat

he was just a kitten when i taught him and I was young. It's really hilarious b/c he's very reluctant to roll over. You can tell he doesn't want to. Sometimes he'll try to get away with only half way rolling over but he doesn't get a treat until he rolls completely over.

[ccjlld]

11. I don't know who has trained who

Tucker will come and Meow at me or nip at my legs or arms. This evokes the response from me of "Show mama what you want" He then either leads me to the kitchen (food), the back door (out), the master bathroom (water) or the middle of our bedroom floor (tummy rub, followed by playtime). He will go approx 2 feet, then stop to make sure that I'm following.

He does tend to bite or nip when he doesn't get what he wants or feels we aren't paying attention to him. I'm sure he thinks of it as a training tool!

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

12. I think they have trained me.

[regnaD kciN]

13. I never did any systematic training...

...but most of our cats have learned to come when we call, even when there is no food involved ;-) . Once, when my parents (who were convinced that cats will always ignore humans) were visiting, I called Panda and she came right over. They nearly fell off the sofa in shock...

[newsguyatl]

14. my cats know

"food"

"treat"

"popcorn"

"go"

"no" <-- though sometimes they pretend they don't know this one ;-)

trying to teach jesse "kiss" because he loves to do it so much.

[AValdoux]

15. We've had two that fetch

My husband has trained our last two cats to fetch crunkled up cigarette packs. The first cat, Greyson, was obsessed with cigarette packs. Something about the celophane. He wouldn't chew them, just knock them off the table and bat them around. My husband got the idea to crush an empty pack and throw it across the room. Grey would play with it and bring it back in his mouth to be thrown again. Our next cat, Bullseye, started playing with our cigarettes like Greysan did. He now knows how to fetch, now. He won't do it front of the dog though. I do get a little tired though of all the crushed cigarette packs all over the house.

AValdoux

[Gregorian]

16. Absolutely, maybe.

I make a clicking sound with my tongue when I want them to come to eat. Every other week I buy them chicken livers. When I click my tongue three times, they come running. But I have reserved the sound only for eating. Two clicks, and they look up, but come. Three, and they're up and running.
Also, I have a flea comb. If I run my finger down the teeth, it makes a noise, and they almost always come over to get combed.
Other than that, they are totally wild and free. They will not come when I call them. But they were born in the forest, completely wild. The mother tried to lead them away from me when they were just babies. But they made the decision that they'd rather hang out with me for the easy life.
Another funny thing is that Farnsworth loves to chase rocks, just like a dog.
We're brothers. I never leave them. I won't even leave the house for more than two days until they're gone. It's a sacrifice I'm happy to make. I want their total trust. I want them to feel completely loved.

[demzilla]

17. He politely jumps off the bed before vomiting

Such a cat is worth his wait in gold, especially as his predecessaor was known to barf without warning on any available surface, including my chest. We adopted him after he was abandoned in an RV park and he immediately learned his name and where his cat box was. My avatar is his picture.

[bvar22]

18. You might find these interesting:

More pictures here:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=243x6017

[tibbir]

19. I finally trained my to stop walking on my keyboard

I don't know how she walks on the 1" strip of desk around it but she does.