I bought a few highly rated used books via Amazon on cat training. I was wondering if anyone has ever tried this. Cats seem to be awfully self-interested, but since they still crave praise I think there must be some way it could work.

???

I've done some training of my cats because they tend to be 'busy' when they're bored, and when my cats get 'busy' my house gets 'messy' quite a bit faster. It does work, and the key seems to be rewarding the behavior you want to become a trained behavior (I use tuna and everybody loves me :grin:) and only that behavior. This can be somewhat complicated and may take a while though.

We started small with jumping off the kitchen counters on command and we're now working on fetch.

Depends on what you want to train them to do.

I've trained mine to do the following:
1. I say bedtime, and he runs to the bedroom and jumps on the foot of the bed. (I would say it, then go rattle the treat jar. I kept it up untill he did it without any treats.)
2. Daemon and Greg understand the command: down (used a waterbottle for this one.) They jump to the floor from wherever they are--useful when I can't find them b/c they will do it even if they don't see me (being fat, they make alot of noise when they land)
3. Daemon will fetch. He has small stuffed animals that are his. I unstuffed one and filled it with catnip, throw it and then rattle the treat jar. I kept it up until he would fetch any small object thrown and bring it back without treats.
4. Greg understands the command: up. He will jump to whatever I'm pointing at; I used scratching behind his ears as a reward for that one.
5. Daemon and Greg both understand the command: stop--they freeze and stop whatever they are doing. (used holding them in place, then a punishment/reward waterbottle/treat system for that one.

I highly recommend the waterbottle or watergun for stop/down/etc. commands. It works fairly quickly. Daemon still likes baths, but he hates getting squirted with cold water from the squirtbottle.

Good luck!

cheryl

cats are pretty smart. If you yell at them to get down when they're on certain furniture, they'll know they're not supposed to be up there. Mine have always jumped off as soon as they hear or see me enter the room (it didn't require spraying them or anything either). of course, they go and do whatever they want when I'm not there. the exception is when they're in a certain defiant mood. then when you yell at them, they simply give you a look that says "hmmph..why should i do what you want?" and keep on doing whatever they're doing. different cats have different personalities though. some will be quicker to try to please than others.

of course, there are also the things they do purely to get ones attention. cassie used to like to come into my room in the middle of the night and chew on paperwork. since it made a unique rustling sound, I was always alerted right away. of course I would yell at her. she kept chewing though until she heard my feet touch the floor, then she'd run out of my room. she'd come back a few minutes later to annoy me again. she did that just to get my attention. I finally just started closing my door every night (I didn't in the first place because that apartment didn't have central heat - so it got really, really cold every night in there - damn cat).

euphrasyne: how exactly did you use the waterbottle to teach sit/laydown/stop?

Uh uh! I trained my lovebird to not poop on peoples shoulder! :grin: Lovebirds are way dumber than cats, so I’m pretty proud of it. I would just tell him “no!” in a very firm voice and he got very upset. After all, he wanted his “mommy” to love him :wink:
The key is to be very aware of the behaviour you want to reward- in my case that he got restless and didn’t know where to go… so I took him off the shoulder as soon as he did that and just told him how amazing he was for doing so. Then I scratched him behind his ears
Animals just really like to be told how amazing and cute they are :lol:

I don't think this counts, our cats have trained us. Really well :lol:
Daneille

Haven't trained any cats, but when I was 14 I did try to train my friend's dog to say "hello." I had read in the newspoaper that they'd done it in Russia. Probably more Cold War propaganda :wink:

I've trained almost all of my cats to sit, and to stand up on their hind legs for short periods of time.

One cat I had would fetch things, but I don't think I did much training other than to encourage him. He did it on his own the first couple of times, and I kept feeding him treats and telling him how good he was. :)

[ETA: Oh, Euphrasne reminded me of other things I don't even think about, but are clearly aspects where they've been trained. My cats all understand "down" and "no", and both of them understand that a pat on my lap indicates they should jump up. They also are trained (for the most part) to stay off all of the furniture and counters, except for the cat posts and two chairs that are "theirs". They also come when called with a whistle.]

Cheers,
Jonobie

Have any of y'all housetrained your cats? The cats we've had in the past have all used a litter box but we recently inherited (aka the people across the street moved and left their ktty behind- so sad!!!) a cat and he is HOUSE TRAINED!! Seriously, when he needs to go to the bathroom, he will go to the door and meow or paw at the door- just like a dog!! How do you get cats to do this? I would love another cat, but am CLUELESS how to train them to be like this!!

His,
MrsTU

Yessss, actually most cats I know who are allowed outside will prefer this to a litter box.

The real stunners are the ones that use the toilette :face: ...g

Depends on your definition of 'train'. Ours will ignore you if it suits their interests, but they do respond most of the time. They come when called, know the meaning of "no", "down", etc., and they go to the door when they have to go outside. They know what they're not allowed to do, but if they think they can get away with it, they'll do it anyway. Then the minute you come in the room they'll stop and look innocent. Typical cats. :wink:

Yessss, actually most cats I know who are allowed outside will prefer this to a litter box.


Wow, wished mine did this, they're opposite, they are outside for periods of time and come in, use the box, then go out again. It really bugs me when the do the doo! I feel, "dang, they were just friggen outside!" LOL