#kitten training

[merakimelareloaded]

Training little Blue Steel to be comfortable in a harness

I think he's nailing it

[theadventurek9]

Used Rebel’s ‘touch’ command for a practical purpose for the first time yesterday. I’m so happy to see it working and her little brain processing working with us for food.

I wish I would have gotten it on video but my partner is excited and does his sessions before I can set up a camera.

We clipped the leash to her harness for the first time last night and she was a little frozen and preoccupied with trying to bite the leash/clip.

So brought out her touch command and had her walking around the house!

Hoping to get some video today if she is feeling up for it.

[fbwzoo]

hi!!! don't feel pressured to answer this if you don't want to, but i just got a 7 week old kitten and i really would like him to be socialized properly!! do you have any tips??

Congrats on your new kitten!!

So just in general you could try looking up puppy socializing lists, as a lot of that will apply to cats too! But I'll list a number of things that would be good ideas to incorporate where you can.

- cooperative care training (handling of paws, head, ears, mouth, taking food from a syringe, nail trims, brushing, teeth brushing, possibly baths)

- carrier training

- car rides in a carrier

- vet clinic visits (unfortunately probably not possible with the current pandemic and how busy many clinics are, but doesn't hurt to ask if you want)

- harness and leash training

- riding in a backpack or stroller (very much optional, but lots of fun for enrichment & taking your cat places safely!!)

- meeting new people (again, possibly challenging at the moment, but something to consider as people get vaccinated)

- exposure to loud sounds (thunder, vacuums, etc)

- appropriate play (play with toys, not hands)

I think that's everything I can think of. @followthebluebell might have more suggestions as this is a part of his job!

[waitingfordoomsday]

GUYS IM GETTING A KITTEN AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

june 23 be here now

his name will be dwight

if anyone has cat advice pls let me know

[crazycatgirl420]

An almost fifty second video of Coco and I playing. He loves to pounce on my feet and ankles, it took a few weeks but I managed to teach him to be gentle(r)! Its a work in progress, but after I pull my foot away he doesn't poke me as much with his claws the next time.

[coffeewithcalypso]

In my hubris I thought I had nailed the cats sleeping together in my bed in three nights. Night four taught me I had not.

It's not quite all that dire. Also I'm going to say at the top, I say fight/scuffle/etc here. They are not fighting. They are playing in a very physical but appropriate way. No one is in danger here though you'd never believe it to hear the way Fitz shrieks when Mac is just grooming him.

Night one was really a half night. Fitz is only about eleven weeks and very small and I wasn't ready to let him roam the house alone at night. McElroy didn't get roaming privileges until about fourteen weeks. The difference mostly is that I didn't get Mac until he was twelve weeks and I more needed him on my sleep schedule so he wasn't out, making noise at four in the morning. I got Fitz about three weeks ago now so he's pretty much on the house's sleep schedule himself. Anyway, I pretty much had to start letting him out. McElroy only wanted to use the litter box the kitten was using and was peeing outside of his at night when he couldn't access the Fitz's. Mac's main one on one time (and the time he's always been mostly cuddly) is in bed at night/first thing in the morning. So I wanted to preserve that until he had bonded with Fitz. I figured there was no way the kitten could get in my tall ass antique bed. I was wrong. So Fitz got himself comfortable and when Mac eventually came to sleep he jumped up, saw the kitten in his bed and immediately left to sulk. Until about 2:30 in the morning when I woke up to them fighting in the bed. Now ya girl needs sleep so Fitz promptly got put away in his room.

Night two was just Fitz sleeping with me all night and Mac sulking in the living room.

Night three was both of them sleeping in the bed! There was only one minor scuffle but they both settled down and I went back to sleep. Nailed it!

Nope. Night four, last night, they both tried to be in bed, I woke up again to a fight. I separated them. They reengaged. I even went so far as to pick them up and put them in the main part of the house so they could burn off energy in another room. Unfortunately I'm a really light sleeper so even that kept waking me up. Fitz went back in the office. However, there are some good things about this. Mainly, best as I could tell Fitz was equally, if not more, responsible for engaging McElroy and starting the fight. Which frankly is huge because he has not shown an interest in interacting with Mac at all these three weeks. Now, you'd never guess that was the case given how he shrieks like a banshee when Mac responds to invitation. Like, sir, you can't pick a fight and then be mad when it happens. Still it's encouraging, even if I'm real tired today.

[hellenhighwater]

Thank you for sharing your kittens' journey in your house with us, it is absolutely delightful. Could you tell us more about how you train the kittens to do things like come to snapping fingers?

Sure! 

Coming when called is pretty easy--they’re really food motivated. Basically, whenever I switch out their food (which happens in their line of sight, so they’re already interested in the process) I snap my fingers when I put it down for them. I also use high-value treats (like wet cat food, a little catnip, or cat treats) and snap, then give them the treat when they come to see what’s up. I did this a few times a day, usually spaced apart by at least half an hour. After about a week of this, they would come to the snap even when no treat was visible, because they’d learned to associate the sound and the reward. Vice has suddenly turned a corner and is now willing to accept petting, (and is currently so demanding that I’m having a hard time keeping him happy with one hand so i can type with the other) we’re now mixing in non-food rewards, and will be working on coming from longer distances and in unfamiliar locations. It’s important to move towards not rewarding them with food every time--they’ll get food rewards less and less as we go, and instead get attention and other positive reinforcement.

At first, I would let them see me preparing the treat--spooning some wet food out of a can, opening the catnip container, etc--because then I had their attention for the snapping part. Once they started noticing the snap independently, I did my best to disconnect the incoming-treat process and the come-to-snap part of things; I would open the wet food and put some on a paper plate, then set that out of their sight (but in my easy reach) for fifteen minutes or so, and get them really distracted playing with a toy. Once I was confident that they’d forgotten I had put a treat together, I would snap and then reward them. I don’t want them to swarm me when I’m opening food, I want them to come when I snap.

I try to keep in mind what sort of interactions they’re equipped to understand, so when it comes to stuff like using their teeth and claws in ways I don’t want them to, I either remove them from the thing they’re attacking, or remove the thing. It’s best to not let kittens interact with your hands, feet, and clothing as a toy (I’ll admit I let them go after my feet a bit, but mostly because it was the only way VIce would approach for a while! ) because they’re GOING to bite and scratch; use a toy instead! 

When they’re using their claws correctly, such as using soft paws to drag a hand in for petting, they get rewarded with positive interaction and praise! When they use their claws/teeth incorrectly, I withdraw. That means that if they nip when I’m petting, I make a pain noise or say “no!” and remove my hand. If playtime and petting end whenever they bite or scratch, they’ll stop doing it. This is actually what other cats will do with a playmate who is not using appropriate gentleness during play. (Fingers typing on a keyboard are bait; I’ve had to do this with Vice half a dozen times already just writing this post.)

As a note, don’t yank yourself away when you withdraw, because this is going to trigger an instinctive tightening of grip from the bitey baby. Push forwards, towards them, then remove your hand once it’s been released.

As far as unwanted scratching goes, you basically train them to scratch something else instead of damaging your furniture--or in Mal’s case, trying to scale the window screens. If they’re clawing and climbing things they shouldn’t be, you need to provide them with alternatives for those urges. Okay, Mal wants to be somewhere high up; I added a sisal rope wrap to the ladder so she can easily climb all the way into the loft, and whenever she starts going to the window screen and scratching, I say, “No!” pick her up, and put her on the ladder, then bait her with a string toy all the way up. At the top, she gets rewards and petting. I also make the screens more awkward to access by pulling a heavy curtain in front of that window, so it’s harder to get to. 

After two-ish weeks of this, she clearly understands that she’s not meant to climb the window screen but she can climb into the loft, and she often rockets up the ladder at top speed. They haven’t been scratching furniture, but that’s almost certainly because they have lots of better options--there’s a scratching post, the sisal-wrapped ladder, and a cardboard scratcher in this room, and all three have been rubbed with catnip, and I often bait them to them during play time, so they have positive interactions with them. 

With most “bad” cat behavior, it’s easier to train them to do something else than it is to train them to not do it at all--they’re not great with punishment and often it won’t actually be effective. But all cats are different! You may have to try different things to figure out what works for you.

As a reward, here’s a picture of Vice sleeping on top of Malice’s head. They both seemed fine with this?

[amazinganimalsphotos-com]

Simple Cat Or Kitten Training Tips For Beginners That Will Help You Train Your Cat