Do you have any advice for training cats? Are there untrainable cats? Particularly I'd like to teach my cat a recall and targeting. Any tips are greatly appreciated, thank you
Despite my best efforts, I haven’t met all the cats in the world yet. By this, I mean I can’t say FOR SURE that every single cat in the world is trainable. But, in my experience, most can learn a few tricks. It’s just a matter of finding what motivates them. Dogs tend to learn quickly because we designed them that way. We bred them to WANT to please us (for the most part; shiba inu may not apply). Cats basically designed themselves. Purebred cats were never really bred for obedience or a desire to learn from humans; we basically bred them for appearances sake, not for a job.
So, to start training your cat, first find a good motivation. For some cats, it’s food. For others, it’s a preferred toy. Others are highly motivated by attention. Most are food motivated, and it’s just a matter of finding their Absolutely Number One Favorite. Fish is a good place to start, unless your cat is on an iodine-restricted diet.
Rub some fish (or whatever food they love) on the end of a target stick (which doesn’t have to be a fancy target stick, tbh; you can use a pen, or pencil, or even your finger, although I don’t advise that last one because cats have very sharp teeth and will try to bite the target at first). When the cat sniffs the stick, immediately reward them with a treat. Once they begin poking their nose (or paw; some cats will paw quickly, otherwise will prefer using their noses) at the target regularly, start attaching a word to it (”Touch!” is my go-to word). Eventually, they’ll realize that the word touch means ‘touch this object’.
From there, you can use the target stick to direct their attention to whatever you want them to touch (like a hand for high-fives). They’ll learn that ‘touch’ means ‘touch this NEW object’. It’s a bit slow, but cats can learn it quite well. This is the technique I generally use to teach cats to give me a high-five— to switch your cat from nosing a target to using their paw, just move the target a bit higher. They’ll naturally want to pull it down to their nose and try reaching it with their paw. Just start rewarding that action.
Recall is easier. Just give them a treat whenever you say their name and pretty soon they think their name means they’re going to get fed.
1. Keep sessions short. Cats generally don’t have very long attention spans. They get bored of doing the same thing and will generally wander off after 3-4 minutes, no matter how good the treats are. This is fine.
2. Try to end training sessions on a good note. Your cat has managed to touch the target once? Good enough! That’s an excellent place to stop. You DON’T want to overwork your cat into frustration. If your cat seems frustrated, stop and try some playtime instead.
3. Keep portions in mind. You don’t want to overfeed your cats treats or risk unbalancing their diet.
4. Keep rewards as just that: a reward. You’re going to want to ONLY use these special treats in training sessions to raise their value to the cat.