Cat Obedience Training

Cat obedience training is both achievable and necessary. Urban legends may say that cats are too independent and stubborn to be trained. Cats are just as trainable as dogs provided that you take into account their short attention span and unique personalities. Bad smells all over the house, ruined furniture and long searches in the neighborhood after the cat are issues that can be solved by cat obedience training.

How Can Cat Obedience Training Help?

One of the worst inconveniences about having a cat is the smell of carpets that have been urinated on. Training your cat to use a litter box is easy, as cats are clean animals and like routine.

Cats need to scratch in order to sharpen their claws and to mark their territory. Training them to only scratch on a scratching post will eliminate the problem of destroyed furniture and clothes.

Teaching your cat to obey simple, short commands such as “Stay” or “Come” will help avoid unpleasant situations when the cat won't let herself caught to be taken to the veterinarian or won't stay inside once a door is open.

Cat obedience training can also help owners avoid aggressive behavior towards people or other pets.

In addition, cat obedience training is also a practice that will keep your cat in a better shape.

Cats that are trained for 10 minutes a day tend to be less stressed and have overall better social skills.

Cat Obedience Training Basics

As you start cat obedience training you should keep in mind that cats have a short attention span and are easily distracted. Reinforcement of good behavior works well with cats while punishment will make things worse as the cat becomes afraid and more aggressive.

Clicker cat obedience training involves using a small noise-making device. Every time your cat does something you desire, such as sit, you should click and say “Sit”, then give the cat his reward. Target cat obedience training involves using a tool (i.e. a stick or a can filled with pebbles) in order to distract the cat's attention and get him to do actions that you want him to perform (i.e. moving the stick over the cat's head so that, while looking after it, the cat will sit).

Tips for Cat Obedience Training

There are some things you could remember in order to make things easier for both of you when starting obedience training your cat.

• Start training sessions when the cat has not eaten yet. If you are free-feeding your pet, you should switch to a schedule, so that the tasty reward becomes more valuable.
• Be patient, while your cat can learn some tricks in a day, other tricks can take weeks.
• Don’t start with several things at a time, the cat will be confused and lose interest.
• Keep the sessions short, no longer than 15 minutes.
• Make the training sessions seem more like play time, so that the cat will be more cooperative.
• There are things in a cat's behavior which come from his genetic heritage or his history as a kitten, you cannot expect the obedience training to transform him into a completely different animal.