Training a cat – what should you consider?

Training can be fun and rewarding for cats in some cases however there are important things to think about.

Should you train or are there ethical considerations not to train a certain behaviour? I.e perhaps you want to train agility which involves jumping – does a cat have health conditions such as arthritis which could be made worse? A cat can be very food motivated and the desire to have food can outweigh the pain.

Is what your training actually a valid training situation? Or are emotions and or pain involved too? We can miss an imperative part of the puzzle here if you are solely focused on training. I have heard of people who want to train their cat to use the litter try and put a treat inside it to encourage them. This is wrong as cats do not like to toilet where they eat and also there may be other reasons including marking, stress, multi cat tension, illness, litter tray being too small, trays next to  each other, having to go past a territory to use a tray, trays near glass doors or cat flap, trays near noisy places, trays near food or water, strong plug in air fresheners, strong smelling cleaning products being used in litter tray, not liking the litter, pain associated with using it and memory forming, being in a busy area). 

Sometimes when training, a food reward can be too over stimulating and a cat may claw to get it. Think about this when training.

A clicker may also scare a cat (it can be too loud), so using a verbal marker can be better.

I offer cat training, if it is suitable for everyone, so if you have any questions please reach out.