Dog and Cat Training

Cats are trained and encouraged by treats or rewards.  A clear illustration of such behavior is when cats come running when it hears the food bag rustle or the can opener’s sound.  Cats often relate the sounds to food rewards.

Keep in mind that your cat must be closely examined on a regular basis by the veterinarian, to ensure that there are no unknown problems in your cat’s health that could be aggravated or intensified during training activities.
 
To further encourage your cat to maintain a good behavior, the most effective way is to offer immediate treats, a full tasty meal, or a favorite toy as rewards.

When saying “good” and offering a treat all together, your cat will later relate the word with its positive act, even if later, food is not available and upcoming.  In place of food rewards, you can give your cat an enjoyable playtime or a rub behind its ears.

With the use of positive emphasis and reinforcement, your cat will be willing to learn good behaviors and basic instructions or commands.

Here are training guidelines:

1.  It is best to begin training with kittens.  They will be more open and responsive to training.  Bad behaviors have not yet been formed and not given a chance to develop.

2.  Use positive emphasis and reinforcement at all times.  A gentle hug, caress, or a whisper has a longer lasting effect than harsh or bitter words.

3.  Limit the training time.  Make it brief but frequent.  Cats normally have short attention and interest spans; so it is much more effective to have four to six sessions of five minutes each, during the course of the day than an hour or two of continuous training. 

4.  Confine the training to indoors.  This is essential so that your cat will not be distracted by other neighboring pets or be attracted to climbing trees instead. 

Discipline should be instilled for a well behaved cat, but tough punishment must be avoided.  In training your cat so to avoid negative acts, you need to approach it positively. Cats generally will not respond to certain punishments like hitting or yelling. They usually correlate the undesirable act with you rather than with their bad behavior. The outcome will be that your pet either stops loving you or will be afraid of you; not the result that will lead to a loving and warm relationship with your wonderful pet cat!

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