Cat Training

Many people think that cats cannot be trained. That is incorrect. Almost any cat can be trained to do several things. Litter box training is normally the easiest, but come ranks a good second. Cats are more reward based than dogs. Their attitude often seems more like "What's in it for me", than the dog's, "What do you want me to do to make you happy?" These cat training things worked on the small black and white cat I now have. She's very smart, but a little bit obsessed with chasing my hair, eating string, and catching bugs.

Come

There are several ways to teach a cat this behavior. The easiest is to call the cat by name and add the word come every time you feed it. The cat quickly learns that the word come will mean food. Eventually the cat will come when you call from anywhere, simply because it may get food. Another method of teaching this is playing with the cat when it comes. This is another action that gives the cat pleasure, therefore the cat will work to get that reward.

Litter Box Training

Thanks to nature most cats catch onto a litter box very quickly. If there seem to be problems seeing a vet should be a first priority. Cats are natural buriers, and stress or illness can cause that behavior to disappear. This behavior can also be interrupted by someone either startling the cat in the box, or a sudden change in the household.

Toilet Training your Cat

In theory this should work. I haven't done it yet, but I saw an overview on some Animal Planet show. I'm just going to write a basic overview for you. If it does work somebody e-mail me the good news. Note: I don't know how long this is supposed to take. If during any of these steps your cat degrades, go back to the previous step where they did what you wanted them to.

First off your cat needs to already be litterbox trained for this to work at all. First you need a metal pie plate and a toilet seat. Take the pie plate and tape it to the bottom of the toilet seat so that the pie plate covers the hole. Take the seat and place it over the cat's litter box. Fill the pie plate with litter and wait. Hopefully your cat will begin going in the pie plate.

After a time of this working begin to raise the height of the pie plated seat to almost toilet height and move it closer to the toilet in a bathroom. Take the pie plated toilet seat and now move it to cover the real toilet seat.

Hopefully your cat will move with it. Next cut a hole in the pie plate to make it so your cat must balance on the toilet seat, or risk falling. Eventually remove the pie plate and the second toilet seat and see if your time was worth it. Hopefully the cat will now go in the toilet. I don't know how to teach them to flush.

Return to Cat Main