Leash training an adult cat (male, throwing, dogs, appetite)
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I have two indoor-outdoor 8-year-old neutered male cats.
We currently live on acreage out in the country on a quiet dirt road.
We're moving to a small town, and will be renting for a while. We're also considering the RV lifestyle.
So I'm trying to find a way to prevent the cats from getting lost or hurt in places that are very different from what they've known all their lives.
One cat (Spice) would probably adapt easily to an indoor lifestyle. The other one, Cinnamon, loves to go for walks and explore. He actually gets upset if he's trapped in the house when I go down to the greenhouse.
(I suspect he's worried I'll get into trouble if he's not there looking after me. He also lectures me if I walk out into the road in front of our house.)
Any tips on getting the cats accustomed to harness and leashes?
I got a couple of harnesses, have tried putting them on the cats indoors, with lots of pets and compliments. That's gone fairly well. What's next?
Next is putting on the harness indoors and adding the leash and letting them drag it around (supervised, of course), to get the feel of that.
When you finally go outside, IMO choose a quiet time and plan to spend just a few minutes out. Gradually increase the time and exposure to sounds of the neighborhood. Some cats will adapt quickly but others may never like it. See how they react and take it from there.
In his book TRAINING YOUR CAT Raw Berwick, animal trainer at Universal Studios lays out all the steps of how best to leash train your cat. He says cats HATE being restrained so this is sometimes the hardest to teach.
The books is fantastic. It tells how to potty train and even train cats to be hearing for the deaf not to mention all the tricks dogs are taught to do.
When it comes to leash training as has been said, you first let the cat get used to the harness, then the leash. Next you let the cat take you for a walk inside with you holding the leash. Next try guiding the cat to where you want to go with a gentle pull on the leash with a voice command. When teaching this, you want to make sure you have treats on hand to give one when he gets it right. Usually at this step, as soon as the cat feels the resistance, he lies down. At least my cat did, He'd go on a lie down strike for minutes at a time. Even throwing a treat in the direction I wanted him to go wasn't enough. Needless to day, teaching cats this is best done BEFORE meals when they have an edge to their appetite. I would imagine if your cat free-feeds you'll have a harder time doing this. You need to have your cat very well trained inside before you venture outside and make sure when you go out there are no distractions like other cats, dogs, cars. Always keep all training sessions short 5-10 minutes and end on a positive note. He says you can do multiple training sessions per day. I did about three.
I wasn't patient enough to wait out the lie down strikes so I never got that cat leash trained. Luckily we weren't moving into an RV or sailboat and I had trained him to come when I called him when he was outside. I'd never let him out after he'd eaten. It was always before meals so he knew when I called, dinner was ready. In anticipation, he always stayed close by.
One of our cats likes to learn tricks--we call him the circus cat. The other one will sometimes copy the stuff the first cat does, if he thinks he'll get attention or treats.
One of our cats likes to learn tricks--we call him the circus cat. The other one will sometimes copy the stuff the first cat does, if he thinks he'll get attention or treats.
So I'm working on cat #1 right now.
Do you use clicker training to teach him tricks? Our Benny took to clicker training easily. It's fun and a great bonding experience.
I recently read about clickers, but haven't tried them. I click my tongue.
They know that means I want something, it's just a matter of them figuring out what it is and whether they want to do it...
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