Teaching your cat to play piano is indeed as hard as it looks, but if you want to teach your cat simple tricks, it's not that hard. It's also beneficial for your cute kitty.
Not only is teaching tricks to your cat entertaining for guests and rewarding for yourself - it’s beneficial to little kitty. Believe it or not, a cat that can do tricks - basically, respond to verbal or visual cues - is a little sharper than his or her non-trick cat. Not only that, but teaching tricks to your cat will give it a little structure in life, and thus discourage certain unwanted kitty behaviours.
Cats can do all sorts of tricks. My cousin’s cat, Momo, can do stuff like shake hands (even switch which paw is being shaken!), roll over, beg, and sit up. I’ve even seen people make their cats jump through hoops! Uhh… check your favourite webvid site for some of those goodies.
Usually, you see people using hand gestures to signal to their cat what you want it to do, however, verbal commands are just as good. Needless to say, though, cats won’t pay you any mind if you don’t give out edible treats after the performed trick. Dogs they ain’t.
Let me tell you how Momo is trained by my cousin. Firstly, my cousin doesn’t leave food out for Momo to “free feed,” therefore Momo is probably hungrier than other cats out there. It’s a requirement that your cat be hungry when you train him or her, actually. Thus, my cousin will take some of Momo’s regular food and use it to entice Momo into action. She’ll show Momo what she wants him to do with both a hand gesture and a verbal command and it’ll be done. If Momo is slow or doesn’t respond right away, she’ll rub the treat on his tongue just to let him know the presence of the treat; and Momo then complies right away.
So… how does your cat eventually learn the desired trick? Let’s have an example!
Let’s say you wanted to teach Hello Kitty how to shake hands. First, get out Hello Kitty’s regular dry food (the dry food for free feeding… remember to always give your cat a sufficient diet of wet food!) or a special treat (if you free feed her). Then, you might start out by lifting her paw up (while she’s sitting) and then immediately reward her with the food reward. Do this maybe 10, 20, or 30 times, or until Hello Kitty decides she doesn’t care about the food reward anymore. Do this everyday for maybe 3-5 days. After such time, you should just be able to put your hand out and Hello Kitty will automatically place her paw in your hand! You’ve still got to give her the food reward, however, otherwise she’ll quickly forget why she’s even shaking hands. Now, it’s time to add in the verbal or visual cue (in this case, your open palm is a visual clue… but it’s a good idea to add in something like, “shake hands.”). Only add in your verbal cue once the trick is perfected, otherwise Hello Kitty won’t know what you’re talking about! And, make sure to say the verbal cue before the trick is performed.
The basic tenet is that you must teach your cat in steps. Shaking hands is a very simple action, so there were basically only two steps involved in making it happen. But, if it’s a more complicated trick like rolling over, there will definitely be more steps involved; you’ve got to start off by rewarding kitty for behaviour that approximates what you eventually want. Then, you slowly get her to do tricks closer and closer to what you want, until it is what you want. Again, once it’s what you want, add in the verbal clue. Then, you can move on to teaching her the next trick (but make sure to continue to practice the old tricks occasionally).
A cat of any age can learn new tricks (they ain’t dogs), so don’t be afraid to teach your old cat new tricks. Older cats may just require a slower training schedule.
I’m wondering what tricks your cat can do? Also, how did you teach him or her? Please share with us (videos would be cool)!
Today, we at Cat News are glad to have the opportunity to interview Mittens, star of the hit movie, Bolt.