Has anyone clicker trained a cat?

[ninny]

I have a 6 month old kitten that i have bottle fed since he was 2 weeks old. I want to train him to do tricks. I am wondering how well clicker training works with cats. Im not fond of it with dogs but i'll try it on the cat. I read a article that zoos are doing this with their show cats. I figure if im thinking of training animals for pay then i should work with cats too.

Thanks for any tips!

 

[Davaroo]

Oh, this thread should be interesting....

 

[Hangin Wit My Peeps]

My cat is clicker trained. When I click the clicker he comes running for FOOD! LOL Is that trained???

All my animals know that when the clicker clicks they better get their butts over by me right now for some good treats

 

[ninny]

I also planing on trying to train the chickens when i get them. But ill post that when it starts. Now im working on the cat.

 

[Bantamlover23]

I know this is not any where around you but this website is of a dog trainer I used use. I just cannot afford it anymore but they are really good with a clicker and they a lot of good info on there website. I think they also may have some info on clicker training cats. I know it is possible.

www.bestpaw.com

 

[EllyMae]

As a cat owner, I'm just wondering how the words "train" and "cat" can even be in the same sentence...currently I'm having a terrible time medicating one of mine...just TRY and make them eat something they don't want! Theodore even gave me the evil eye this morning when I came into the room with medicine bottle in hand. I think I heard him whispering "not a chance in----" to one of my other cats.

 

[rebecca10782]

Sorry to laugh, but that is one of the funniest things I've heard. I can just imagine the look on my cats face

But mine are very stuck up and purposely get into things that they KNOW they are forbidden to stay out or off of. They are very smart, they know what will get them attention.
Sorry to break it to you but a cat's job is to get into lots trouble and defy their owners

We did have a cat that would use the toilet when the litter box was full

No one ever tought her, she was just very smart. She was a very special cat though. I might find the idea of training a cat more humorus than others because I have always had Siamese. They are ten times more miscievious than other breeds. Jasmine actually yells at me if I pet her when she is not in the mood to be touched or if I disturb her when she is resting, by sitting too close to her

She is very pissy.

 

[patandchickens]

My observation is that you can only train a cat to do things it pretty much wanted to do in the first place

That said, I have "trained" various of my cats over the past 20 years to go out on a leash (mind, the cat has to choose the direction and pace - well, ok, I did have one who would pretty well 'heel', but she was overall a cat in a million), and to jump up where/when I indicated, and to fetch, and to stand up and 'pose'.

But this was all done purely for fun, just building on what the cat was naturally doing. Didn't use a clicker, just praise and petting, pretty much just shaping what the cat offered. (e.t.a. - and some of my cats were not interested in walkies, or 'up', or 'fetch', or whatever, and so they didn't do it and I never bothered them about it again after ascertaining that it was not on the cat's agenda

)

Training a cat to do an arbitrary (to the cat, anyhow) task would unquestionably be much harder.

OTOH there are 'cat agility competitions', a la dog agility, and while the footage I've seen suggests that agility dogs need not feel threatened <vbg> it would seem to indicate that cats *can* be clicker-trained to do relatively arbitrary things. Some cats anyhow. By some people.

So I dunno. It's possible. They're not one of the animals that most easily lends itself to training (clicker or otherwise), though

And six month old kittens are not exactly noted for their attention span

Pat, now really missing my long-gone Hecate kitty who used to walk with me outside on a leash and all sorts of other neat stuff

 

[MrsChickendad]

Don't know if you can clicker train a cat, but mine is "electric can opener" trained!

 

[EllyMae]

Quote:

So there IS hope....