Re: 1/19 Musette amps 177, +2~177, +4~102
lol well first you have to have a cat that is willing to be trained...lol. Seriously, I use to train horses for a lot of years and training cats is a lot like training horses, except cats don't have baseball bats on the ends of their legs that can take your head off your shoulders, but it works the same way. It also works just like training them to come to their testing spots...TREATS! All 13 of mine know their names and will come when called. With most of mine I started with them as kittens, but I'm finding that it works just as well with my older kids. It's pretty easy, it takes a bag of treats and a clicker, and lots of patiences. You start out with the clicker and the treats...You first train them that when they hear the clicker it means treat..So for awhile it is sitting with them and click then toss a treat, click toss a treat, until when they hear that click they look for the treat...then you go to adding what you want them to do...Call their name...if they at least look your direction you click the clicker and toss the treat, when they will always look your direction at the sound of their name, you move to the next step..call their name and wait until they are least start towards you, then click and treat...You just have to break down what you want them to do into baby steps, everytime they do what you want correctly they get their treat, and you tie the action with the command word.
You can also substitute the clicker with a word...like Yes, or Right...pretty soon you can drop off the clicker and just go with the treat for the right action, then slowly wean them off the treat and just use praise and loving for the reward...So far this has worked with horses, cats and dogs. Back when I still had my horses I had then not only voice trained but also hand signal trained, I could walk out into the pasture and call in just which horse I wanted, then I could get that horse to do what I wanted by either a voice cue or a hand signal...our dog now is trained to both hand signals and voice, so that if I need him to do something but don't want to alert the whole neighborhood of my presences I can give him a hand signal and he does it.
The most important thing to remember when training any animal is that when people use the phrase it is a dumb animal it doesn't mean they are stupid, it means without voice, just because they don't speak our language doesn't mean they can't think and learn. Cats are very smart, and because they are smart you have to learn to train them so they think it is their idea to do what you are asking because their is something in it for them...lol. Be that praise, food, or a good brushing, whatever trips their trigger is what you use to train them...Musette it is cream cheese, Maxwell it is a good brushing, with my drooler it is hot dogs, with my stallion it was peppermint candies. You find what they really really love and go from there.
Mel, Maxwell, Musette & The Fur Gang
..I actually tested her twice to make sure I was seeing what I was seeing on the meter. :lol: But since the first test was 175 & the second 177 I guess I have to believe it, she really is in the blue, what a great way to start the morning.
