to ask can you train a cat, has anyone ever tried and if not why not?

[PittTheMiddleOneNoOneMentions]

I was looking at these cute little kittens and thinking how young they looked.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/the_litter_tray/2955143-So-who-got-a-new-kitten-recently-Lets-see-then

Cats seem quite bright generally and I was wondering why it is that you can't take a young one and train it like a dog?

Is it that Cat PR (" We are independent so you can fuck off if you think I'm going to do what you say) is so strong that no one ever tries?

Didn't they used to train lions for the circus? How come you can't get a cat to "sit" or "come for a walk"?

Disclaimer: I have never owned a cat as I expect is obvious!

Cats are generally very difficult to train because they are so independently minded,they don't have the desire to please their 'leader' (ha ha,servant more like) like dogs do. My cat understands the word 'no' if I say it sharply when she's thinking of making a bed on my pillow or jumping up on to the kitchen work top. But that's about it. Everything else is 'learned responses' like coming running when she hears the tin opener.

Having said that,the previous post reminded me of one of my DM's cats who would (usually) come running in from the garden if you whistled.

Google clicker trained cat and you'll find plenty of videos of cats doing tricks just like dogs.

I used to train all four dogs in a row, so picture four dogs in a line in front of me doing sits/downs/stands. One day the cat joined the end of the line, she observed for a couple of rounds and offered a 'rear', I clicked and rewarded and that became her default behaviour. From then on she would join the dog and do her little trick for treats.

I met a cat last week that gives its owner high fives

Of our cats the cleverer one is harder to train, he looks at you with disdain. The not so clever one who is less cat like (can't hunt, can barely jump, can't bury in litter tray etc) is more like a dog and more trainable. She walks on a harness, begs, sits and turns around. Her brother just watches in disbelief that she would bother to do all that rather than watch to see where the treats are put and go hunt for them at a later point.

Mine will come when called, sit, roll over, up and down from furniture or surfaces and give a paw. He's trained to walk on a lead so he can come on holiday ( goes out under his own steam at home). He taught himself to use the toilet if he doesn't fancy going out in the rain.

I think it depends on the cat's personality to be honest, this one I don't really need to try that hard, he just seems to understand what's required. Previous models wouldn't have even entertained the thought and did whatever they pleased!

A friend trained her cat to use the toilet instead of a litter tray.

I volunteer at a cat rescue and can definitely say that cats can be trained. Even old, semi-ferals.
There's lots of ways, reward works best.
Cat pic, just because

Aren't breeds like Siamese a bit more amenable to training? My mum had one who travelled on the bus in a shopping bag, and would walk to heel like a dog. I failed miserably to train my moggie, I was sure she could be trained to stay in the garden but the cat instinct to make her own territory was too strong (I guess!). She is diabetic now, and by giving a treat with every insulin injection she will jump up onto the high stool on command and sit patiently while I stick the needle into her. So I think the way to a well trained cat is through lots of treats!

booboo loving the mental image of your cat joining in at the end of the line of dogs!

We've trained our Maine Coons to play fetch. DH doesn't want to train them to do any tricks though as he thinks it's "degrading"

Dogs are generally very food motivated which makes them easier to train, and you can move on to rewarding them with praise as they like to please people due to their background of being part of a pack.

Cats vary in their level of food motivation - the more motivated by food a cat is, the easier it should be theoretically to train them.

Unlike a dog you'll probably always have to keep some element of food involved in praise rather than being able to move fully to verbal praise/a clicker only as cats don't give as much of a shit about pleasing people!

My cats understand "no", "get down" and my little ginger one likes playing hide and seek.

One of my cats will play fetch and bring it back. They will come if shout food. One of them would look at you with a superior expression if you told him to do anything

There's a book on the subject:

www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01I2I4MZ0/ref=dp-kindle-redirect?_encoding=UTF8&btkr=1&tag=mumsnetforum-21

The Trainable Cat by Jon Bradshaw and Sarah Ellis

I keep meaning to buy it before our cats finish the job of training me....

You can absolutely train a cat (probably not every cat) but it would be a lot of hard work for no real benefit. It's not the same as with dogs where they have to be trained for everyone's safety. At a most basic level most cats are 'trained' to use a litter tray or bury it in the garden, and to use a cat flap. My cat will come running if my DH does a specific whistle. He won't do it for me

My cat is a standard moggy, mostly white. He is lazy as fuck and apparently white cats were not wanted/used in the olden days for mousing/ratting etc as they were notoriously lazy, so think its genetic. He's soft as anything and likes being carried around, sleeping under duvets whilst being spooned and being brushed. My mum has a Bengal on the other hand and it is INSANE. Can climb a large tree in seconds, is trained to sit and wait for a treat and can apparently be trained to ride a skateboard etc. Her cat also enjoys a swim. Some cats are trainable.

Forgot to say my cat appears whenever he hears my voice after a while literally within a minute of me being in so I guess he is trained "accidentally" in that respect.

All depends on whether your cat is an ignorant bastard 😂😂

Trinitytaylor, I think the reason that white cats weren't wanted as mousers away back in the day was because the genes for white coat colour (albino colouration) and genes for deafness are often inherited together, so the "lazy" white cats might just have been incapable of hearing their prey scuttling about. I know from watching my cats hunt (our garden borders onto fields), they often hear their prey before it's visible.
Having said all that, we have had 2 white cats , mother and daughter, and they had perfect hearing

My cat has trained me! If he taps his food dish he wants food, taps the radiator he wants to go out, and if he sits by his treat table and yaps (doesn't meow) it's treat time .

Having said all that, we have had 2 white cats , mother and daughter, and they had perfect hearing

Do they have green eyes? It tends to be the blue eyed ones who are deaf doesn't it? (Tries to recall dimly remember GCSE science class from 20+ years ago)

anedoche we have the same scratch post as you, i see your mouse didnt survive either! Ours stayed for 24 hiurs and then our cat ripped it off. She likes the string though...

I've accidentally whistle-trained our 11 year old rescue cat. I was teaching pup recall with a whistle in the house before we moved to outdoors, and basically had to give him a treat every time I blew the whistle. It didn't take long for the cat to realise I had a treat in my hand every time I blew the whistle.

At bed time now, I just blow the whistle and the cat comes running.

The dog's recall is still shit.