Clicker training cats

[ukphd]

Hi

I've asked Santa for a copy of Karen Pryor's "Clicker Training for cats" and am just wondering if anyone else has tried it with their cats and if so how you got on, what you trained them to do etc?

Also will my kittens be too old to start it if I wait until christmas? They're currently 23 and a half weeks old.

Thanks
Nancy

[Ssthisto]

Although I didn't use the book, I have worked with clicker-training cats before.

It works best with VERY food-motivated cats - and you'll have to find a treat for them that can be broken into tiny pieces.

I started working with my cats when they were three and four years old, so it absolutely won't be too late to start after Christmas. That said, you can START working with them now, if you can get hold of a clicker separately - just get them to recognise that click = treat. Click = treat. Click = treat.

Your first goal is to get them to look at you - or come running to you for their goodies - as soon as they hear *click*.

Beyond that, it's just what you want to train them to DO.

[feorag]

I have a cat DVD called "Top Cats And Tales" in which I feature with Luna my siamese on a PAT visit all filmed up here in the north east and there's a couple on there who have clicker trained their 2 cats!

Like Ssthisto says this is something I think you could choose to do at any age, so I would say have a go!

[ukphd]

Great - thanks!
I am really looking forward to trying. I've done a bit of animal training in the past (long time ago!) but it was all with birds and so wasn't with a clicker.
My two do seem to be pretty food motivated - I usually have to watch my fingers when I give them treats though as they get a tad over enthusiastic!

Any idea what would be a "healthy" treat for them? I'm not convinced about the usual treats available in the shops - are they ok?

[Ssthisto]

You can use bits of their normal food (and remember that you'll need to adjust whatever you feed them to account for the fact that they're getting some of their daily ration as training treats) but I'd be inclined to use bits of cooked chicken or other desirable meats.

[blackcat38]

I didn't use clicker training, just treats with word association and hand signals. Now she just needs the hand signals. She's learn't sit, lie down, role over, paw (she knows her left from right) and fetch. I started when she was 6 months and it didn't take long The trick with Emmie was to use her favourite treat but now she will only do tricks for that treat and nothing else lol

[feorag]

when I got my first cat, I just trained him like I trained my dog and started literally from when I brought him home. Our training sessions were on the bed at night.

I used little bits of cooked chicken which were a treat rather than a food and he picked it up very quickly. First we did "sit", then we did "lie", then we did "roll over" in no time at all he'd worked out all the commands and when the treat came out and I told him to sit, he'd sit, lie down, roll over and stick his paw out for his treat!

Eventually I called it his party piece!

years later I could at any time just say to him "Pasht, do your party piece" and he'd sit, lie and roll over!!

I forgot to add the link to buy the DVD if any cat people are interested. There's an interview with a breeder, a vet, 3 pet owners, a pet shop owner, the 2 clicker trainer people, me on a PAT visit to an old people's home and a visit to our local cat show - it's a bit twee in parts and the interviews with the 'pet owners' is a bit excrutiating in parts (well I thought so!) but it's only £3.99 so might be interesting for someone! Untitled Document

[Zoo-Man]

My male Siamese will sit on command, but we didn't train him with a clicker, we just used a tasty treat & hand signals.

[ukphd]

Thanks - ok it may sound silly but how do you train with hand signals? Whenever I get the treat out my cats just look at the hand with the treat in not anything else!

[Evie]

Originally Posted by ukphd

Thanks - ok it may sound silly but how do you train with hand signals? Whenever I get the treat out my cats just look at the hand with the treat in not anything else!

First you just click and treat without asking anything of the cat this took me 10 minutes training:

mido1.flv video by mrs_smurf - Photobucket

The cat just worked it out on his own - I didn't do anything other than click and treat - put a few little pauses in after a while.