Hates the Leash

Hi there,
Kurshad had a collar with a bell on his neck. It didnt bother him. Then I bought him a collar thats tied to his body with a leash, so I can take him a walk. Well, the collar has been on his body since yesterday. He doesnt try to take it off but its like he cant walk very comfortably. I think I will only put the body collar when I take him for a walk.
Anyways, I decided to take him for a walk today with his leash. However, he hated him. First I tried to walk him in the house but he didnt walk. He sat there and didnt even move. Then I took him to the garden. He did the same. He tried to go back to home. He is very afraid of cars. I didnt let him go back to house and then he layed down. He was very curious, looking at other cats, people, cars.
I know its normal for him to be curious and afraid. However, it seems impossible for me to take him for a walk. He smelled the wall of the aparment for 10 minutes. Its impossible for him to ignore everything around. He has to smell everything he sees.
Do you have any recommendation for me?
Thanks

Welcome to walking a cat.
Honestly, the best thing is to give him time. Doing all these new things at once is probably just too much for him. Put the harness on him (I presume that's what you mean by "body collar") and don't take him outside. Just have him wear it in the house. Play with him, give him some treats.

I'm not saying he'll love it, but he will get used to it. Then once he's OK to play/exist with the harness on, attach the leash. Repeat the above, make it fun/positive.

Finally, you can take him out wearing the leash and harness. Being a cat, he will probably still sniff everything (that's what they do when they're outside). Chances are he won't want to be led like a dog. Most cats don't in my experience.

The process can take days, weeks or months depending on how old or timid the kitty is... the key is patience.

I tried this with my cat who's 4 1/2 when she was about 3. She didn't really go for it and still just likes to roll around and eat grass. She's only starting to tolerate it on her (because she knows that when the harness goes on she gets to go outside!) I didn't do anything like play with her in it or whatever, so I'm not sure it works or not. But I'm going to try doing that with my kitten, and we'll see how it goes!
good luck.

Thanks. We are going to our summerhouse this week and I can take him for a walk in our garden everyday. That way he can get used to the leash.

But consider this... once she DOES get used to it, she may want to go out every day, maybe many times. Are you prepared to go that route for ??? years? I've done it (don't even ask how long!) but I don't know how many others can. You might be better off leaving her inside where she's obviously happy.

It aint a problem. I have a lot of time for taking him for a walk. However, I doubt he will want it. He is the laziest cat ever. Sleept for 22 hours and eats for two hours a day.

I don't think leash training a cat should be about "walking" the cat. Instead of thinking of it as taking your cat for a walk I think it should be about letting the cat explore outside safely. This means being patient enough to allow you cat to investigate anything and everything. It's not like walking a dog... cat's are too independant to let us tell them where to go. LOL

lol i do this w/ my cat too....he is still not used to it...but getting MUCH MUCH better! Every summer and spring i have to start over w/ him...actually i take em both out one at a time.....both are OK with them....don't love it but know they cannot go outside w/out it on. They act pretty normal after a few min.s and forget it is on so its alll good..they do get used to it!

My Charlie feels like he cannot stand up and walk normal when the thing is on it at first though, so he is either walking slowly and crouching low to the ground....or he has his butt high in the air, but his head is down low...really really kinda funny!

I have a question relating to this because we had an incident the other day...

HOW SAFE are these harnesses??? Charlie and me were outside hangin' w/ my boyfriend and the dog peacefully - he was nibbling grass...and all of a sudden some kid comes around the corner on our street on his little scooter - and it made a noise....scared the living daylights out of poor Charles and he started wriggling and going crazy trying to run into the bushes...but my boyfriend don was holding tightly onto the leash..so basically it looked like he was violently wriggling about and it scared me so much i had to go pick him up for fear of him hurting himself and breaking his neck! Anyways he scratched the u know what out of my arm - i'm ok....my boyfriend said I shouldn't have picked him up because he had a good hold on Charlie and he wasn't going anywhere and that those harnesses are meant to hold him in, and keep him safe from hurting himself in these situations...but i just couldn't stand to see him freaking out...once i picked him up...he put his paws around my neck like a baby and grabbed on to me and calmed down....so i felt ok about it...but whats your thoughts on this?

I think most of the harnesses are designed to keep the animal secure and not pull on any vital parts like their throat. However, I would have done the exact same thing and scoped my kitty up. I don't think they are meant to "keep the cats safe" when they are panicking.

exactly how i felt...it was just the kitty momma instinct in me i guess...and i'm sure i would do it again in a heartbeat!

Patience is definitely key. When Merlynn was just a young kitten, I bought her a pink harness and leash. We took things very slowly. Harness laid out by food for a few days. Harness over her body only for a short while/few days - gave treats, praise. Harness clipped onto her body for a short while/few days - we played and I gave her treats and praise. Then I clipped the leash on and she freaked out for a little bit, so I took it off and we tried again the next day. She was better and I gave her treats and we played a little. We did that for a few days. Then we walked around the house with the harness and leash on for a little bit of time for a few days. She was ok. So...we ventured outdoors. She was sniffing everything and loved to jump in the grass. We got to go out maybe 3 times...oh and we did it maybe 530am so there would be nobody outside to scare her at first. Well, the third day, two kids and their mom were leaving to go to school/work. Merlynn saw them and bolted up the stairs to the apartment door. Needless to say we haven't gone out since. And that might be a good thing...I don't want her to want to go outside all the time.

Oh well, at least I can say I tried.

Good luck with it!!