Do you teach your cats tricks?

I believe you can train a cat to do any trick. It just takes a lot of hard work and dedication. However, if the cat doesn't want to do it, then thats the end of that.

I have only taught Parker to speak but I sort of cheated. When he is sitting next to me, staring, if I stare back with my eyes wide, he will meow. So I just said "speak!" right as I would look at him and he'd meow. He has connected the command to the meow and will do it when I am not staring, but again, only if he wants to. Sometimes I can get a couple meows from him in a row. I will try to get a video. I never rewarded him with treats. Just a "good boy!" and a pat.

All my domestic cats know "compliance behaviors" that is like sit, down or to leave a front leg out to draw blood. They also know to target (touch there nose to my fist) and then "hold" the above "tricks". The will of course only do this for a reward such as Pounce, a piece of human quality turkey, or Temptation cat treats.

Now my Savannah will sit, lay down, hug (wrap his arms around my neck), roll over, and shake "hands" aka give a paw. He will do all this for me to throw a ball and then he brings it back . Yes he is more like a dog. But he is too hyper sadly to learn the "needed" tricks (IMO) my domestics know.

Cats are so smart, but I've never teach them tricks because I don't like to push them to do things. I let them be who they are and don't force them to do things. They are very happy spoiled babies

Holland can play fetch, although I'm not sure how much of that is due to me "training" her... Her favorite toys are little fuzzy mice and one day I started throwing them for her. She started by running after one and then batting it around and at some point she realized that if she brings it back to me I'll throw it again. Of course, she will usually bring it back, drop it, bat it around until it's under a piece of furniture, than wait while I fish it out and throw it again.

I'm considering trying clicker training with her to see how she takes to it. I have to wait until we move though, no sense piling too many things on her at once.

My cat Tessie can sit, down, come, stay and she also play fetch (when she wants to anyways, haha). Im trying to each her to give high five, it's much harder then the other tricks but she is getting there. Didnt take me to long at all to teach her sit or down, she is very smart.

All the tricks I tought her I used very very tiny pieces of chicken (just enough to taste). She LOVES chicken and she is always willing to do tricks for it. I have never recorded her doing it but will see if I can for you.

I have never used a clicker but I have heard great things.

My Squeaky rolls over on command. And she is rewarded with a Temptations treat or 3! She is very smart and now when she wants a treat she will squeak her little meow a couple of times to get our attention and then drop and roll over back and forth until she gets her reward! She also knows her name and when we are talking to her.

I had taught my RB kitty, Bella,a little sign language. She was deaf and had to be looking at me to understand. I had one other RB kitty that could fetch. I smoked at the time and she loved the sound of a wadded up cigarette pack. She got one out of the trash one day and brought it to me!! I noticed that Turtle always perked up when she heard me crinkling up paper So I worked with her a couple of weeks and she figured out the fetching game. No treats or clicker training, her reward is the fetching itself. She does, however, have a hoarding problem. She has a stash of toys hidded under the bed that I don't think I'm suppose to know about.

It's more like Maia has taught me tricks. One thing I know with any kitty is you always let them physically do it themselves, they must always have control, or atleast think so

Aw, I need to tech these guys some tricks. So far only Buttercup knows to come running at top speed and jump to wherever I tap my four fingers in succession.

Wesley knows how to make large quantities of food disappear, does that count as a magic trick?

The kittens know lots of tricks... pulling curtains off the window, knocking stuff over, finding my necklace in the house no matter where it is and knotting it up, getting on my very last nerve... need I go on?

The only thing that Misa can do is "stand up!"

Vinnie can only do stay( I taught him how to do stay) and my older sister thought it was crazy to do cat tricks. lol

I have taught my kitties "Stay off the counter" and "Stay off the table" and "Get down" and how to sleep through the night without bugging me.

I have a cat (Bombay mix) who plays "fetch". I never really had to teach him, but I have video of him doing it for about 8 minutes. I would throw a little stuffed toy anywhere in the room, he would run to fetch it, bring it back, drop it in front of me, and wait for the next round. I could throw the toy anywhere that he could access, like up on a table, or chair, window sill, or just accross the room - and he would fetch it!

I don't know how to post a video, but I have one if someone cares to gives me instructions...

Funny you should bring up this topic at this time. My mom and I had a lengthy conversation just yesterday on feline intelligence. We both think cats are a great deal more intelligent than they are given credit for, they just aren't as quick to show it because unlike canines - who will do anything they can to be with and please their owners - cats don't have any in-born motivation to show off. Given a motivation, however, we postulated they would / could learn tricks quite easily.

We put my kitties to the test, and within about 20 minutes of her working with them using treats, she had half my clowder sitting up and back on their haunches (front paws off the ground) at her command to "sit up". It was quite a lot of fun to watch, and I was surprised at how interested the cats seemed to become. I'd swear that once they realized the treats had to be earned, they actively enjoyed trying to figure out what they needed to do. Most amazing of all, the cats seem to forget completely about their problems with each other. Ralph and Allen, for instance, were often side by side and sometimes even had both their noses in her hand at the same time without the slightest hint of distaste for one another. That was, for me, awesome and enlightening to see.

The whole thing impressed me enough that I'm going to start working with them regularly to learn different tricks. I taught my little Yorkie over 12 hand and voice commands; it'll be interesting to see if the cats can learn the same ones, eh? And whatever keeps them happy and engaged is worth exploring!

AC

I have 2 cats, one can shake my hand or give me a high five. The other can shake hands, high five (or sometimes I use the term "up top"), stand up on hind legs, jump on the floor, bottom shelf, or top shelf of his cat tree on command, and they both respond to their names with high accuracy.

I can tell you from experience that most cats want to have this type of relationship with their owners, we must realize that we have our doubts, but so do they. I'm sure out of the box a cat doesn't know he can interact with you in this way, because he has not learned. When I first started to teach my cats, it was kind of difficult. After a while we reached a breaking point, it was almost like they "got it", they figured it out, almost as the cat said to himself "I didn't know my owner could do tricks like this?". Sometimes I will try to teach them something, and they may do something completely different, but I will then redirect my focus and "go with the flow". I remember when I went to teach my one cat to sit, he kept touching my hand with his paw, so instead of getting frustrated i changed direction. i put my hand up and said "high five" and he did it. So right there I wanted to teach him something and he decided to teach me the high five. You can teach them words too, they will understand them eventually. Keep it simple with lots of repetition. I can tell my one cat "bottom shelf" or "top shelf" and he will jump on the appropriate shelf on his cat tree, or I can say "floor" and he will jump on the floor. This was done through repetition, positive reinforcement, and clicker training.

If you want to train your cat and have not purchased a clicker, please drop everything right now and get one. I have yet to see an animal that did not respond to it. It took my cats just a couple of minutes to figure out "when that thing clicks, a good thing happens". Be sure to click it right when they do what you want, and reward them with a treat or affection (make sure you mix it up). It is important that whenever you click it, you give a treat, verbal praise, or petting. Because you mix it up, instead of the cat associating the clicker with a treat, they associate the clicker as something that is generally good.

Good communication is also very important, cat's deal better when they feel they are heard. When your cat meows at you, he is trying to get your attention for some reason. My one cat always makes a point to give me a meow when I enter the room. So now as soon as he does it I look right into his eyes and say hi, I make sure he was acknowledged. Now it's gotten to a point where if I say hi to him, he will meow back, because he has made that association. Also, make a point to teach them the concept of "good boy" or "good girl". This is how I did it, I would sit next to him and pet him while slowly saying "good boy", I use this phrase around almost anything that is positive in their behavior. I know it sometimes sounds silly, but talk to your cat, they listen very well.

I have always trained my cats to jump for treats. They'll jump at least waist high. Inadvertently, the kitten will now jump for her toys as well.

I had a cat when I was a kid that would roll over. She also greeted my school bus every day, went trick-or-treating with us, and decimated the rodent population for miles. Marshmellow was somewhat of a legend...

1) She know how to get by the baby proof latches on the kitchen cabinet doors. She saw me open them once and that was all it took for her to learn.
2) She's figured out how to wake me up in the morning...sits by me head and slowly nudges me...just a little bit at a time. My other cats just crys and get ignored.
3) It only took one time showing her the scratching post and putting her paws against it for her to use that instead of my furniture.
4) She picks up on new commands pretty fast. I'm thinking of trying to train her to fetch...she can be stubborn though. I've had her for 9 months and she's just now coming when I call her....most of the time.

I found out her weakness though she loves a head rub and will do almost anything to get it. LOL

My other cat is smart on some things and very dumb on others. He get stepped on sometimes because he won't move if someone is coming. I never did get that. If he wants food though he's really smart about letting me know. He knows also what to do to annoy the heck out of me if he wants me to get up and do something like feed or clean him....Rasta hasn't gotten there yet.

Tasja, a cat at my parents house, can do quite a few basic tricks. She can sit and jump up on something on command. She can also give high fives and she'll jump into a box or bag on command. Of course with her being a cat, she ultimately decides if she's going to cooperate.

I've been trying to teach Chacho some basic tricks, as I did with Tasja but he's not as polite as she was.

In my experience, you have to encourage traits that they already show. Like Tasja, she would sit to wait for a treat, or jump up on a stool for a treat and if I held a treat in one hand and held behind the other that was in a high five position, she touch my hand her paw. I would just keep having her do those things for a treat and then it got to the point that I didn't need the treats to get her to do those things.
Playing fetch is a different story though because the cat has to figure it out on its own. My grandparents have a cat that plays fetch but only with my grandpa. He had a massive stroke a few months before we got the cat for them, he couldn't move very well because of it. The cat loved chasing his little foam ball but my grandpa couldn't get up to get the ball to throw it again, so one day the cat started to bring the ball back to him and would either place it in his lap or in his hands. The cat named Fritz, was never taught how to play fetch. It was his love for chasing the ball once he realized that my grandpa couldn't get the ball once it had been thrown, he figured out if he wanted the ball thrown again he'd have to bring it back.

Best advise is to observe your cat and focus on encouraging, trick-like actions that your cat may already do.

I havent ever really concentrated on teaching them tricks, but mine can do some really cute things.

Kiko will fetch a bottle cap. It wasn't something I taught him, though. When he was young, he would just bring me the cap in his mouth and I would throw it, and he would bring it back.

Kiko will kiss me, when I say "give me kiss" or when I pucker my lips to him. Although, he will also do it when I don't ask him or when I am sleeping.

Easy and Laura will kiss me, too, although they usually only do it when I say, "give me kiss".

Tino will put his paw in my hand when I say, "want to hold hands".

Tino and Ducky will roll over and show me their tummy when I say "let me see your belly".

They all will come to me when I call them.

Cats are wonderful little babies

ETA: I forgot one really sweet thing that Laura does. About 90% of the time, when I am holding her or she is sitting on me and I say "you want to give me loving?" she will rub her cheeks against my cheeks

Just useful stuff. They answer to their names--does that count? I just always call them by name when I'm going to give them a treat. 'Course that means I can't call them to stuff them into the carrier for the vet's, or they'd stop coming altogether, the silly things!

Tiny practically trains himself. He helps me get out of bed when the alarm radio goes off, and when I'm stuck in a mental loop he'll jump onto my lap and nudge me out of it. He's a very perceptive sort of cat. I wouldn't call it a "trick" so much as something he does because we know each other very well, just like I tell him when a thunderstorm's over and he can stop hiding.

My cat Marco (who's 15 btw) has always fetched. Out of curiosity one day when he was younger, I wrapped a bouncy ball in yarn and tossed it down the hall. He meowed, ran after in and brought it right back to my amazement. I guess it's cheating since there wasn't any "training" involved.

I did train him to come when he hears his name and he's been pretty good for that up until last year. Now he'll just come when he wants to. I figure it's because of his age.

I'm working on simple commands with my one year old cat, Kramer. So far he's made great progress with "sit" and those moist treats.

My little 4-month kitten is still too much of a spaz to learn tricks right now.

Both of them are also in the process of potty training, and doing well, but I don't know if you'd consider that a trick.