Looking for Leash Training Advice

[fisheater]

I am currently leash training my 1 year old male cat but are running into some troubles.

We have mastered getting the harness on my kitty and walking around my apartment with him. He has mastered following me everywhere I lead him to when walking him on the leash/harness inside our apartment. And I always reward him with yummy treats. We have been doing this successfully for a couple weeks.

So 2 weeks ago I decided it was time for the next step. Taking him out into the hallway of our apartment complex and walking him up and down the hallway. (Our apartment complex has an enclosed indoor hallway outside our front door, kind of like a hotel). There are not usually other people in the hallways and no dogs either, they are empty for the most part, so I dont' think its other people that are spooking him out there.

Unfortunately he is really scared of the hallways. I try to gently coax him out the front door by calling him and with treats and toys, no go. I've tried picking him up and holding him, and walking with him up and down the hallway to show him that its ok and get him used to being out there. I realize this is a new and scary environment for him so I keep our time out in the hallway pretty short, like 5 mins or so, so I don't stress him too much. We do 5 minute sessions about 3x's a day for the past 2 weeks, with plenty of treats as rewards, and I haven't really seen much improvement. He is still so afraid, he just freezes when I take him out, and darts back inside as soon as the front door gets cracked open.

Eventually I'd like to take him outside, but we have to pass through the hallway first. Anyone have any advice on how to get him less afraid of being out of the apartment. Or do I just need more patience and keep doing what I'm doing?

He constantly howls at the window and doors so I'm pretty sure he would love being outside. He comes running like a mad man whenever we open the window so he can look out for the next 5 hours.

 

[kitty2cat]

Try putting him on your lap or, if he is just too terrified to sit in your lap, in a kennel and hanging out with him in the hallway for 20 minutes or so. Feed him lots of treats of course. After a few days of this, he might handle the hallway better.

My cats used to sit by the window howling too, but they freaked out once we took them outside on a leash. They were terrified and tried to slink around into bushes, one tried to run up a tree to hide (while still on the leash).

Eventually they got over this.

But even my best leash walker will get freaked out if he is off leash outside. He has gotten off the leash by accident twice. Both times he has freaked out--so much so that he runs as fast as he can to the wall or door and slams himself against the building repeatedly until I can put his leash back on. It's really scary to watch. On the leash, he is fine and happy; but off, he is terrified.

The point is that some cats are chickens even when it defies all common sense!

 

[fisheater]

Thanks for the reply! I was beginning to think there was no hope for my scardy cat. I hadn't thought of sitting in the hallway with him in my lap. I'll give that a try

 

[cheylink]

Honestly it may be a good thing that your kitty is strictly indoors. They don't react in fear for no reason, especially if they feel very safe in the home. There are probably other animal scents in the hallway that he feels threatened by.
Have you thoroughly thought out the process of taking your kitty out on a leash? Is the surroundings the best for this?

 

[samhainborn]

If you're certain you want to use a harness and leash for outside time, why don't you try taking him outside to sit in some grass for a few minutes in harness? I think that if he likes the outside so much, and begins to realize that the hallway and harness = going outside, he might be less afraid of the harness. Just a thought. I haven't run into this problem yet.

 

[cheylink]

I definitely suggest avoiding taking him into the hallway and getting comfortable with this....Cats are notoriously known for door dodging, there are so many people who wish their kitties were hesitant to go outside the front door. Him howling at the door and windows does not mean he wants to go outside, it is a sign that there is a threatening cat/animal outside the territory he feels safe in.

 

[otto]

Why force your cat to do something that frightens him? Cats don't look out windows because they want to go outside, they look out windows because they like to look out windows.

It's actually better that he doesn't want t go out in that hall. You don't have to worry about him dashing out and getting lost.

 

[kitty2cat]

I agree with everyone that leash training can put your cat in danger, but there are some valid reasons to consider it and some ways to make your cat's experience outside safer. However, there are also some real dangers you should be aware of.

I was very lucky in that all of my cats instinctively knew to run back to the house when they accidentally got off leash. However, once the window screen fell out because my cats were leaning on it. They fell out with the screen (first story). The noise of the screen falling scared one of the cats so badly that he did not run back to the door and was missing for 3 months until someone found him 7 miles away.

Even though we trusted the cats to come back to the door if anything happened, strange noises (like the noise of a falling window screen), new smells, etc. can scare kitties unexpectedly. Scared cats can behave unpredictably indoors and out. Taking cats outside is always a risk.

We made the decision to leash train because one of our cats was getting too fat, and we needed to encourage him to be more active. We took him outside in a gated backyard to be safe.

Now that I live in the city, I do not take the cats outdoors on a leash because I don't know for sure that they would run back to the apartment building the same way they used to run back to the door in the suburbs where we used to live. The city is a lot louder, smellier, and scarier. There are also a lot more places to hide.

My cats have all been able to easily get out of properly fitting harnesses by "backing up." A harness becomes useless when a scared cat arches it's back and shrugs it off. If you are new to leash training, I seriously recommend getting a walking jacket instead of a harness for your cat. Walking jackets are harder for the cat to escape from and also make the cat feel a little safer.

Another thing to consider is that sometimes cats will become more stressed out about being inside if they have had a taste of the outdoors. One of my cats started obsessing about going outside so much after going for a couple of walks that he would try to dig through the carpet to get under the door and outside. He spent all his time desperately trying to escape. It can be a big stress for the kitties after they come back inside. It can also be really hard to get them back in if they aren't ready to end their adventure.

Personally, I enjoyed the experience of leash training and think that it benefited my cats. I took several precautions like keeping the cat always near my front door (max 30 feet away), never letting the cat get behind or next to me (always in front), familiarizing my cat with some hiding spots near the door so that if he got off leash and couldn't get in the door, he would know to hide where I knew to look for him.

Leash walking is scary, but it is less scary if you and your cat are both comfortable with the walk. I wouldn't recommend it for everyone, but it really is a good way to get cats that refuse to play or be active to lose weight. My fat cat would call to birds that he saw on the walk, roll around in the dirt, and generally be happy and playful. He lost weight and also became more active indoors, even calling to birds through the window and play hunting them through the glass.

Whatever you decide, best of luck.

 

[fisheater]

Well, where I live if he does escape the house for whatever reason, he's escaping into an enclosed indoor hallway on the 4th floor, so its not like he's going to get loose and run out into traffic, and be uncatchable.

Also, my apartment complex has an outdoor enclosed atrium, where I was planning to walk him, with walls 4 stories high. So unless my cat can scale a concrete wall that high, I'm pretty sure if he gets loose in the atrium there is absolutely no way he will get lost or dash into traffic.

That said, I took him down to the atrium with us today and he LOVED it! Wow, wasn't afraid at all. We will be down to the atrium for more walkies soon!

 

[kitty2cat]

That's so amazing!

I bet loving the atrium will help him stomach the hallway

I love watching cats go crazy when they see birds. I hope your kitty got to see new things!

 

[otto]

The atrium sounds nice.

All my cats are harness trained. I take them out, supervised only, into a fenced yard, the fence is 6 foot tall with an overhang. They wear their harnesses and drag their "String" behind them (about 8 ft of lightweight polyrope)

They know where the door is to bolt to if they get frightened.

Perhaps you should bring a safe box or his carrier for him to bolt to, if something frightens him he has somewhere to go.

 

[piikki]

If it was my cat I would skip training about the hallway. I would not want my cats or anyone else's pets hanging in the hallway - or wanting to go to the hallway, so I would just agree to carry them through that part especially if it was so stressful for them. That way all future increases in door dashing would probably be kept in control too, less annoyed cat-hater neighbours etc. Getting to the great atrium would remain a little bit of a mystery in the cats' mind (just connected to harness and bonding with me), hopefully not even connected to the door at all, so no extra whining at the doorway. Win-win in my mind and cat would still get the planned exercise/stimulation while in the atrium.

P.S. I like the safebox idea. Never thought of that because my wimpy boys always head straight back to our porch...

 

[otto]

Originally Posted by piikki

If it was my cat I would skip training about the hallway. I would not want my cats or anyone else's pets hanging in the hallway - or wanting to go to the hallway, so I would just agree to carry them through that part especially if it was so stressful for them. That way all future increases in door dashing would probably be kept in control too, less annoyed cat-hater neighbours etc. Getting to the great atrium would remain a little bit of a mystery in the cats' mind (just connected to harness and bonding with me), hopefully not even connected to the door at all, so no extra whining at the doorway. Win-win in my mind and cat would still get the planned exercise/stimulation while in the atrium.

P.S. I like the safebox idea. Never thought of that because my wimpy boys always head straight back to our porch...

That's a great idea! In fact, transporting the cat from the apartment to the atrium in his carrier, (so the hall has no association with going to the atrium) then leaving the carrier open in an available place for kitty to bolt is the ideal set up, I think!

 

[jack31]

So glad the atrium is a success for the cat! I leash trained our outside kitty-she was a stray from another neighborhood when I took her in and after having her babies I needed to introduce her to our yard and neighborhood. She took to the leash right away and even though she is free now she walks great on the leash at petsmart. Done correctly I think leash training can be very beneficial. There are always risks in life, but we have to live!