How to Discipline a Cat?

The cats are intelligent animals but many people have difficulties teaching them to perform tricks on command. The biggest misunderstanding with cat training is that it is often compared to dog training. The methods of training dogs are completely different form those, for training cats. Why?

1) The cats are independent and you will never teach your cat to do anything if you use negative stimulus as with the dogs (For example the neckpiece and the food regime).
2) The cats are very sensitive to human behavior and personality. When you train a dog to perform a command, the pet will repeatedly do the trick, no matter which member of your family is giving the command. The cat won’t perform a trick if the command is given from someone that she doesn’t like or doesn’t trust. The cat responds to your attitude and to the attention, you are paying to them. If the cat feels resentment to you, you will never be able to teach her even the elementary things. Bribing a cat with treats will not help! That’s why you should learn to understand cats behavior.
3) The cats are very temperament animals. You will never teach your cat to do something she doesn’t like or want (For example to swim).

How to correctly discipline your cat?

Cat’s education is important to begin as soon as possible. If your cat is more than 10 years old it will be harder to rub out her bad habits and misbehavior or teach her to perform tricks.
If you want to train you cat to perform tricks you should watch what she likes to do, to correctly define which will be the appropriate trick for her (For example: if your cat often jumps on the table or the cupboard, you can easily teach her to jump from a chair into your arms or on your back; If your cat likes to carry toys in her mouth you can easily teach her to bring objects which you throw).

1. The training should be split on stages. At the initial stage you should be very patient and wait carefully your cat to perform the act, sometimes even by chance. Then give her the threat that she likes at most. To make your cat do the trick many times, separate the threat in little parts. Give them to her immediately after she did what you want. Don’t confuse the animal by giving reward without doing the trick. Some cats take only the goodies as a reward. Others like to be praised.
2. Carefully chose the word which your cat will hear when performing the trick. Avoid words which the cat uses to hear often, like: “well done” or “good girl/boy”. The cats are very sensitive to sound and can learn about 50 human words! The cats easily learn to recognize your mood and the words, which mean disapproval, anger, sadness, happiness …etc.
3. The cats easily get tired. Your daily exercises with your cat shouldn’t be longer than 3-4 minutes. After this time, the cats get bored and tired and may feel disgusted from repeating the trick and refuse to do it any longer.

Simple commands:

“Bring it” – You can train your cat to bring objects to you. To do this, throw an object to a near place and give her the command: “Bring it!” 1) If your cat doesn’t pay any attention to you, leave her and try the same trick some other day. 2) If she only run to the object and doesn’t bring it back – don’t give her a threat. Just ignore her behavior and stop “playing the game”. 3) If she brings it to you, immediately give her a treat and show your appreciation.

“Stop” – For this command you should use some signs with the hands. Chose a moment when your cat is coming to you and say “Stop”, making a barrier with your hands in front of the cat. She will surely try to jump over your hands but you should prevent this. When she stops, quickly give her the reward. After some time the cat will get used to stop, when only hearing the command.

Educating your cat is very useful and good for her, as well as for you. Daily exercises will use up your pet’s energy and the animal will stop scratching furniture and overturn objects all over your home. You can teach your cat to use the toilet, to have a walk with you and many other things that she will love to do!

Check Out: Cat Behavior Secrets Revealed!
Related Articles: How to Discipline a Dog?