Do you believe that it is okay to train a domestic cat? Do you think the cat benefits from the experience? And what about the trainer too? This little white, female cat, whose name is Marie, was trained, we are told, in one day to do three tricks and she purrs while doing them. It proves that cats can be trained quite easily mind you I think we knew this. Does it prove that cats enjoy it too?
Very few cats are trained which immediately proves that cat owners don’t believe cats should be trained whereas most dog owners train their dog at least to a small extent.
I am not sure that she is purring because she enjoys doing what she has been trained to do but because she will receive a reward – a tasty morsel of food. The purring is made in anticipation of receiving nice food. She was, no doubt, clicker trained using positive reinforcement.
Marie is a smart cat! She and her human mommy spent a day working on basic commands. Wait until you see the results…cats CAN be trained.
Posted by Ramona Humane-Society on Thursday, April 2, 2015
Marie has the appearance of a Persian purebred. We can’t see all of her coat because she is wearing clothes! The fact that she is white supports this as a popular colour of the purebred Persian is white. However, her coat is longer than shorthair and, therefore, I’d say she cannot be an Exotic SH. She may not be purebred in fact. She is small and cute.
My view may clash with the opinion of others. I believe that training a cat is, in general, a good thing. It brings cat and caretaker together for many hours which helps with the relationship provided the training is reward based.It also may help to protect the cat from danger.
I don’t believe that domestic cats object to being trained. They don’t have an opinion on it. It just happens.
I know that some cat lovers dislike seeing trained cats because fundamentally it is unnatural and cat lovers like their cats to live a life which is as natural as possible for the cat in the interests of their welfare. What do you think?
P.S. I don’t like seeing cats in clothes but see Ruth’s comment below. Sometimes cat clothes are sensible.
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Monty used to wear a sweater when he went outside because he could stay out longer with it on than without it. Now that he is older he does not need it. Good thing to. He wouldn’t fit in it anymore. He’s outside in his enclosure walking around on top of the frozen snow. It was a wet snow and then it got cold, so he doesn’t sink in. I think the more a cat can live as a cat should live the better it is.
I think wearing a sweater for the reasons you state, Ruth, is very sensible and I love that. There are times when a cat should wear something and you have reminded me of that.
Nicely summarised.
I think it depends on the cat. My sister in law and her husband trained their cat to do a bunch of tricks for those “Temptations” cat treats. I can them “Kitty Crack.” Both cat and humans seem to really enjoy the ritual of the human saying different commands and the cat perfroming various tricks to earn his treat. They gave me a bag of those treats for Monty. I am not training him to do tricks for them. I don’t want to lose an arm. Just kidding, but it just didn’t seem right for us. I throw them for Monty and he chases them, pounces on them, kills and eats them. I don’t give him many, as those treats are not good for him. But he does seem to enjoy “hunting” for them.
Monty does respond to the word “treat” pretty consistently– it’s what I use to get him to come in from his enclosure. I have been calling his treats “crack” so now I open the back door and call out, “Monty, do you want some crack? Crack! Crack!” and he comes running. Faster than you’d think a chubby little cat could run.
LOL, I like that, the way he comes to “crack”. You are right, of course, most of us do train our cat informally and vice versa. I suppose this is different to deliberate cat training to perform tricks.
What amazes me about this is that it was done in one day! Beautiful little kitty.
Me too. You know what: when I saw the video I was tempted to try it myself. Not to train tricks but to train behavior which benefits cat and person.