Cats are better toilet trained than school kids in the UK 2024

Which is trained better? Pet cats or children!?

There is a shocking (to me) story in The Times today about parents who refuse to toilet train their children. Apparently, half of parents in UK believe that they should not have full responsibility for toilet training a child. It’s according to a survey conducted by the early years charity Kindred. Some parents don’t …

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Neither positive reinforcement nor punishment, there is an “intermediate space” between the two in dog/cat training

Neither positive reinforcement nor punishment, there is an "intermediate space" between the two in dog/cat training

The mantra for so many years has been that the only way to train your dog or cat is through positive reinforcement. This is reward-based. The concept of punishment to get a dog or cat to do what you want them to do has been quite rightly outlawed. It doesn’t work. It just makes …

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Why do cats not obey commands?

Training cats is possible and rewarding and it happens all the time informally

It’s actually incorrect to say that cats do not obey commands although in comparison to dogs they are less ready to do so. I think that’s a better way of putting it. And the reason is because dogs are descended from gray wolves and gray wolves are pack animals and pack animals look to …

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How to stop your cat scratching furniture by imposing your authority over them (by Elen)

How do I get my cat to use the scratching post?

This is an article by Elen, a visitor to PoC. We humans are claimed to be divided in to two categories, Cat people and Dog people. I basically agree. I do love dogs myself; I do however not feel I have a natural way of communicating with a dog, I call this ‘I don’t …

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Flushing cat litter down the loo can transmit Toxocara eggs to others and block sewers

Flushing cat litter down the loo can spread Toxocara eggs to others and block sewers.

Water company comment on this In the UK, Collette Parker, Anglian Water customer engagement manager, said: This kind of animal waste should never be flushed down the loo. Although rare, dog and cat poo can carry Toxocara, which is one of the very few bacteria [they mean parasite] that we are unable to eliminate …

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Dog deliberately entertains cat companion with cat tease

This charming video caught my eye and my imagination because cat caregivers do not play with their cat enough in my opinion. I don’t blame them. It can be boring to trail a string around the living room for 10 minutes entertaining your cat and stimulating her mentally. But for many full-time indoor cats …

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Cat ‘training is logical’ – informal and formal training

Training a cat is a good thing for 3 reasons

The phrase “training is logical” comes from Dr. Bruce Fogle (Complete Cat Care). I think that it is an interesting phrase. It implies that caregivers should be training their cat as a matter of course. And it makes sense because informal training is going on constantly. From cat to person and vice versa. The …

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