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Training

TheOddFlock

Rollerblading along the road
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Dexter (one of my cats) likes to try to get into rooms he shouldn't be in, like the bird room. I decided that I was going to attempt to recall train him, kinda. I placed his bed on my bedroom floor. I held a treat near the bed and told him to "go to bed" when he stepped into the bed, he got the treat. This went on until I started stepping away from the bed, I started holding the treat over the bed while pointing at the bed, still telling him to go to his bed. When he was in the bed, he got the treat. I can now get him to his bed from the other side of the room, and it's only been 4 days, that's less time than it took to get Orion (labrador) to sit on command. He doesn't really do it on first command from the other side of the room, but we just got to that point today, he responds after the second or third command, he's a pretty good learner. I just don't know how he'll preform with distractions (birds) so, when he gets better at it I'll add some background noise of birds chirping, and steadily increase the distractions over time until he seems to ignore them and do what he is told. This will be a way to keep him from following me into the bird room, and will be used as a way to get him out of the bird room should he ever follow me in. Right now my solutions for both of those usually ends up with me getting scratched. He doesn't scratch me on purpose, it just happens as he tries to get away.
 

scrape

Rollerblading along the road
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I just use a spray bottle...
 

TikiMyn

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That is a great idea:) I taught my mom's cat a lot of tricks, he loves learning. The other one not so much, he just claws at the treats, whereas the other one is so gentle and pulls his nails in when we are training :D
 

BirdWorld

Rollerblading along the road
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I just use a spray bottle...
I don't know about cats but from my experience with birds and dogs positive training methods and rewards usually work better than punishments :)
 

scrape

Rollerblading along the road
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I don't know about cats but from my experience with birds and dogs positive training methods and rewards usually work better than punishments :)
I find this works great, used sparingly. It's the best guaranteed way to set boundaries, room to room. I think instinct will override treats, unless the cat is super food-motivated.

I have found that, after a while, the cats just don't care about the spray bottle anymore. So now I don't use one.
I haven't had that. All of my cats hate water.
 
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