My cat can do tricks too...

Now for those who train their cats... How many Chazzers do?

I've been training Goober. I love to train and don't have a dog just yet so he's my current guinea pig. I wasn't sure that he would actually be able to learn much. I never ever had thought in my mind to train a cat... but he's so good.

So far Goober knows sit, down, on, off, stay, turn around and up (where he sits pretty with his front paws in the air and hind end on the ground).

I took him to petco not too long ago. So many people stared at us like they had never seen a cat on a leash before. People started crowding around wanting to see him and complimenting on what a gorgeous cat he is... he is pretty cute isn't he? lol. Anyways... Goob likes to be the center of attention so he wasn't minding the crowd at all. Somebody said, "well he can walk on a leash like a dog, can he do anything else?" I nodded. One of the petco workers grabbed a bag of treats off the shelf and said, "This is on us if you'll show us your cats tricks." He did them all. Everyone loved the up trick the most of course. It was amusing how many people were so excited over a cat responding to basic commands and a few tricks. He's learning touch objects on command right now.

So curious... how many of you have tried training your cats? Also, I need some fresh ideas of other things I should try to teach him. Suggestions anyone?

I feel like such a crappy owner now. They all know sit (visual cue) and Emma knows down, Chili gives halfhearted kisses, and Tom will usually rear up and pat my thigh when I pat it first.... I'm working on that one.... and I'm not sure how smart it was to teach Chili to give kisses when she already likes to chew on me.

I forgot hug. Goober also knows hug and kisses sorta... he can be on the ground and I'll say, "Goober hug"... then he jumps into the air like he's trying to jump into my arms and I catch him. That boy LOVES hugs and kisses... he hasn't quite perfected this one. It's easier to get him to do it when I first come home from being at work. When he hasn't seen me all day he's more excited about jumping all over me.

Me? Train Siam? HA that's funny. If I tried to train Siam she'd probably give me a look like I was stupid. Petey is a teenage cat so he doesn't have an attention span.

I think people are amazed by a trained cat because most cats don't want to be trained, don't care to be trained, and will simply scoff at you if you try to train them. I think Goober is a special kitty.

haha ya he's special alright--- ummm we need a specially special ed smiley

haha

To the extent we ever trained a cat to do anyting, it was training Bago to let us pick him up . . .that was enough of a challange . . .

I had a cat Penny who was fostered by a dog as a kitten. She could do a few tricks her favorite was fetch.

Another cat Sammy would use the toilet but we didn't train him to do that he just did it (he'd never flush it though lol)

Sophie would laugh in your face if you tried to train her then she'd go back to sleep.

I've been training Rizzo, actually.

He's learning slowly, though. He's just getting the hang of sit.

Missmysheena... are you using the clicker to train Rizzo?

The clicker actually works really well with Goober. Up (sitting pretty) is his favorite one to do and was so easy to teach him. He learned sit and up in 10-15 minute session.

I've had multiple people tell me I should try toilet training Goob to save money on kitty litter. I think he would be able to handle it well... but then at the same time I'm not sure my roommates would be overly happy to walk in there and see cat poop hanging out in the toilet. I would try to teach him to flush, but I'm afraid he would end up thinking the flusher is a toy and our water bill would go up.

My mom's cat Mitzi i trained. She just sat and came and gave her paw, but it was cute nonetheless.

That cat has a strong bond with you skittle! But Lucky knows "Sit" and thats it. lol My cats are somewhat, I'm the only one in this house, and I'm going to do what I wanna do, attitude. lol Thats our cats for ya! But thats amazing that Goober can do that! I'm even fascinated! :lol-sign:

Wow! I thought I was the only one that trained my cats. It's so cool to know that I'm not alone!!

We've had ours since they were about 5mos old. They wear collars and tags (breakaway, of course), and are also trained to walk on a harness. We have also taken our kitties to Petsmart and Petco with us and we almost always have a trail of employees and other customers following us around. Guess our pet stores haven't seen cats on leashes before, either.

Ours are especially weird because they like to hang out in the dog toy aisles. See, at home they usually get small-breed dog toys instead of cat toys. We have sugar gliders as pets, which are EXTREMELY sensitive to catnip, so we just don't buy cat toys since 99.9% of them have catnip or were manufactured someplace where catnip is also used. So they get dog toys and you should see the strange looks we get in the store!

On top of all of that, they LOVE the car. They get all kinds of goofy excited when they see we are going for a car ride.

As for verbal commands, mine know "sit", "stay", "down", "roll over", "shake hands", "high five", "be nice" (commonly known as "beg"), and "bang" (which is our version of "play dead"). Of course, they also know their names and come when called. They know the names of their favorite toys, and key phrases like "go to bed"... so on and so forth.

We are actually using our cats to help train our new puppy on walks and with his basic commands. I was hesitant to mention that in my introduction post because I thought folks would think my husband and I were crazy. But you should just see how fast Morgan has been picking things up when we use the cats to demonstrate!

There is a picture of them all (cats and puppy) in my introduction post here:
http://chazhound.com/forums/showpost.php?p=968837&postcount=1
Now that I know this forum section is here, I should post some pics of my other pets soon!

I apologize for this post being so long. I just realized that I probably look like a blathering fool. I am just beside myself knowing that I'm not a complete loon for training my cats! It's a good feeling.

YAY.... I just want to hug you right now.

Everyone looked at me like I was nutty when I announced I was going to train my cat. He was already leash trained at that point. He loves the car as well. He doesn't like riding in his carrier in the car though. If he's on a leash in the car he usually does just fine. As long as someone is holding onto his leash I'll roll down the car windows for him. He loves to stick his head out of the window like a dog and feel the breeze. Usually if he does that and I'm in the passenger seat then I'll keep a hold on his harness so not to risk him falling out the window. People always look at us funny when we drive by.

My cat is super smart... he continues to learn more and more tricks. I have a whole bunch more I want to teach him too. He gets excited when you pull out the bag of treats and the clicker.

I must also mention that he thinks he's a model too. I have a few threads filled with pictures of Goober if you want to see them. He LOVES getting pictures taken.

Yeah, I know that response. One year ago, I informed my husband that I was going to train our new kittens to roll over. I don't know what I expected would happen, but they learned it in about a week and a half... and we've just been going from there!

We can help each other out with thinking of new things to train our cats. It'll be fun!

Our boys don't like to ride in the carrier anymore, either. We do the same thing as you where we let them ride with their leashes on. Between my husband and I, one of us will sit in the backseat with them, leashes in hand, while the other drives. We don't open the windows, though, because I'm a paranoid mommy. LOL! I actually lock the power windows before they get in the car. But that's just me.

I would love to see pictures of Goober! Where are the threads that have his pics? Ours love having their pictures taken, too. I have tons and tons of photos of them, all the way back to the day we brought them home from the shelter. One of these days I ought to just upload them all to Photobucket and share them.

Like I said, it's so cool to meet a kindred spirit in cat training.

I also noticed in your signature the picture of him getting a bath. Does he like water, too? Our kitties LOVE it! They will beg for us to turn on the faucet in the bathroom sink so they can play with the stream. And they love the shower. We have spa seats in ours and they will just sit on the seat with the water running over them and have a grand ol' time.

My cats are weird, though.

he is ok with water. He likes to play in it but he doesn't like actually taking baths. He doesn't like being soapy scrubbed so much, but he doesn't fight it much.

Here are his links with some pics... these two threads are recent... I have a bunch more in the past, but these are recent.

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69891

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=69893

I really want to try and train Inky, but he won't eat treats so he has no motivation to try! LOL