My First Post (well my first in three years)...but my new BLOG HOME

Yep those Dunbars have an eye for talent. They know how to pick a dog that hunts.  Welcome Steve . Look forward to your articles.

Cats? Here I thought Cesar Millan was controversial. We discuss debarking, choke collars, and alpha rolls.

But cats?

I have friends who have cats and I'm nice enough not to tell them they're crazy.

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doxienews.com

I'll be posting about cats here too...they're more popular than dogs, actually....but they're not nearly as well understood...So, if you think people have dog training wrong (and I believe some sure do)....with cats, we don't even know what to get right or wrong....I do know they learn every bit as well as dogs. Except you try a CM correction on a cat. You'll get the middle digit as a reply. And you likely won't be given a second chance.

Steve Dale www.stevedalepetworld.com

Welcome Steve, I look forward to reading all your blogs no matter what the subject........and BTW, many thanks for the wonderful words you have penned and continue to write, about my self-published book Pets Need A Life Too very much appreciated. You have given back my desire to continue writing in both what you have said but also in reading your own blogs too.

Gillian Shippen:o)

I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on cats. I have 6 cats and I quite often conduct positive reinforcement experiments on them (I wonder if I can teach the cat to sit-stay for a nice juicy piece of chicken? Mmmm) Usually the answer is no. I'd certainly be interested in any "see if you can get your cat to..." tips for entertainment if nothing else. In the past I've found it's actually fairly easy to train a cat to do something that benefits him but almost impossible to teach him to do something that does not go hand in hand with a real-life reward. Food doesn't seem to cut it. For example, 2 of my cats have been trained to open the door and let themselves in or out instead of bugging me to do it for them. I then spent the better part of a year trying to teach them to close the door behind them after they went out (primarily to see if it was achievable), no reward was ever sufficient to convince the cat to close the door. Ironically, after all my hard work the senior cat DID close the door behind her once, she was chased into the house by a neighbor’s dog and slammed the door in his face. From this I can only conclude that I spent the better part of a year trying to teach the cat a skill it already possessed and chose not to use on the basis that it served no real-life purpose to the cats immediate situation.

Desiree - what a great observation of your cats, I laughed.....silly things is, if it wasn't so true it would be indelibly funny!

It seems to me that beyond postive reinforcement and real-life rewards most dogs seem to have an inborn desire to please - cats apparently are deficient in this area, instead they seem to have an inborn desire to be pleased and are quite capable of training other species to do their bidding.... to continue the example... if the cat leaves the door standing open she meows at me to let me know it's open. And to think I APPRICIATED her letting me know when the door needed closing. I have been trained by the cat to close doors on demand. *sigh*

and you know Desiree, I sometimes believe cats do these things to us "just because they can" the number of times my clients tell me their cat is always asking for food and more often than not when it gets the food it won't eat it.......it happens to my partner all the time. Normie our lovely blue DSH is often at my partner for food, only him mind and it annoys my partner no end when normie won't eat it. Normie hasn't got me quite so well trained because I tend to ignore his demands and get about my business, finally Normie will settle down to watch me or come sit on my lap.

I tell my partner Normie does this to him because he enjoys the "power of control" he has over him.

Just love cats and their little ways.

Gillian:) 

Most cats are free fed and not hand-fed as kittens. This is a BIG deal when it comes to training. Dog trainers are constantly convincing owners to stop free feeding in order to enhance training (in fact there's a recent blog on the subject). If a cat learns that the ONLY food is going to come from human hands, the false belief that cats are somehow less connected to humans than dogs will quickly disappear. Cats are far more domesticated and far less independent than many of the animals in the zoos across the country who are being trained to do all kinds of things! But, they need to be set up to succeed. My daughter's cat comes when called, sits, fetches and weaves through human legs. My own cats come when called and one (of four) sits with dogs for treats. I think the independent/non-trainable cat theory is a self-fulfilling prophecy. In Seattle, the Humane Society is now doing kitten classes to provide socialization and early training. I think that's AWESOME! Cindy Bruckart, CPDT-KA

I will soon post w/video on cat training....even more than dogs, I believe cats train us....but more to come in future Blog.

So do I receive a reprimand to talks so much about cats?? I hope not. By the way, Saturday is Take Your Cat to the Veterinarian Day in Chicago (more about that on my website)....

Steve Dale www.stevedalepetworld.com