Cats can be trained like dogs
I have a cat that is friendly to strangers and likes to rub up against my legs. However, I’m not sure if he likes me. He hates to be picked up and does not show affection. While he likes to be near me, he will not willingly come to me or sit on my lap unless I am feeding him treats. He bites me often, sometimes drawing blood. Could these be love bites? Or does he really not like me? Is he punishing me for something?
Cats have a reputation for loving attention one minute and biting the next. It is unlikely that these are those types of bites. It’s also not punishment. Punishment implies justice or retribution. It’s more likely that he’s simply saying, “I don’t like this.”
Cats get a bad reputation as being untrainable. That is simply untrue. The science of animal training — the science used to train dogs — also works for cats. Any differences tend to be minor in nature and involve species-specific behaviours. Put simply, cats have been given an unfairly low bar. Felines are robbed of the opportunity to show how truly clever they can be.
When facing a problem, the first thing to ask is whether the animal needs to learn to like something or do something. Obedience teaches animals what to do. For example, sit, down and coming when called are skills that the animal does. Other times we strive to teach the animal to like something. We might want a cat to like being picked up and handled. The animal that likes to be handled has no reason to bite or defend itself. There is no skill for the animal to learn. Rather, they are learning to feel safe and to enjoy the situation.
The difference between like and do is critical. It helps us decide how to proceed with training. If we want a cat to like being touched, then we need to teach them to feel safe being touched.
One of the most expedient means of doing this is to create a positive association.
This process is called counterconditioning. Many people have seen it, but perhaps not recognized it. Imagine a scared feral cat that is brought into a home. While it may be afraid of nearly everything, over time, the cat starts to like the can opener. It learns to like the can opener because the opener predicts food. With sufficient repetitions, the cat starts running toward the formerly scary sound in happy anticipation. A positive association has formed.
Cats can similarly learn to like being touched. There are a few necessary tricks to getting this right. First, and most importantly, the food has to appear after the cat has been touched. Luring the cat onto one’s lap is backwards. Cats risk learning that treats predict unpleasant handling. Offering the food up front as an incentive is the most common mistake people make.
Next, work in small stages. Set the cat up for success. Start with something the animal can handle and work toward more challenging situations. Too much, too soon is overwhelming. Working in baby steps is better and safer for the people involved, too. It reduces the risk of a bite or scratch.
Finally, give breaks. Easy and generously paid exposures with long breaks lead to faster results over the long-term.
While this process is simple, it’s not always easy to break things down into steps. Get experienced coaching and do use safety gear such as a pair of gloves as needed. Cat bites and scratches are prone to getting infected. Yvette Van Veen is an animal behaviour consultant and Canada’s first tested and certified PCT-A. Write her at advice@awesomedogs.ca