Anyone ever see the movie "That Darn Cat" staring Haley Mills?

Question

It is one of my favorites. The Siamese Cat, D.C. is hilarious. Has anyone known a cat that is almost that smart and spunky? Does anyone know how they train cats for movies? I mean, all the cats I have met are kind of dumb and do not obey or even acknowledge their name. Are Siamese smarter than most cats?

Answer 1

Hi there...D.C. (Darn Cat) and all animal actors as they're called are specially trained by experienced professional animal trainers. All the trainers used for the TV/movie film industry are hired through private talent agencies who represent each of the animals (e.g. Animal Actors Talent Agency--http://www.animal-actors.com/-- and Hollywood Animals--http://www.hollywoodanimals.com/-- are two of many).

All animals are trained extensively on a base by base need for each event to learn new command-based visual and verbal cued/signal behaviours (what most people call tricks) as well as to be desensitized to different environments as the filming studios can be quite noisy and frightening for most pet animals. The training techniques used for each type of animal are similar to how dogs are trained but more specifically customized towards the natural behaviours of the animal. Dogs, cats, birds, horses, elephants, cheetahs, rabbits, hamsters, guinea pigs, mice, rats are all some examples of many types of animal actors who can be trained. Even goldfish can be trained to perform new behaviours: see this webpage to view videos of the training: http://www.fish-school.com/gallery.htm.

I've been training cats (e.g. housecats, cougars, bobcats, african servals, etc) for over 20 years not for the film industry but to improve the quality of life emotionally as well as physically through positive reinforcement training.
All professional animal trainers are taught that no animal should ever forced to learn, but to encourage the animal to think for themselves to learn a new behaviour and be rewarded for learning either with food, toys or praise.

Studios like to use common breed animals that can have a near identical looking breed such as a Siamese. Many scenes filmed are done with more than one of the same identical breed as cats tire easily and some cannot do one behaviour as well as another cat would. The Darn Cat crew used about 11 Siamese cats to film for that movie if I remember correctly. For instance one cat may be better at climbing ladders whereas none others cannot so that's all the acting that cat performs for the entire film. The filming crew then looks to another identical cat to do a scene who doesn't mind swimming and many other behaviours such as rolling over and playing dead, etc.

All animals regardless of breed can learn as no animal is smarter than one another as each are unique to their own natural abilties.

Answer 2

Some cats respond to food or being petted. I know people who have trained Siamese cats to fetch a ball. In general, training a cat to do tricks is usually difficult, unless you can find something the cat wants. Catnip will not work, it just makes them act weird.

Answer 3

That was the first movie I saw as a young bloke...my mother had a Siamese cat named Sophie that lived 19 years and was smart but mean!!!

Answer 4

I read the book. My cat is very obedient and listens well. But my cat I had before...was completley independent and would not do anything I said for the life of her.

Answer 5

As for a cat's smarts...we have to "kitty proof" all the cabinets in our house with child safety latches so our rugrats can't open cabinet doors...and if they want in a room or closet and the door to pulled to, they will open it and go right on in as they please...

Answer 6

hey i've seen that movie