How do you train your cat to do tricks?

Question

A cat, or a kitten.
Tricks like shake a paw, or roll over, or even something as simple as stay, or come.

Answer 1

Hi there...here's a great website which shows you how to train cats to come and sit, sit up, lay down, walk on leash and other behaviours: http://www.catsplay.com/dailycat.php3?cat=mind&scat=mind_training

The key thing to remember when training cats is to always train right before meal time with food treats so if your cat is free fed you will need to switch to a scheduled feeding to help your cat stay more focused during training. Training sessions should always be short and fun or cats will quickly lose interest in learning. Each technique should be taught one at a time until they are perfected before moving on to another behaviour (aka tricks).

Here's a video of a cat performing some of the behaviours (aka tricks): http://youtube.com/watch?v=1pcoYqlAjRk

Answer 2

Well it mostly depends on the personality. I had a cat who would do all the tricks you want and I did very little to train him.

Sit is the easiest one, take a kitty treat and show your cat. Then move it forward toward the cat back. eventually he'll do it without the treat.

For come I called my cats name and if he was close I'd snap my fingers. If that didn't work I'd kneal a little bit and pat my leg and hold out my hand.

Shake was a little different for my cat. Instead of holding up his paw I'd hold my had over his head and he would grab my hand. Pretty much the same technique as sit without moving your hand.

Lay down was me pointing to the floor. Give the command, the hand sign and gently push him down on his side.

Now take into consideration, my cat didn't care about treats. All he wanted was attention. Shake was him pulling my hand to his head and lay down was him literally rolling down on top of my hand. The other cats I had knew come and sit, but only one knew shake and the other was too stubborn for anything else! :D

Answer 3

Talk to him- repeatedly say the word that means the behaviour you want, and every time he exhibits the behaviour, reward kitty with a treat.
You may not get roll over quickly. Start with come, and give a treat every time the kitty comes to you or responds to his name.
One of my cats learned to jump really high into my son's arms- it was fascinating to watch. He would say "Come on- jump- you know you want to- jump..." and the cat would quiver then leap. He was the only one who could get him to do it.
I have taught mine to come when called, chase objects or each other, go to the scratching post and scratch, and retrieve toys. One of them would go fetch my son when asked. On of them would climb a tree on command. My favourite gives me a kiss when I ask, l will sit and lie down on command.
All we did was repeat the behaviour over and over repeatedly and praise and pet and give a treat. They love to hear "Good kitty! Would you like a treat?"
You don't need to buy special treats- buy a box of cat food different from what you normally buy. They think that is a treat.

Answer 4

Start young. It's always best to start training your pet when they are younger as they learn and pick up things quicker. To start training your cat you have to do it over and over with positive reinforcement (pats, praise and treats like cheese or milk) To teach your cat a comand like sit for example place the treat up above their head and then move your hand towards your cat until they sit down. When the sit, say "Sit" and then give them the treat and say "Good girl/boy". It should not take too lone for them to pick it up and soon they will be doing this without treats. Same goes for shake hands, roll over, etc. I taught my little kitten to fetch. She always brought us her favorite toy but when we threw it too her she never brought it back. To to this we attached her toy to fishing line and threw it up the hallway. She'd run and get it and i'd say "fetch" then i'd start reeling the toy back in and say " bring it back". It took about 2 weeks for her to learn this trick and now it is her favorite game to play.

Answer 5

our cat will drop and roll over when you say "do I smell smoke?...
fire drill" it is the cutest thing. we just played with her on the floor
and she caught on. trying to get her to shake paws next.

Answer 6

First alot of patient...But if you get them started at a young age it is way easier than when they are older. But try training like you would at a puppy or dog.

Answer 7

Yeah. My cat can walk on it's front paws! She's so cute! My friend has Einstein, the bird!
Here he is!

http://video.yahoo.com/video/play?p=talking+bird&ei=UTF-8&b=1&oid=b00e9e197ce335a6&rurl=www.guzer.com&vdone=http%3A%2F%2Fvideo.yahoo.com%2Fvideo%2Fsearch%3Fp%3Dtalking%2Bbird%26ei%3DUTF-8

He scares the living craip out of my cats!

Answer 8

Cats are independent and intelligent. Its almost impossible to teach them tricks.

Answer 9

There's a book called CatSpeak that answers this question at length.

Answer 10

use cat treats