There are a few lessons I have learned so far when it comes to Cat Training. I thought I’d give you some insight on how that is going and where we are on progress. 

Lesson 1: Be patient: See one of the things that most people don’t realize is that to train a cat it takes a lot more patience then it does with a dog. Cats are hunters and domestic cats are no exception. I had to start small and introduce a harness that I bought from Walmart. At first I thought it may be easy breezy and she would adapt quickly to the idea of going outside. So of course I bought the harness and went straight to the big picture. What was that picture? To put her outside without any good influence. I didn’t bring treats, food, nothing. Just me and Spice. She flipped out and wanted to back inside almost immediately. So I gave up for a while. I honestly didn’t thin it through and I had no idea how to go about making it a good experience to her. Not too long after I decided to try again but start smaller. So I got a bag of treats, my watch and the harness. I started by letting her sniff the harness and then introduced her to it being on her body. I set the timer and continuously fed her treats every time she went to bite the harness. I even played with her and quickly all that idea on biting the harness and trying to make it come off went away. She was more into playing and the treats. Before she knew it the harness was off and she was free. AS time went on I increased the time she had the harness on and I kept up with positive experiences. If she could get it in her head that the harness wasn’t bad and that I was going to be with her then it was going to be ok. After a while she got used to the idea of it being on her, sure it was uncomfortable but she knew that if she did good then she would get treats and lots of rubs. 

Lesson 2: Be Consistent: At first I wasn’t doing the training every day or every other day. I did it every couple of weeks and made sure to keep going up on the time she had it on and made sure to keep the happiness factor up at large. Soon I started to realize that if I wasn’t consistent that we would take a step back from what I wanted to do. So I decided to keep the bag of treats at my desk with the harness and whenever she would come say hello in the morning I made sure to give her lots of love and from there I would continue to pamper her throughout the day. When it came to training I figured out that the best idea was to keep with the consistency of letting her sniff the harness first, then feed treats and while she was eating the pile I put in front of her I then put on the harness. By the time she would be done with the treats it would be on and there would be no growling or protests. I let her sit in the harness and walk around in it for half an hour and from there I started introducing the outdoors. With this consistency she sees it as a good thing and now wants to go outside. She’s tried several times to go outside without the harness but we denied that to her and she’s learning that to go outside she has to have the harness on. Consistency is key to training and for her its becoming something she looks forward to. 

For us both this is the right step in the right direction. I want her to go places with me and for that she had to be safe and she has to know that to go places she has to be in the harness itself. I feel really proud as a pet parent to bring her this far and for her to want more and to start seeing that she will be outside more often and with me is so awesome. I didn’t know if it would work but it has and if anyone has given up on cat training, don’t. It’s all about introducing the idea to them early and being positive for your cat. Positive experiences means that your cat will eventually start to love it.

Be patient and keep going, you may see something amazing.