Photo courtesy of Long Beach Animal Hospital (LBAH) .
Our training program started the very day they came home. What? We’re training cats? Of course we are—training is just conditioning, rewarding and encouraging the behaviors we want, and discouraging the behaviors we don’t want. If we can communicate this to the kittens in a way that they can understand—that is, mimicking natural behavior as much as possible—they will grow up to be friendly, well-behaved house pets who don’t stress out easily, who readily take medicine and submit to having their nails trimmed, who will not run out of the house when the door is opened, don’t scratch the furniture, and have clean litterbox habits.
Of course, it’s not the same as training dogs, and the big difference is in their evolution: dogs are social animals, and cats are not. Dogs naturally take to being part of a group hierarchy and are designed to pay attention and respond to social cues. Cats are solitary creatures, so their behavior is geared toward their own survival and not being a good group member. However, cats are adaptable and flexible, and we can still condition them for the behaviors that will make them good pets.
We start with coming when called. This is nothing unusual for cats—their own mothers call them all the time. Have you ever seen a mama cat return to her nest and wake her sleeping kittens with a purring “mrrawo” (or something like that!)? The kittens jump up and come running to her and are instantly rewarded with food, care and safety.
We do the same thing with Levi, Loki and Lilo. They’re perfectly able to eat dry food (high-quality kitten food—it’s in very small kibbles), but they prefer canned food. In fact, they’re crazy for it, so it provides a good conditioning opportunity.
Instead of leaving canned food out for any length of time, it’s used only as a supplement to their dry diet, which they have available always, along with fresh water. They each get a small amount (about a teaspoonful), and when I put it down for them, I use the “come-here noise,” which is a pursed-lipped kissing sound. It only took Levi and Loki a day to learn to come running when they hear this, since they immediately get their favorite food. Lilo—well, he did tend to wander a bit wondering what that kissing noise was, but he’s catching on! (Lilo does get an A in litter-box use; Levi so far has a C minus).
As they grow, the come-here kissing noise becomes their “yes command.” This will mean “come here,” “you’re a good boy,” “you’re getting petted.” The other command they’ll be learning is the “no command”: a “psssssssstt, psssssttt!” hissing noise, similar to a cat’s hiss. This will mean “No! Stop what you’re doing!” (scratching on the furniture, climbing on the kitchen counter, and so on). This will come in good time and will always be followed right away with “Yes,” the kissing noise that reassures them they’re good boys and that they will get petted (when they’ve stopped what they were supposed to stop doing!). Mama cats frequently scold and swat their offspring for doing things they don’t like (but humans should not swat) and then reward them with licking and loving (we pet them, which fills this role). The “No” command will also be essential in teaching them to stay inside the house, even when the door is open. But everything in its own time! We’ll see how these three guys do over the next few weeks.