Ok, I admit it. I failed miserably in training my cats to do anything other than to poop and pee where I want them too. They run the house, along with my toddler, and right now they wouldn't allow things to be any other way.

Anyone had any more success in training their cat than I have? What techniques did you use? Did you visit a trainer or do it at home? Tips would be appreciated.

From what I've seen, cats really aren't that trainable. They seem to have more of a 'you care for me because I'm better than you' rather than a 'you care for me because you're so great' mindset that dogs have.

The most I can do it sometimes get my cat to come to me if I make a clicking sound he likes or say his name.

I agree with Clickace, moggies are a breed of there own and always like to try things new and go places and explore. It must be quite hard to get a cat to do the basic things, but as for tricks for treats, I guess it could be done but would take a lot of patience to do this!

I wasn't thinking tricks-I was thinking way more basic like, you know, not shredding my sofa! The poor sofa has to be covered in that plastic sticky stuff all the time to stop it getting ruined.

Other things would be nice too, like not sitting on my computer keyboard when I am trying to type. The monitor is fine, if I can shift the tail, but the keyboard needs to be out of bounds.

Simple is all I want, know what I mean! We've kept cats for decades, and these two are the worst yet-they feed off each others naughtiness!

We are the cat's staff, we do not make demands. Seriously, though, cats can't really be trained, and if you try putting a scratching box or post near the sofa, they may not scratch the furniture. Works for us anyhow.

Fails miserably with us Its like the scratching post is his invitation to scratch whatever is BEHIND the post.

And yes, I frequently hear and fully believe that we are the staff. But then I hear stories of success from other people and it makes me wonder. I know Siamese are VERY trainable, just not my moggies.

I had a few problems at 1st with my cat using my sofa/bed etc as a claw post but I no longer have any problems as I used sprays in the problem areas as well as my voice to show my annoyance and encouraged my cat to use her sctatch post with the use of cat nip.  Now her scratch post is much more exciting to her than my sofa etc.  

I didn't think it was difficult, just took a bit of patience and cat attention to solve. My cat also comes to me if I call her name even if outside.

This post was last modified: 16-04-2007 05:01 PM by Ellie.

LOL... all too a familiar story...

don't think you'll ever be able to 'train' your cat... but you shoudl find you can teach them right and wrong... well of a sorts... and you really need to start when they're young!

My lot are well aware when they are doing something they shouldn't... you can see them watching out the corner of their eye to see if you're watching them while the paw gingerly goes out to 'cross the line'... all it takes is a 'uh uh' from us and that paw whips back as if to say 'who me? nah not me I wasn't going to do anything honest mum!'

cheeky so and so's.... but despite all that we still love em to bits...

Cats can be traned but yes it takes a lot of time and patience on your part. I have written some articles on my website about cat training, here is the link if you would like to take a look.

http://www.our-happy-cat.com/cat-training.html

Good Luck