Training domestic cats?

[Moozillion]

Has anyone here had success training domestic cats to do tricks?
I have 2 three year olds that we adopted during the Covid lockdown in 2020. They are 1/2 siamese. I did not realize at the time that Siamese cats are regarded as "high maintenance" cats: very bright, very high energy, very people focused. That describes my boy cat, Arlo, perfectly. He is a chewer and has pretty much destroyed a couple of chairs. I'm guessing his destruction is because of boredom?
I've looked all over the internet, and I really want to provide him and his sister with more intellectual stimulation. I see videos where people have clicker trained cats to do lots of tricks, and that seemed like good stimulation.
But I would like to hear the voice of experience from anyone who's trained their cats.

Yo, @Tom - I think you've worked with just about every animal known to man (except maybe elephants and rhinos?). Have you ever clicker trained (or any other method) cats? Anybody else???

Thanks,
Mooz

 

[Tom]

Has anyone here had success training domestic cats to do tricks?
I have 2 three year olds that we adopted during the Covid lockdown in 2020. They are 1/2 siamese. I did not realize at the time that Siamese cats are regarded as "high maintenance" cats: very bright, very high energy, very people focused. That describes my boy cat, Arlo, perfectly. He is a chewer and has pretty much destroyed a couple of chairs. I'm guessing his destruction is because of boredom?
I've looked all over the internet, and I really want to provide him and his sister with more intellectual stimulation. I see videos where people have clicker trained cats to do lots of tricks, and that seemed like good stimulation.
But I would like to hear the voice of experience from anyone who's trained their cats.

Yo, @Tom - I think you've worked with just about every animal known to man (except maybe elephants and rhinos?). Have you ever clicker trained (or any other method) cats? Anybody else???

Thanks,
Mooz

Hey! I've trained both elephants and rhinos! Well... only one rhino. My friend has one named Spike, but several elephants. I did a thread here on the rhino on a job years ago, though I'm sure the pics are gone now.

Rhino Job

This was one of last weeks jobs. Very challenging animals to work on a set. Their eyesight is not great and they aren't too smart either, but they are one of the most interesting animals ever. This is one of two in private hands in the US. He's owned by a buddy of mine. Good times... This...

tortoiseforum.org

Cats are highly trainable. We work with them every day. Siamese are known to be difficult and uncooperative though. Hopefully the other half will shine through.

Behavior modification (training) is the same regardless of species. It revolves around two very simple concepts that can be incredibly complicated to implement. Concept number 1: If a behavior is followed by a positive consequence, it is likely to occur again. Concept number 2: If a behavior is followed by a negative consequence, it is likely to NOT occur again.

The two tenants at work are classical conditioning, aka: Pavlov's dogs, and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning simply pairs a primary reinforcer with a secondary reinforcer to give it more meaning. Ring the bell, feed the dog. This gives the bell meaning that it didn't previously have. This is the start of clicker training. Click and feed, click and feed, click and feed. Soon the click becomes associated with food, which they want and need.

Operant conditioning is much more complex, but still relatively simple when broken down to its four main components. Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Think of positive or negative in the mathmatical sense as far as these terms are concerned. Positive is giving something, while negative is taking something away. So, for example, negative reinforcement would be taking something unpleasant away. Positive reinforcement would be giving the animal something it does want. Positive punishment would be giving the animal something it doesn't want or like, while negative punishment would be taking away something it does like or want.

The clicker is known as a "bridge". It bridges the gap in time between the exact moment of the behavior you want, and the time it takes to get the food reward, or other reward, to the animal. For example: If I want to train the cat to jump up onto a counter: When the cat jumps up there, he then turns around and rubs on my hand. If I then give him a food treat for jumping up on the counter, the cat thinks it just got paid for turning around and rubbing my hand, and does not associate the payment for jumping up on the counter at all. The clicker, if used correctly and clicked at the moment the cat is springing from the floor, will tell the cat EXACTLY what it is being paid for. When to click? The dolphin example is a good one. If you want a dolphin to jump high in the air, do you bridge when the animal is at the zenith of a high jump? Or do you bridge at the moment of that last tail fluke push against the water at the start of the jump? The correct answer is the latter. Bridge the power stroke, not the time when the animal is helpless in the air doing nothing but waiting to hit the water again.

Here is a cat training secret: You have to have something they want. The more they want it, the more effective it will be. This can be toys or affection, but its usually food. Stop using a food bowl, and make your cat work for its food like they would in the wild. All food should come from your hand, or some sort of handheld cup or scoop. No more "free" food in a bowl. Make them earn it.

For a much better introduction to all these training concepts get the book called: "Don't Shoot The Dog", by Karen Pryor. You will have a much better understanding after reading that short, entertaining book.

 

[Moozillion]

Hey! I've trained both elephants and rhinos! Well... only one rhino. My friend has one named Spike, but several elephants. I did a thread here on the rhino on a job years ago, though I'm sure the pics are gone now.

Rhino Job

This was one of last weeks jobs. Very challenging animals to work on a set. Their eyesight is not great and they aren't too smart either, but they are one of the most interesting animals ever. This is one of two in private hands in the US. He's owned by a buddy of mine. Good times... This...

tortoiseforum.org

Cats are highly trainable. We work with them every day. Siamese are known to be difficult and uncooperative though. Hopefully the other half will shine through.

Behavior modification (training) is the same regardless of species. It revolves around two very simple concepts that can be incredibly complicated to implement. Concept number 1: If a behavior is followed by a positive consequence, it is likely to occur again. Concept number 2: If a behavior is followed by a negative consequence, it is likely to NOT occur again.

The two tenants at work are classical conditioning, aka: Pavlov's dogs, and operant conditioning. Classical conditioning simply pairs a primary reinforcer with a secondary reinforcer to give it more meaning. Ring the bell, feed the dog. This gives the bell meaning that it didn't previously have. This is the start of clicker training. Click and feed, click and feed, click and feed. Soon the click becomes associated with food, which they want and need.

Operant conditioning is much more complex, but still relatively simple when broken down to its four main components. Positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, positive punishment, and negative punishment. Think of positive or negative in the mathmatical sense as far as these terms are concerned. Positive is giving something, while negative is taking something away. So, for example, negative reinforcement would be taking something unpleasant away. Positive reinforcement would be giving the animal something it does want. Positive punishment would be giving the animal something it doesn't want or like, while negative punishment would be taking away something it does like or want.

The clicker is known as a "bridge". It bridges the gap in time between the exact moment of the behavior you want, and the time it takes to get the food reward, or other reward, to the animal. For example: If I want to train the cat to jump up onto a counter: When the cat jumps up there, he then turns around and rubs on my hand. If I then give him a food treat for jumping up on the counter, the cat thinks it just got paid for turning around and rubbing my hand, and does not associate the payment for jumping up on the counter at all. The clicker, if used correctly and clicked at the moment the cat is springing from the floor, will tell the cat EXACTLY what it is being paid for. When to click? The dolphin example is a good one. If you want a dolphin to jump high in the air, do you bridge when the animal is at the zenith of a high jump? Or do you bridge at the moment of that last tail fluke push against the water at the start of the jump? The correct answer is the latter. Bridge the power stroke, not the time when the animal is helpless in the air doing nothing but waiting to hit the water again.

Here is a cat training secret: You have to have something they want. The more they want it, the more effective it will be. This can be toys or affection, but its usually food. Stop using a food bowl, and make your cat work for its food like they would in the wild. All food should come from your hand, or some sort of handheld cup or scoop. No more "free" food in a bowl. Make them earn it.

For a much better introduction to all these training concepts get the book called: "Don't Shoot The Dog", by Karen Pryor. You will have a much better understanding after reading that short, entertaining book.

Thanks so much, Tom!!!
And of COURSE I should have known you’ve worked with elephants!!! 😃👍👍👍
But RHINOS?!?!! 😱 GEEZ, Man: you never cease to amaze!!!!

 

[SinLA]

@Tom are you able to re-add the photos if you still have them? they don't show anymore

 

[Blackdog1714]

Now I gotta search how to own a rhino!

 

[Ink]

I trained my cat to fetch his toy and sit. Moo Moo Cow was very smart. 😁

 

[wellington]

Any animal can be trained if done the right way. It's actually the humans that are the hardest to train.
I used to run dog obedience classes. I wanted to flunk all the owners, while the dogs all passed.

 

[jaizei]

Now I gotta search how to own a rhino!

better to start small for your initial foray into large african mammals - pygmy hippos

 

[Blackdog1714]

better to start small for your initial foray into large african mammals - pygmy hippos

I will add that to the lemur the wife wants! Their bark can easily be heard 5 miles away so imagine that in your backyard

 

[Tom]

better to start small for your initial foray into large african mammals - pygmy hippos

The same guy that owned the rhino owned pygmy hippos previously too! Do you know him?

 

[Tom]

I will add that to the lemur the wife wants! Their bark can easily be heard 5 miles away so imagine that in your backyard

I've worked with lots of lemurs of several species. I've never heard one bark. They really didn't make much noise at all. Mostly ringtails and red ruffed, but also one brown lemur.

Are you thinking of gibbons? Or howler monkeys? Either of those can be heard "singing" from miles away.

 

[Tom]

@Tom are you able to re-add the photos if you still have them? they don't show anymore

They are in one of my old computers somewhere. Its not likely that I'll get around to digging those out, charging them and trying to retrieve photos. Somewhere I have a picture of my daughter sitting on Spike the rhino when they were both about 1.5 years old.

I took @Maggie3fan up to meet the elephants once. She might have pics somewhere. I think she saw Spike that day too.

 

[Blackdog1714]

I've worked with lots of lemurs of several species. I've never heard one bark. They really didn't make much noise at all. Mostly ringtails and red ruffed, but also one brown lemur.

Are you thinking of gibbons? Or howler monkeys? Either of those can be heard "singing" from miles away.

Oh please no the wife has wanted a ring tail for years

 

[Tom]

Oh please no the wife has wanted a ring tail for years

Get a male. They live in female dominated societies. A female will not tolerate dominance from you once it reaches maturity, and it will likely try really hard to dominate your wife too. A male will almost automatically accept dominance from your wife, and you've got a good shot at it if you do the right things along the way.

 

[ZEROPILOT]

I'm not a cat guy.
I've never owned a cat.
But I'd always heard that they were nearly impossible to train.
Not true, huh?

 

[Tom]

I'm not a cat guy.
I've never owned a cat.
But I'd always heard that they were nearly impossible to train.
Not true, huh?

Not at all. Haven't you ever seen a cat in a movie or a commercial? That's what we do.

 

[COmtnLady]

Tom has said it so much better, he knows his stuff. But I'd like to add that starting with something (like the jumping on the counter he was talking about) that the cat wants to do or would do on its own is the best place to start. Pick an activity the cat does on its own and wants to do, then through repetition and positive rewards, convince it that that action is a good thing, eventually that it was your idea, and magically produces food when they do it when you want.

Also, never hit or physically threaten a cat (or horse) as it will interpret it as you attacking and you are ever after the bad guy, rather than what it is doing is wrong. I'm a fan of water spray bottles. You can squirt the cat as it does the offending action while you are across the room. A smart cat will eventually connect that you are the cause of the spraying, but it will first attach the unpleasant spraying to scratching the furniture or whatever it is you're trying to discourage.

If you're away from home a lot, put double sided tape, or rig a way for the sticky side of regular tape to be facing out where the cat's feet will hit it if it tries to scratch, right on the spot where the cat is scratching the furniture. Tape is cheap, use it freely, wide tape is easier to deal with than regular scotch tape. Its not foolproof, but does help if you can't be present. It takes a little while for them to understand that that part of the furniture is unpleasant, but once they do you can remove the tape so that your furniture looks normal again.

It helps if you think about the hard-wired psychology of the critter. In the wild cats only hang around other cats when they're kittens, or mating. Cats don't think as a group member. (As opposed to dogs who are pack animals and want to be part of their group; want know exactly who's in charge and who's bottom of the totempole.) A dog wants a boss, a cat likes things his way, sort of.

All of the trained cats I've known, the person figured out things the cat was willing to do anyway, then positively reinforced that action until the cat would do it when asked. They weren't teaching the cat to do something it wouldn't do anyway, only making use of actions that cat wanted to do on its own, then building the routine around that.


.

 

[Tom]

In the wild cats only hang around other cats when they're kittens, or mating. Cats don't think as a group member.

This was a good post with good tips over all, but the above is not exactly correct. Domestic house cats and lions, do develop a social hierarchy, do hang out in groups, and do work together as a group. I've worked with several house cats that had a strong working relationship with me and would work hard for a "good boy" and some petting over a food treat.

All of the trained cats I've known, the person figured out things the cat was willing to do anyway, then positively reinforced that action until the cat would do it when asked. They weren't teaching the cat to do something it wouldn't do anyway, only making use of actions that cat wanted to do on its own, then building the routine around that.

Unfortunately, I don't get this luxury. I have to train the cats to do whatever is written in the script. It can be challenging at times.

 

[COmtnLady]

How long do you get to work with any particular critter before they want to try for a shoot?

 

[Tom]

How long do you get to work with any particular critter before they want to try for a shoot?

Its highly variable. Sometimes one day, other times months. Usually we get a new animal and work with it for several months before submitting it for a job, and continue working with it for years until they finally retire when they get old and can't work any more. Animals in our business choose to be in our business, so they never want to quit. We can't make them like this stuff. If we get a new animal, train it for a few weeks or months, and it simply doesn't like all the elements of films sets, we give it to a nice home. The traits that make a good film animal are pretty obvious, and we go to great lengths to carefully introduce them to all these new elements of their life in a positive way, so almost all of them work out for us.

Reptile jobs usually have no prep time, while dog jobs with detailed action often get lots of prep days, depending on many variables. Features get more prep time than commercials or TV. We have a whole bunch of socialized, well trained animals to offer, and we can find whatever we don't have with our competitors or other sources. There is a whole etiquette about it all.

But back to Moozillion's original question: Yes cats are highly trainable, smart, and willing.