I’ve been away from home all week, visiting family and old friends.  It’s been a wonderful trip, but what does this have to do with cats and this blog?  I have one word for you -  KITTENS!!!

You read it – I abandoned poor ShiShi and Haku at home with the rest of their loving family and have been cheating on them with my best friend’s adorable young kittens.  After a fun afternoon of kitten meet-n-greets, I couldn’t help wondering the next day if those kittens would love playing tricks-fur-treats as much as my kitties do. 

Now, this is going to be a bit of a short post because, well, travel.  The short answer is that barely four-month-old Catness and Miso (the kittens) loved learning their tricks!  And they each learned about 6-7 repeatable tricks within minutes (about 10 minutes in individual sessions).  Of course, those kittens weren’t like Haku and ShiShi and able to do their tricks with only hand and word cues – I had to coax them through each trick with the treats, but for moments at a time they looked like purrfect little purrfessionals.

Needless to say, my friend and her kids were amazed – they had no idea that their tiny kittens would be capable of all that, let alone an adult cat.  And I, of course, explained that cats are brilliant and capable of doing absolutely TONS of tricks and so much more (if only they happen to feel like it!)

Miso was my first choice to work with, because I knew from what was said that she is highly food motivated.  (Although she’s also a very independent thinker – that kitten’s teen years are going to be a doozy!)  She had her Sit by the second try, then we moved on to Shake, Stand Up High, Lie Down, Circles around, and Climb Up on my arm.  She also had been working on Boop for a few days, so she picked that up super well –  and even was able to walk across the couch from a Sit to Boop my finger.  So much fun!

Catness was up next, and we ran through the same series of tricks.  She’s much less food motivated, but a real people pleaser.  As soon as she understands anything that is wanted, she’s happy to give it a try.  (It was so easy to take pictures of her, once she knew what I wanted, unlike stubborn Miso lol!)  Also, I’d been able to grab two of ShiShi and Haku’s favorite kinds of treats at a local pet store, including the epic freeze-dried rabbit bits, so Catness just flew through her tiny training session.

How do I know that these guys loved their training time?  Catness kept her ears perked forward and interested the whole time and ran over to give me whisker kisses a short time later after we’d finished.  Miso actually began purring the second time we ran through her tricks so that I could get these pictures.  I’m really hoping that my friend (and her kids) keep up the training now that they know how to do it – I can’t wait to see what those kittens can do by the next time that I visit!

1 - Kittens are completely irresistible - I could become a crazy cat lady with a million cats if I don’t watch out!

2 - It is never too early to train kittens.  It was so very fast and easy to teach those simple tricks, and they obviously had a bunch of fun working with me to do them.

3 - Cats are incredibly intelligent, sensitive beings, and kittens are no different.  Catness and Miso both amazed me with their adventurous spirits, loving personalities, and willingness to jump into our trick learning.  They both had lots of fun, and climbed all over me begging for more when I returned the next day.

‘Your cat does tricks?  No way!’

I’ve probably heard that hundreds of times now, nearly every time I mention that one of ShiShi and Haku’s favorite things to do is to play Tricks-Fur-Treats.  It seems that people are used to dogs doing tricks, but somehow there’s an extra bit of charm when it’s a Cat who’s shaking paws or handing out whisker kisses.

It’s so rare to see cat tricks in action - maybe that's why it always seems so fun?  Even on YouTube, it takes some work to find cats doing much in the way of tricks.  Of course, training kitties does take lots of patience when getting started (and a great sense of humor too!) but it’s totally possible.  ShiShi and Haku know many more tricks than my dogs were ever able to learn, and they’ve learned them with far less effort on my part. 

The other part of that charm (at least for me) is that when one of my cats does a trick, I always know for sure that she or he really wanted to do it.  No way, no how is any self-respecting cat going to be pestered, or even treated, into doing something that they didn’t choose.  My cats certainly wouldn’t!  In fact, they’d be more likely to look at their hopeful trainer (me) with complete disdain, then saunter away with tail waving a taunting flag in the air.

Back in the day (about 2 ½ years ago), I started training Haku and ShiShi tricks because I thought that it would be cute and fun.  But I’ve kept on training more and more tricks, almost 20 of them now, because it makes them so happy. For real.  It’s the kind of happy that helps them to get over a week-long snit after I’ve been gone for an overnight, irons out tense kitties who are getting on each other’s last nerve, and has been an infinite blessing when ShiShi needs stimulated to eat if she’s having one of those weeks where she’s snubbing all of her food again. 

But, how does one even get started with this Cat Trick training stuff, you ask?  I recommend starting with what I consider the easiest trick in the cat repertoire – Boop! (touching their nose to your finger) – and then eventually adding that together with other tricks to turn it into something really fun like ‘Kiss the mouse’ or my personal favorite ‘Kiss mum’s cheek’. 

The real trick with any cat training (other than patience!) is breaking a desired ‘trick’ into small, acceptable parts.  This way the cat can understand exactly what is wanted, and then get their reward every time.  If the cat can’t earn the reward by doing the trick the right way, it’s time to back up instantly and give them something that they can do to get that treat!  Then figure out a way to break your trick down into even smaller pieces that can be learned in baby steps, one at a time.