6 Key Cat Training Tips

Cats are extremely sociable animals even though cats tend to give an image of solidarity and aloofness. Cats that are well trained can form successful relationships with you and your family including other family pets. A well trained cat also caused fewer social problems and minimized nuisances and embarrassments for you down the road.

While instilling discipline into your cat is important, tough punishment must be avoided. Instead use positive actions and avoid negative ones when training your cat. Negative actions such as hitting or yelling are not generally acknowledged by them. Cats are known to associate these adverse actions with you rather than with their bad behavior. And as a result, the relationship between you and your cat will be strained.

To maintain and forge a loving and warm relationship with your wonderful cat, you can use the following tips to help you solve your cat’s behavior problems.

Train them young
When your cat is still young, he is more open and responsive to training. Bad behaviors have not yet been formed and not given a chance to develop. The older he gets, the harder it will be to train your cat.

Give them regular love and attention
Do not use harsh or bitter tones to reprimand your cat; instead a gentle hug, caress, or a whisper has a longer lasting effect. Your relationship with your cat should be fun, rewarding, playful and interesting. Sometimes this change alone will solve your cat behavior problem. Cats when they are bored are known to become overly active and destructive. By playing with your cat daily and giving him regular relaxing massages can help to calm your kitty down. Cats normally stop using their litterbox when they feel neglected. With regular sessions of attention and play time, even litterbox problems can vanish almost overnight.

Reward them for good behavior
Cats are creatures that love rewards and fear punishment. Cats will only do things that they find pleasurable and rewarding to do. Reward your cat for good behavior. Give rewards such as treats, sweet talking or gently stroking the cat to let him know that you approve of the way he is acting.

Let them know what is acceptable and what is not
Educate your cat on what is correct and acceptable behavior and what is not. Reward him for good behavior. Cats have very short attention span and they tend to forget what they did a minute ago, much less hours ago. In order for you to discipline and make your cat learn, you must catch your cat in the act. As cats hate water, one effective way of making your cat learn is through the use of a spray bottle or squirt gun to startle your cat when you catch him misbehaving. Another method is the use of a whistle to create a loud noise to startle your cat as cats loathe loud noises.

Make your training sessions short but frequent
Training sessions should be brief but frequent. Cats are known to have short attention and interest spans; so it is important to make your sessions brief to be more effective.

Systematic training will do the trick
Owners must design their training programs. The program depends on their cats' attitude. Things to be included in the program are the specific tasks that the owners want their cats to do and the corresponding rewards. This method will deliver the results that you want only if you stick to the program that you did. Consistency is a key factor at this stage.