Is it possible to train a cat?

Cats learn all the time

I know a few cat owners who shake a bag of cat treats to get their cats back home. The sound makes their cat run towards them. Those caregivers will often say that it doesn’t count but I disagree. It’s not only proof that your cat learns, but you also made a first great step into training her. You found a way to call your cat to you. That’s brilliant!

Have you heard that some dogs are trained to come back when called for the whistle signal? The whistle needs to be paired with something positive which is normally food (can be toy play). The whistle is just as arbitrary sound as the sound of shaking the treat bag. Even that sound didn’t straight away mean treats for your cat. This connection was created through exposure. Your cat learned what it means when she got the food out of it. Now, she is offering this behavior voluntarily.

The big resistance that people tend to have is thinking “she is only doing it for food!” My question is, what’s wrong with that? Would you continue to go to work if your employer one time said “You are only coming to work for pay! I want you to come to work because I said so and not because I pay you”. Doesn’t that sound ridiculous? The truth is, we do things because we get something from it. We don’t have to take this away from our animals either. Let’s give them something in return.

Pay your cat for doing what you want her to do

You can pay with treats or a little bit of her daily food. Does your cat come to you the minute you open the cupboard with her food? Or for the sound of opening a can? Sometimes it can be the sight of you coming towards the cupboard with her food, not only the sound. Whatever that is, if you already have something that makes her come to you, we can use it into teaching a recall. We can pair it with a cue like ‘come’.

Have you ever heard about Pavlov and his dogs? He rang the bell before the food appeared and after a while dogs started to salivate just by the sound of the bell, not only for the smell of food. The bell reliably predicted that the food is coming and the dog already had an automatic reaction for food which is salivating. To use that to our advantage, we can start calling our cat just before we get to the treat bag, cupboard, or can. Call her first and then make the sound that normally predicts the food. Your voice isn’t YET paired with the outcome that your cat likes. Make sure that you are giving her the food too. It doesn’t have to be the whole dinner, but if it is not worthwhile, she might eventually stop coming. If you’d stop being paid, you will eventually stop coming for work too.

Be near the place that usually predicts food. The sequence will look as follows:

• call your cat by using distinct cue like ‘come’,

• make the sound that usually gets her attention (shake the treat bag, open food cupboard, etc),

• when she comes, give her a little bit of that food.

If you do that enough times, eventually you won’t have to create the original sound. It might take a while, so be patient with it. If she is not coming for the sound that usually predicts food, stop for a while, and come back to it later. She might not be hungry at the moment or maybe is interested in something outside the house. Allow her to take this time for herself and try again some other time.  

When you see that she is coming reliably, after many repetitions throughout a day or days, you can test if she will come just for the word. Test it by taking a longer pause between saying ‘come’ and the sound you were making. If she is not coming yet, just continue with the original process for a little longer and test it again after a few sessions. If she comes without you having to make the sound – you’ve got it! She now paired the calling with good stuff happening. You’ve trained your cat to come when called.

You might be able to try a different kind of reinforcement. Your cat might like petting. Not all cats do and it might not be as strong as a reinforcement as food, but it can work. I would encourage you to try in a different context. We don’t want to spoil all the good work you’ve done with the food. However, offering a little head scratch for coming close to you is also teaching.

Be a superhero for your cat, she will love you for it!

PS. For some reason, I like to refer to cats as she. I'm not sure why but it’s what I chose in this post. No bias here. The process will look the same for female and male cats.