I have been training Max to do tricks for food. I've read about the cat circuses where they have ordinary housecats doing things like jumping through (literal) hoops and how they train them. Basically what I remember from this was that unlike dogs, cats aren't going to do stuff just for praise, and if a cat doesn't want to do something, you're not going to be able to train them to do it.
So those cats who jump through hoops are the cats who like jumping from one piece of furniture to the other, and you train them to do it on command and hold a hoop up for them to go through. This is the basic principle I use to train my cats.
I started training Pippin to do things about two years ago, when it finally occurred to me that this would be something fun for both of us to do together. His arthritis made a lot of physical activity difficult/impossible, and so I never was able to teach him to sit because we always started out sitting. But I taught him to pat my hand with his paw (his version of "shake") and to rear up and rest his front paws/arms over my arm (because supporting his own weight hurt him), and to rear up and come back down (again, holding the position on his own hurt him). He seemed to have great fun comprehending what I wanted him to do and then doing it on command.
When Max came into my life, and was a right royal pain, I thought that perhaps training him would help with the pain part, and also give him some interaction with me that he wouldn't ordinarily have. It worked for the second part of the concept ...
Max is actually very trainable. I have taught him "sit" and this trick he is very consistent at doing. It's the first trick you normally teach a cat because it's easy to teach. You hold the treat where he can see it, and then slowly move it up and back over his nose and then head. He will automatically follow the treat with his nose, and then that ends up compelling him to sit because he can't make his head go that way and still stay standing easily. The minute his butt hit floor, I said "good boy" and gave him the treat.
Saying "good boy" is my version of the clicker. You might have heard or read about clicker training. You have to do something to let them know the instant they complete the "trick" you're trying to teach them, because often you can't get the treat to them fast enough. But clickers are loud and I don't like them, so I used "good boy" instead.
Okay, so you train a cat to do on command what comes naturally to them. Max likes to put his front paws on your leg and have his ears scratched. So that became "up". If I hold the treat across from him over a piece of furniture, "up" becomes "jump up on the furniture", so it's a multi-purpose word. And Max understands what "up" means in both circumstances. He's really quite clever.
Then I worked on "down" (he's not quite consistent with this one) and I've been working on "come", but since when you're holding a treat it's natural for him to walk toward you, I'm not sure about just how much he knows that "come" means "come over to me." I think he does know, because when there's a bird or something outside that he wants to watch, and I say "come" and hold out the treat, I can see that he's torn between watching the bird and getting the treat. (Food usually wins the day.)
And then I've starting chaining commands. So he has to "come", "up", "down", "sit" and then he gets the treat. Sometimes he feels like I've gone just a bit too far with this and refuses to do anything at all (he flops over onto his side). This often happens if I try to repeat a command in the sequence. "Up", "down", and "up" got me a side flop and an exasperated glare. (Both "up"s were the same, not the two varieties of "up" that he knows.)
My brother Chuck is trying to teach him "lap" (jump up on lap). Unfortunately I have discovered that I can't reinforce this one because my lap isn't big enough for Max to stand on with all four feet going across my body, and the one time I tried to compensate, he fell inbetween my knees and off the chair completely, which sort of put the kibosh on me using "lap" as a successful command.
Dawn, my sister-in-law, (Chuck's wife), began to teach him "stay" but I don't know that this will work until Max is older and less of a giant kitten. "Stay" is so very not in his vocabulary right now!
Max tried to bite Dawn the same as he bites me, but she was having none of it. She got hold of him and ended up with him on her lap, unable to bite, but perfectly comfortable (if he'd relax) otherwise. And she held him there and made him stay still until he stopped trying to bite her every time she let go a little. I watched it happen, and I'm still not sure what exactly she did to get him that way. It was like a small miracle. He always bites me and I can't make him stop, persuade him to stop, compel him to stop, or anything else. The only thing that works for me is to get out of range.
He tried to bite Dawn again a little later that same night and she just looked at him and made an "unh-uh" sound in the back of her throat, and Max subsided and was a good little kitty (well, at least he didn't try to bite).
For you see, teaching a cat tricks is all very well and good, but teaching a cat to not do something is even harder. And apparently, out of my reach as a cat trainer.
Oh well. He sits marvelously for me. Guess I'll have to be happy with that.
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