Mary Allen
With a bit of practice, your four-legged friend will playfully learn various cat tricks. With patience, treats and a clicker, retrieving can soon be part of your cat’s repertoire.
Dogs are not the only ones who can fetch – even a particularly docile cat can learn various other cat tricks, including picking up a toy in its mouth and bringing it back to its owners. You can teach your pet this behavior with clicker training: The cat learns to associate the sound of the clicker – a small device that makes a clicking sound when pressure is applied – with a trick. If it follows the command well, it will be rewarded with a treat.
This is How Your Velvet Paw Learns to Fetch
Before you start this cat trick, it is important that you use a toy that the cat can easily put in its mouth. A plush mouse or something similar that the cat is already familiar with and may have carried around is ideal. Pick up the toy and throw it away from you. Now you have to hope that the velvet paw will run after the good piece and pick it up.
When the kitty does this, lure her back with a treat. If she successfully fetches, she gets the treat and a click. Once you’ve successfully done this several times, your four-legged friend will eventually learn that he gets a reward for bringing the toy and will soon do it every time you throw the toy.
Cat Tricks With a Lot of Patience
The more tricks your cat has already mastered, the easier it will be for you to teach him more cat tricks. With all tricks, however, it is important that you only practice as long as your cat wants to. After all, clicker training should be a playful addition and not a compulsion – punishment and pressure don’t work at all here.