For all of you cat lovers out there who love cats but hate training them, here are 10 reasons why training cats is a challenge – hopefully this will help you feel better about your struggles!
1. Many cats don’t recognize hierarchies
Dogs are fairly easy to train because they recognize their owners for who they are – their masters. Dogs quickly learn that their owners give the orders and that, if they follow them, they are rewarded. If they don’t, they are punished. Cats, on the other hand, usually do not recognize their owner as their master and don’t take directions.
2. Some cats are solitary creatures
Cats by nature are solitary creature so, if you bring home a particularly quiet and solitary cat, it might not want to be trained. As cat owners know, when cats don’t want to do something they usually don’t do it.
3. Cats communicate more indirectly than dogs
When dogs want something they bark and jump at it. Cats, on the other hand, will sit there and stare at it or give other indirect hints. This makes it tough to train a cat because you probably won’t know how the cat is feeling while you’re training it so you won’t be able to adapt to its changing feelings.
4. Cats often become bored and impatient with training
Cats often do not have the same attention spans as dogs. If you reward a dog it will pay attention to you. Although cats do respond to incentives they usually grow tired of training before a dog would, even if they are being rewarded.
5. Cats are sometimes mischievous by nature
Cats are mischievous and curious by nature, so training them can be a challenge. This is especially true if you get a cat whose specific personality is like this.
6. Cats respond to ALL pleasant consequences
Does your cat jump on your chest in the morning and purr until you feed it? If you get up and do so you are indirectly training your cat. Even though you don’t know it, you’re teaching the cat that if it wakes you up it will be fed. This can make it hard to train a cat because sometimes you don’t know when you’re training it.
7. Punishing cats after they commit a bad act irritates them
What is the cornerstone of training any animal? Reward and punishment! Cats become irritated when you punish them, so instead of taking the hint and changing their behavior they often become angry and act out to turn it around and punish you.
8. Cats do not respond well to punishment
Cats don’t respond as well to punishment as dogs do because of their solidarity and lack of willingness to recognize hierarchies. They look at physical punishment as a threat as opposed to a punishment from an owner that is trying to affect its behavior.
9. Many people expect the same results they would get if they were training a dog
It’s simple – dog behavior is not the same as cat behavior! Dogs are easier to train because of their friendly and amicable nature while cats, on the other hand, are not as easy to train. Owners should have patience!
10. Cats have better visual memory than dogs and are able to find escape routes quicker
To potty train your cat, you should put it in the room with its litter box and wait until it learns to use it. What if the cat can escape from this room? You should consider this when training your cat and try to find solutions accordingly.