Things You'll Need:
- Your darling cat,
- a favorite cat treat (my cat prefers chicken flavored "Greenies")
- Lastly lots of patience and, as my husband puts it, "too much time on your hands! lol"
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Step 1
I once heard an animal trainer say that the secret to training animals was to encourage a behavior that comes naturally to them. with that in mind I set out to find a trick I could teach my cat, Breckie.
We all know that cats like to bat and swipe at their toys and prey. They love to play with their food before they eat it so linking a cat treat with a swat is not a huge leap. This is the first step in this trick.
Let your cat know you have a cat treat in your hand, get him or her good and interested and encourage them to play with it while it is in your hand. -
Step 2
Let your cat eat one or two of the treats and praise her for being so attentive to what you have in your hand. The object right now is to capture her interest and begin to encourage the paw swat behavior that we will start to request next.
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Step 3
At this point hold the treat in your index finger and thumb or whatever is comfortable for you and present as much of the palm of your hand to your cat as you can. As you do this say "High Five" to her. At some point your cat will paw at your hand to try to dislodge the treat and when she does give her the treat and lots of praise. This initial pawing may not be a perfect high five but this trick will improve and fine tune if you and your cat practice together.
Comments
diggitydogg said
on 3/10/2008 That's very cute. I wish I had taught my dog that trick for when the Giants won the Super Bowl!