How to Train Your Cat to Come When You Call

Follow these steps and even your aloof, independent cat will come to you when she hears you say a special word.

Difficulty: Moderately Easy

Instructions

Things You'll Need:

• Cat Brushes
• Cat Dishes
• Cat Treats

1. Talk to your cat - a lot. Encourage her to come to you, and regularly pet her and brush her.

2. Choose a special dry snack that she has shown she likes. It cannot be her regular dry food.

3. Pick a special word, such as "snack" or "dessert." It must be a word she will associate only with the special snack.

4. Use your special word during her next snack time. In her presence, place one piece of the food in her empty dish and say the special word.

5. Say the word again after she eats the first piece. Place another piece of the food in her dish and say the special word again.

6. Walk away. If she is giving you "I am really starving" cries, say your word again and give her one more piece. Then walk out of the room.

7. Repeat the procedure in 5 minutes. Cats learn very quickly when they are motivated.

8. Follow this procedure for the next several days.

Tips & Warnings

• Use the snack only for those times when you call the cat. Make certain it is nutritious. Choose a dry, crunchy snack that is also good for the teeth.
• Don't forget, this is to be a small snack, not a small bowl of dry food. Otherwise, your kitty might gain unwanted weight.
• Be patient.
• Train the cat by using only adults as trainers. Children might tend to overfeed the cat or overuse the special word, thereby confusing the cat.
• Use your special word only when you will follow through with the snack, or you may confuse your cat.
• Use the special word daily, not only when you want to find the cat for a trip to the vet or when it is bath time. On those occasions, give her the snack and try to allow a few minutes before following through on your hidden motive.

[thewhisperer]

on 6/6/2009 My infallible cat call is to a human barely audible. When I take the manual can opener out of the drawer (the kind you have to crank with your hand, not electric), somehow wherever the cats are in the house, they know...and they all come running!

[he11okitty]

on 5/17/2009 I have to whistle "Oh My Darling Clemtine" for my cat to come to me. No amount of other cat calling methods work. It just happened to be a song I whistled when she was little and I noticed she came to it every time.

[iheartlondon]

on 4/20/2009 My snowshoe 9 yo siamese cat comes immediately when I whistle (too) My whistle sound kind of like the same notes as a door bell (ding dong) and if I want her to jump up on my lap or come to me at any time, all I have to do is whistle and she's there. I've trained her with this since I got her at 3 yo. My other cat does not respond at all to anything even her name. the only thing she responds to is the sentence "Lolli want some food?"

on 8/19/2006 Every time I feed my cat treats I click a clicker. I slowly ween him off of the treats. Now when I want my cat to come I click the clicker and reward him. It works with dogs, too.

on 8/8/2006 Out of all her toys, my kitten especially likes this little bell. Whenever she's doing something she's not supposed to, or I need to find her, I simply ring it and she comes running.