Cat Chat 2

[Thalassic]

I think I'm ready to start an attempt to teach a thing or two to Apollo, but I don't even know how to start. Like, how do I get his attention for more than a split second? How do I get him to focus on my movements/speech at all? So far I've only been able to do a brief "come here" sort of thing, as that doesn't require anything more than to call him, but when I tried to get him to sit, he'd jump at me, attack my feet, be at the other side of the room, find something random to play with, and just do anything other than even look at me, all within like 2 seconds. What do I do?

[Alexis_Nichole]

this is Dominik and Copy

13450987_147366359016417_4118342397039650464_n.jpg (48.01 KiB) Viewed 103 times

I have 2 cats one is about 1 years old him name is Doninik he was given to me by a friend as a baby because her grandma said she can not keep all the kittens and I was the first person she thought of, at first his name was Domino but he did not look like a Domino he is brown with black lines down his body so I changed it to Dominik while he was a baby my grandpa would call him kitty cat so he will respond to Dominik and kitty cat. My second one is named Copy because he is a Copy cat he is about 6 weeks old, he is a rescue he was found were my aunt works his mama brought him so they made them a bed and the next morning they found that his mama got hit so her boss told he to look around to see if anyone wanted kitten see realized that she could get in trouble for giving a kitten away at such a young age at he time he was under 6 weeks so they gave him to me and he is the opposite color of Dominik black with brown stripes he is marked by mother Marry which means he is blessed he is very healthy and him and Dominik love each other. sorry about the long paragraph.

[noctamaz]

this is my cat, jem. she is nearly two years old and she's my baby ;0; her birthday is on july 6th, 2014 and we adopted her on august 8th, 2015. we adopted her from our local spca, where she wasn't in very good condition; she was very skinny and her fur was shorter than it was supposed to be. since then, we've taken care of her and now she's a chubby ball of fluff o3o

jem is a norwegian forest cat. she sheds more of her fur in summer and grows extremely fluffy in fall and winter. she's quite timid of loud people, and a little scared around new people. at night, around 6, no matter who's down there, she wanders into the living room looking for attention. she's friendly and she loves attention, e.g being pet and scratched behind the ear, but she despises being picked up and she's a little camera shy. (she also has thumbs and a mustache :0)



jem has urinary crystals, which isn't a problem now since it was caused by feeding her cheap, bad food. we feed her a certain type now and that's all she's allowed to eat. (although i wanna make her some kind of cake for her bday it makes me cri evritim)
sometimes she gets a limp out of the blue, where she has a hard time going up/down the stairs and hesitates jumping a little.
she ran into the door once so she has a cut on her nose, which is mostly dry.
(hope it's ok to just tell about her "problems" XD

[plum]

I think I'm ready to start an attempt to teach a thing or two to Apollo, but I don't even know how to start. Like, how do I get his attention for more than a split second? How do I get him to focus on my movements/speech at all? So far I've only been able to do a brief "come here" sort of thing, as that doesn't require anything more than to call him, but when I tried to get him to sit, he'd jump at me, attack my feet, be at the other side of the room, find something random to play with, and just do anything other than even look at me, all within like 2 seconds. What do I do?

Find his favorite kind of treat(assuming he's food motivated), and give it to him after a marker like a clicker or "yes!" and establish that the treat comes after the marker - he'll learn that the rewards come from you , and then you can start some training sessions. Of course his focus might not be 100% if he's young and in the beginning he might not get that he has to work for his treats, but luring him into position (ie, holding the treat above his head to get him to sit) helps a lot! Use the marker + treat whenever he does the action you want.

[Thalassic]

I think I'm ready to start an attempt to teach a thing or two to Apollo, but I don't even know how to start. Like, how do I get his attention for more than a split second? How do I get him to focus on my movements/speech at all? So far I've only been able to do a brief "come here" sort of thing, as that doesn't require anything more than to call him, but when I tried to get him to sit, he'd jump at me, attack my feet, be at the other side of the room, find something random to play with, and just do anything other than even look at me, all within like 2 seconds. What do I do?

Find his favorite kind of treat(assuming he's food motivated), and give it to him after a marker like a clicker or "yes!" and establish that the treat comes after the marker - he'll learn that the rewards come from you , and then you can start some training sessions. Of course his focus might not be 100% if he's young and in the beginning he might not get that he has to work for his treats, but luring him into position (ie, holding the treat above his head to get him to sit) helps a lot! Use the marker + treat whenever he does the action you want.

Whenever I put anything above his head, he usually jumps at it, and attacks ;; I am struggling..

[flyteck]

I think I'm ready to start an attempt to teach a thing or two to Apollo, but I don't even know how to start. Like, how do I get his attention for more than a split second? How do I get him to focus on my movements/speech at all? So far I've only been able to do a brief "come here" sort of thing, as that doesn't require anything more than to call him, but when I tried to get him to sit, he'd jump at me, attack my feet, be at the other side of the room, find something random to play with, and just do anything other than even look at me, all within like 2 seconds. What do I do?

Find his favorite kind of treat(assuming he's food motivated), and give it to him after a marker like a clicker or "yes!" and establish that the treat comes after the marker - he'll learn that the rewards come from you , and then you can start some training sessions. Of course his focus might not be 100% if he's young and in the beginning he might not get that he has to work for his treats, but luring him into position (ie, holding the treat above his head to get him to sit) helps a lot! Use the marker + treat whenever he does the action you want.

Whenever I put anything above his head, he usually jumps at it, and attacks ;; I am struggling..

Start it right in front of him and then move it back so he has to either back up or sit to reach it -- most cats will find sitting easier and thus do that. It should be high enough that he can't quite reach without stretching, but not so high that he tries to stand.

If that doesn't work you can try pressing his bum down when he's standing to get him to sit and then reward him, as long as you're gentle and he's comfortable with it.

[non]

Err, Just got Honey yesterday.
She's been under the bed all day and hasn't eaten a thing. Should I leave her or what??

[Thalassic]

Find his favorite kind of treat(assuming he's food motivated), and give it to him after a marker like a clicker or "yes!" and establish that the treat comes after the marker - he'll learn that the rewards come from you , and then you can start some training sessions. Of course his focus might not be 100% if he's young and in the beginning he might not get that he has to work for his treats, but luring him into position (ie, holding the treat above his head to get him to sit) helps a lot! Use the marker + treat whenever he does the action you want.

Whenever I put anything above his head, he usually jumps at it, and attacks ;; I am struggling..

Start it right in front of him and then move it back so he has to either back up or sit to reach it -- most cats will find sitting easier and thus do that. It should be high enough that he can't quite reach without stretching, but not so high that he tries to stand.

If that doesn't work you can try pressing his bum down when he's standing to get him to sit and then reward him, as long as you're gentle and he's comfortable with it.

It seems like as soon as it's out of his reach, it's out of his interest as well. And trying to touch his back would just cause another attack on my hand and he'd escape. All of these suggestions sound so simple, I wonder if I'm just dealing with an extra hyper kitten here.

[flyteck]

@Eschaton; You very well might be. You could try tiring him out a bit before teaching him things, or maybe just wait until he's a little older.

[areadbhar]

Did anyone hear about Browser the library cat? He's a cat who lives in a library. He's the library's mouser and mascot, and he helps children read. Browser's been there for 6 years, but now, suddenly, he's getting kicked out. You can sign a petition to help him.