My cat-a-day calendar today shares a cat curled up on a book with a caption about how smart some cats are. It says that kittens learn skills like hunting and grooming by watching their mother. According to this writer/researcher, cats have the ability to store both long-term and short-term memories and can be trained to perform certain tasks.
Monday through Wednesday of next week (June 13-15) guest blogger, Barbara Florio Graham will share her experiences training her cats over many years. Here are a few questions she’ll respond to in her posts:
- Why does she train her cats?
- Are some cats harder to work with than others? Why?
- What are some of her specific methods of training?
- Is the smarter cat easier or more difficult to train?
- Can anyone learn to train a cat?
Just as with most processes, there are several methods and reasons for training a cat. 
There are tricks for toilet training your cat. Speaking of tricks, some people train their cat to perform tricks such as giving a high five, jumping through a hoop, sitting up, etc.. In fact, there’s a traveling cat circus I’d like to catch sometime. There’s behavior modification training for cats who have forgotten their manners or never learned any. Many trainers use clickers to modify their pet behavior—yes, even with cats. You might find it interesting to know that Barbara does not use a clicker.
If you’d like to learn more about your cat, cat behavior, and how to gently train your cat to perform certain tasks and behaviors, be sure to read the June 13, 14 and 15 blog posts right here.
If you’re interested in the cat circus, there are cats performing over the next few months in Portland, Seattle, Colorado and Minnesota. Here’s the link: http://circuscats.com/schedule.html#.V1qsv6KQq_o
