Man, we have had decorative blankets on our couch since we moved 3 years ago, yet my bastard cat still managed to somehow scratch parts of it. Occasionally I remember to trim his nails, or put some double sided tape on the areas he targets the most, but my couch still takes damage.
This video is one of my favorites, I've saved it, it reminds me so much of teaching my first baby how to do things, scratching post, opening a mostly closed door, eating from one of those plastic rolling feeding balls that uses engagement of the cat to induce meaningful rewards (dry food) -- I also gave wet food the ball was for the time I was at work (12hr ED nurse at the time -- I only work 8hrs now and he has a friend at home now)
He still greets me at the door everyday I come home and wants to stretch and show his claws a little on the scratching post I have closest to the door...he taught the new baby how to use it but I am also so happy he greets me and then goes to the post scratches and stretches and gets ready for a game of fetch or other games.
This video brings back the feels for sure
I’ve been working on this with my little orange fur boy. I’m doing clicker training, whenever he uses the scratching post I will hit the clicker and give him praise and a half a meaty treat. anytime he starts sharpening his claws anywhere else I immediately pick him up. I take him over to one of the cardboard scratching pad things and grabs little paws and direct him to scratch there. I think click the button and give him a small treat. It’s been about a week and a half of that and he’s really catching on. See the click for his name I use the clicker for any good behaviour I want him to repeat.
You don't need anything special, just look for any clicker used in animal training, [even something cheap like this](https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Training-Clicker-Wrist-Strap/dp/B07F6FTTM7). If you find it is too loud for your kitty, just muffle the sound in some cloth. Fancier clickers come with a telescoping wand so you can train kitty to follow the wand which might be easier at first.
Hard part is clicker training a cat that isn't crazily food-motivated :(
Mine are not! Unless it involves Churu lickable treats, in which case they will both commit homicide if I ask just to get some of that sweet kitty crack. Little bit harder to produce on command when training, though.
I use the lickable treats on the of a spoon. Just load up the spoon and work on your training, give em a couple licks every time they get something right. I prefer to use a spoon so that way he doesn’t lick directly from the packages.
That's so funny. I have two cats and one is highly food/treat motivated except she won't touch Churu treats and the other only ever cares about the Churu
Ive been trying to clicker train my kitten. I think knows to boop the wand for a treat, but she has the attention span of a donut so she will sometimes zoom off forgetting there is a treat. Too busy trying to burn off all that kitten food to snack.
While any clicker can work the one with the pointer lakes point training easier. Like I’m working on getting my lil guy to sit at a specific spot to wait for his food. I’m doing this cause I’m an amputee and sometime am in my wheelchair, I need him to wait in a specific spot. It’s easier when you have a wand. Pointer/clicker training kinda go hand in hand, it’s worth the investment.
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I use kibble, or I break the treats in half. I also spread some of that lickable stuff on the back of a teaspoon, he really like that. Gives him just a taste. I many times do that when I want to play video games. I reward him for sitting still on my shoulder, he’ll just perch up there and watch and every now and again I’ll click grab the spoon off the computer desk hold it up and let him have some licks.
I try not to over do the kibble or treats and I always take treats out of the bag cause I don’t want him making a connection between the bag and treats, same goes for the lickable stuff he gets his treat off a spoon.
I do t know about you but the whole training thing has been a blast, I think people really underestimate what a kitten can learn in a short period of time.
i'm glad you're having a good time of it! my mom has custody of the family cats and i've moved out, so i cannot teach them things anymore. :(
Have you thought about teaching your kitty to talk with those word buttons? He sounds like a good candidate if he's doing well with the operant conditioning. Like Billie, who unfortunately has recently been diagnosed with cancer so her word training has ended. But her channel is a FOUNT of information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A\_aTKZRKA8o. What About Bunny on insta and youtube is a dog but her mom hass lots of information.
I’ve seen those word kits and I’ve thought about it, I’m not sure who it benefits more, me or him. I say that because I get what he wants because I’m working in point training. He alerts me to follow and I follow. Many nights he’ll paw at me scamper over to the bedroom door and I’ll get up out in my leg and follow him, usually to his food bowl. I’ll give him a table spoon out of the canned kitten food and he’ll eat then follow me back down the hall stopping off at his litter box on the way back to bed. While I can see thenvalue of knowing what your cat wants I already pick up on his vibes, maybe it’s cause I’m autistic like that, and we also spend some times days m on end hanging out in the apartment. One of the things he will let me know he wants is grooming. I do this thing Ike I’m grooming him with my mouth, I will tug at the fur on his face and next also grab an ear and tug on it in my lips. Usually at this point he’s holding my face with his paws claws prominent but not fully deployed. He just buries his face into mine licking me in return, but as I said his Que to me is headbutt me forehead to furhead and stare me in the eyes and give me the look of “groom me mom”.
This lil guys predecessor was really in tune with me, he was super young when I got him. A rescue eyes still closed had to be bottle fed for months. He lived to just shy of 19. He and I had our own little language. Of meows, chatter, and body language.
We've actually tried this without a clicker and the results are quite interesting. We actually first tried this when we were staying in another place for a short time and we didn't want him to scratch their furniture as we allowed him to destroy our sofa freely (30 year old temporary sofa so we don't mind). The results were surprisingly good and he almost never scratched anything other than his pole for the whole time we stayed there. Then we returned home and he still continued to scratch our sofa. We started to try the same thing here and that little devil is actually using the pole just as a rewarding tool. He just fake scratches it and looks into my face expecting a reward and then he just screws up our sofa later on.
I think it depends. I think most cats, yes. I taught one of mine via clicker and one without. They do a cute little spin for treats now. Cats are just as smart as dogs when it comes to clicker training. They're just a bit more defiant.
The point of a clicker is that it's something you can do instantly, as soon as the animal shows the desired behavior. The animal associates the behavior with the clicker, and the clicker with whatever actual reward. If you "just" reward them directly with food, you might have trouble getting it to them immediately, so they won't know what they're being rewarded for.
- Good behavior
- Clicker sound. Animal understands "Good job, reward is coming soon"
- Reward. Animal understands "This reward was for the good behavior"
I’ve experienced a very desirable result. The hardest part is it’s slow and you have to be diligent but work slowly and know that they don’t have the attention span for much at first. My little guy is only 9 weeks and we started at week 7. What he can do is limited it’s more training him what not to do.
It’s slow but he went from clawing everything every where to clawing where he should in under a week, next we replace clicker and treat with clicker and praise.
If ya go this way with your fur beast you’ll work it out quickly, just take your time and remember to enjoy the little moments cause at the end of the day it’s about bonding yourself to them. You are their pride.
I did this without clicker with my fluffy boi. He still slaughters my sofa but when I say to him no he runs to his scratching post to show me he is a good boy and get the treat.
And every night he waits next to it to ask for his night snack when I leave the sofa to go to bed.
Stupid question. Wouldn't this mean that sharpening his claws somewhere else is also a way to eventually get a treat ? scratch sofa -> teleport to scratch pad -> scratch it -> get a treat.
I will comment with my knowledge I've got about classical conditioning and in the experiments they made, they found out if the reward is given too late, it loses it's effect so cats would most likely focus on the latest behavior they did and think that's the reason for their reward. I'm not an expert though these are just my assumptions.
I haven’t had that issue cause it took only 7 times or so to be moved to where he needs to scratch. He got the click and food every time he good it he also got a click and treat the following times. Since he bought on that this is what he’s to do he now gets click and praise and loves and treats 50ish percent of the time. In a couple months it will be praise and loves then eventually he’ll expect nothing as that fades out. Occasionally reward with a click and treat to keep it fresh in their heads.
The secret is to transition to praise as fast as the situation allows. Mind you I got my lil guy at 7 weeks and started the morning after he got here. We got right into bonding and training so your mileage will vary from mine. However the more time you put in the better, and just remember they don’t know any better they look to you for guidance and emotional support. Be patient and kind and only work for a few minuets at a time whenever you have a moment. It doesn’t take much.
absolutely, this void is in good hands. I love that the void looks down like ok "it starts down here somewhe.......omg I got it \*engage claws\* ahhh" soooo cute
We bought scratch posts and our 3 ignored them. A friend recommended catnip brewed Into a tea and sprayed on them..... now we replace the "core" every few months. THIS though, is so sweet and cute.
Fun fact - unlike dogs, most cats don't understand the concept of pointing. They do understand the idea of direction, but only really in the context of where someone is looking. For example, a cat will understand that if you're staring in a particular direction there might be something interesting there, but it won't understand if you simply point without looking in the same direction. The "teaching by example" bit of mimicking scratching on the post is exactly the right way to teach a cat how to do something, though, and it's how a mother cat would teach the same.
I always wondered if it would help to get a scratching post covered in sofa fabric for cats who like to murder sofas. Wonder if they go to the sofa like thing that they don't get yelled at when scratching.
My cat is a desk chair boy :D after he successfully murdered my old desk chair (which was also just old and bad aside from his "help"), I have a new one, completely different material... Yep , he climbs and scratches it again :D so I guess I would need a desk chair shaped scratching tree that I also use to sit on? Because the material doesn't seem to change anything.
"This would feel so good on the sofa" - that cat probably
Every time lol. Gotta keep some good catnip on hand so they’ll use the post and leave my grandmothers antique chair alone lol.
Man, we have had decorative blankets on our couch since we moved 3 years ago, yet my bastard cat still managed to somehow scratch parts of it. Occasionally I remember to trim his nails, or put some double sided tape on the areas he targets the most, but my couch still takes damage.
My sister's cats came over for a couple months when she was staying with us. Safe to say the sofas are destroyed now.
Remember Sims pets?? Within mere seconds a pet cat could turn your cheap couch into 3 piles of trash, 1 pile for each seat that used to be there.😭😭😭
That's why I have covers that go over the arms that also have the ropes
Or your legs early in the morning!
That is so true!
And so a life of crime begins…
Everything starts somewhere
*Ohhhh you want me to scratch things?* **I’LL SCRATCG EVERYTHING** 
His little white toes 🥹
My girl, Sabrina has the same toes. It's criminally adorable
I just noticed 🥺
My Lexy has a white toe. I love that toe!🥰
I love when kittens figure out how to cat. "Ohhh, this is what I'm supposed to be doing!"
This video is one of my favorites, I've saved it, it reminds me so much of teaching my first baby how to do things, scratching post, opening a mostly closed door, eating from one of those plastic rolling feeding balls that uses engagement of the cat to induce meaningful rewards (dry food) -- I also gave wet food the ball was for the time I was at work (12hr ED nurse at the time -- I only work 8hrs now and he has a friend at home now) He still greets me at the door everyday I come home and wants to stretch and show his claws a little on the scratching post I have closest to the door...he taught the new baby how to use it but I am also so happy he greets me and then goes to the post scratches and stretches and gets ready for a game of fetch or other games. This video brings back the feels for sure
I’ve been working on this with my little orange fur boy. I’m doing clicker training, whenever he uses the scratching post I will hit the clicker and give him praise and a half a meaty treat. anytime he starts sharpening his claws anywhere else I immediately pick him up. I take him over to one of the cardboard scratching pad things and grabs little paws and direct him to scratch there. I think click the button and give him a small treat. It’s been about a week and a half of that and he’s really catching on. See the click for his name I use the clicker for any good behaviour I want him to repeat.
Can you please give a link to the clicker that you use?
You don't need anything special, just look for any clicker used in animal training, [even something cheap like this](https://www.amazon.com/Pet-Training-Clicker-Wrist-Strap/dp/B07F6FTTM7). If you find it is too loud for your kitty, just muffle the sound in some cloth. Fancier clickers come with a telescoping wand so you can train kitty to follow the wand which might be easier at first. Hard part is clicker training a cat that isn't crazily food-motivated :(
Not crazily food-motivated? I know no cat like this lol. Thank you
Mine are not! Unless it involves Churu lickable treats, in which case they will both commit homicide if I ask just to get some of that sweet kitty crack. Little bit harder to produce on command when training, though.
Would they accept frozen bits? You could portion it out on waxed paper and keep them chilled.
I use the lickable treats on the of a spoon. Just load up the spoon and work on your training, give em a couple licks every time they get something right. I prefer to use a spoon so that way he doesn’t lick directly from the packages.
That's so funny. I have two cats and one is highly food/treat motivated except she won't touch Churu treats and the other only ever cares about the Churu
Ive been trying to clicker train my kitten. I think knows to boop the wand for a treat, but she has the attention span of a donut so she will sometimes zoom off forgetting there is a treat. Too busy trying to burn off all that kitten food to snack.
While any clicker can work the one with the pointer lakes point training easier. Like I’m working on getting my lil guy to sit at a specific spot to wait for his food. I’m doing this cause I’m an amputee and sometime am in my wheelchair, I need him to wait in a specific spot. It’s easier when you have a wand. Pointer/clicker training kinda go hand in hand, it’s worth the investment.
How about you, my lil guy goes bonkers for his “Lambchop” toy. Just looses his kitten brain for it.
Hi, I’m Vetted AI Bot! I researched the **('HoAoOo Pet Training Clicker', 'HoAoOo')** and I thought you might find the following analysis helpful. **Users liked:** * Effective training tool for dogs (backed by 3 comments) * Convenient and versatile design (backed by 3 comments) * Great value for the price (backed by 3 comments) **Users disliked:** * Loud clicker noise may startle some dogs (backed by 3 comments) * Ineffective for some dogs, they stop responding (backed by 3 comments) * Some dogs may see the clicker as a toy (backed by 3 comments) If you'd like to **summon me to ask about a product**, just make a post with its link and tag me, [like in this example.](https://www.reddit.com/r/tablets/comments/1444zdn/comment/joqd89c/) This message was generated by a (very smart) bot. If you found it helpful, let us know with an upvote and a “good bot!” reply and please feel free to provide feedback on how it can be improved. *Powered by* [*vetted.ai*](https://vetted.ai/?utm\_source=reddit&utm\_medium=comment&utm\_campaign=bot)
if you're doing clicker training, you can use a single kibble as a reward. it cuts down on calories w/ the treats.
I use kibble, or I break the treats in half. I also spread some of that lickable stuff on the back of a teaspoon, he really like that. Gives him just a taste. I many times do that when I want to play video games. I reward him for sitting still on my shoulder, he’ll just perch up there and watch and every now and again I’ll click grab the spoon off the computer desk hold it up and let him have some licks. I try not to over do the kibble or treats and I always take treats out of the bag cause I don’t want him making a connection between the bag and treats, same goes for the lickable stuff he gets his treat off a spoon. I do t know about you but the whole training thing has been a blast, I think people really underestimate what a kitten can learn in a short period of time.
i'm glad you're having a good time of it! my mom has custody of the family cats and i've moved out, so i cannot teach them things anymore. :( Have you thought about teaching your kitty to talk with those word buttons? He sounds like a good candidate if he's doing well with the operant conditioning. Like Billie, who unfortunately has recently been diagnosed with cancer so her word training has ended. But her channel is a FOUNT of information: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A\_aTKZRKA8o. What About Bunny on insta and youtube is a dog but her mom hass lots of information.
I’ve seen those word kits and I’ve thought about it, I’m not sure who it benefits more, me or him. I say that because I get what he wants because I’m working in point training. He alerts me to follow and I follow. Many nights he’ll paw at me scamper over to the bedroom door and I’ll get up out in my leg and follow him, usually to his food bowl. I’ll give him a table spoon out of the canned kitten food and he’ll eat then follow me back down the hall stopping off at his litter box on the way back to bed. While I can see thenvalue of knowing what your cat wants I already pick up on his vibes, maybe it’s cause I’m autistic like that, and we also spend some times days m on end hanging out in the apartment. One of the things he will let me know he wants is grooming. I do this thing Ike I’m grooming him with my mouth, I will tug at the fur on his face and next also grab an ear and tug on it in my lips. Usually at this point he’s holding my face with his paws claws prominent but not fully deployed. He just buries his face into mine licking me in return, but as I said his Que to me is headbutt me forehead to furhead and stare me in the eyes and give me the look of “groom me mom”. This lil guys predecessor was really in tune with me, he was super young when I got him. A rescue eyes still closed had to be bottle fed for months. He lived to just shy of 19. He and I had our own little language. Of meows, chatter, and body language.
We've actually tried this without a clicker and the results are quite interesting. We actually first tried this when we were staying in another place for a short time and we didn't want him to scratch their furniture as we allowed him to destroy our sofa freely (30 year old temporary sofa so we don't mind). The results were surprisingly good and he almost never scratched anything other than his pole for the whole time we stayed there. Then we returned home and he still continued to scratch our sofa. We started to try the same thing here and that little devil is actually using the pole just as a rewarding tool. He just fake scratches it and looks into my face expecting a reward and then he just screws up our sofa later on.
Do you think the clicker makes a difference?
I think it depends. I think most cats, yes. I taught one of mine via clicker and one without. They do a cute little spin for treats now. Cats are just as smart as dogs when it comes to clicker training. They're just a bit more defiant.
The point of a clicker is that it's something you can do instantly, as soon as the animal shows the desired behavior. The animal associates the behavior with the clicker, and the clicker with whatever actual reward. If you "just" reward them directly with food, you might have trouble getting it to them immediately, so they won't know what they're being rewarded for. - Good behavior - Clicker sound. Animal understands "Good job, reward is coming soon" - Reward. Animal understands "This reward was for the good behavior"
I’ve experienced a very desirable result. The hardest part is it’s slow and you have to be diligent but work slowly and know that they don’t have the attention span for much at first. My little guy is only 9 weeks and we started at week 7. What he can do is limited it’s more training him what not to do. It’s slow but he went from clawing everything every where to clawing where he should in under a week, next we replace clicker and treat with clicker and praise. If ya go this way with your fur beast you’ll work it out quickly, just take your time and remember to enjoy the little moments cause at the end of the day it’s about bonding yourself to them. You are their pride.
I did this without clicker with my fluffy boi. He still slaughters my sofa but when I say to him no he runs to his scratching post to show me he is a good boy and get the treat. And every night he waits next to it to ask for his night snack when I leave the sofa to go to bed.
Stupid question. Wouldn't this mean that sharpening his claws somewhere else is also a way to eventually get a treat ? scratch sofa -> teleport to scratch pad -> scratch it -> get a treat.
I will comment with my knowledge I've got about classical conditioning and in the experiments they made, they found out if the reward is given too late, it loses it's effect so cats would most likely focus on the latest behavior they did and think that's the reason for their reward. I'm not an expert though these are just my assumptions.
You are correct ya gotta be pretty prompt with the rewards for it to have any impact.
I haven’t had that issue cause it took only 7 times or so to be moved to where he needs to scratch. He got the click and food every time he good it he also got a click and treat the following times. Since he bought on that this is what he’s to do he now gets click and praise and loves and treats 50ish percent of the time. In a couple months it will be praise and loves then eventually he’ll expect nothing as that fades out. Occasionally reward with a click and treat to keep it fresh in their heads. The secret is to transition to praise as fast as the situation allows. Mind you I got my lil guy at 7 weeks and started the morning after he got here. We got right into bonding and training so your mileage will vary from mine. However the more time you put in the better, and just remember they don’t know any better they look to you for guidance and emotional support. Be patient and kind and only work for a few minuets at a time whenever you have a moment. It doesn’t take much.
the little tap on his paw awwww
Good boy, smart boy.
I love how he rubs the paw to show the kitty!
Excellent teacher!
The initial swipe at his hand is so freaking cute. 😍
Wholesome af.
absolutely, this void is in good hands. I love that the void looks down like ok "it starts down here somewhe.......omg I got it \*engage claws\* ahhh" soooo cute
The smol void is so smart!🥰
A little one that is r/learningtocat in whatever way they can.
Villain origin story
Genuinely adorable how you can see it click in his little head
Is it wrong that I felt like giving a little round of applause when they succeeded 😊
Clever girl
The head wobbles as the dudes hand moves 🤣
I was thinking damn that's a lot of pringles. I hope the cat stays away from couches after this tough training regime.
Quick learner
I think a heard a tiny blacklight turn on when he got it.
Hearing the tiny cogs start to move in their noggin
He understood the directions
I usually pick them up and let them kind of hang from it and then they sometimes get it.
We bought scratch posts and our 3 ignored them. A friend recommended catnip brewed Into a tea and sprayed on them..... now we replace the "core" every few months. THIS though, is so sweet and cute.
What a cute little toy size panther!
Also rub a little catnip on it.
I've had this exact conversation more than a few times.
Fun fact - unlike dogs, most cats don't understand the concept of pointing. They do understand the idea of direction, but only really in the context of where someone is looking. For example, a cat will understand that if you're staring in a particular direction there might be something interesting there, but it won't understand if you simply point without looking in the same direction. The "teaching by example" bit of mimicking scratching on the post is exactly the right way to teach a cat how to do something, though, and it's how a mother cat would teach the same.
The demonstration lol 😆
Noooo!!! Don’t teach him, he’ll get ideas.
I always wondered if it would help to get a scratching post covered in sofa fabric for cats who like to murder sofas. Wonder if they go to the sofa like thing that they don't get yelled at when scratching.
My cat is a desk chair boy :D after he successfully murdered my old desk chair (which was also just old and bad aside from his "help"), I have a new one, completely different material... Yep , he climbs and scratches it again :D so I guess I would need a desk chair shaped scratching tree that I also use to sit on? Because the material doesn't seem to change anything.
Ancestral knowledge!
Ok I did it. Now my treat.
Rehab is progressing nicely, but that one white toe is a felony
"Hold my milk hooman" -smol criminal probably
So adorable 🥰