Cat Articles

Saturday, January 27, 2007

Train Your Cat For Vacations

When you are going on a vacation or taking your cat out for a length of time you will want to have the cat trained to ride in a car or vehicle so that the cat is not jumping all over and over the seats.

Purchasing a pet carrier will be the first thing that you will want to do. Searching for the right carrier is another thing that you will want to do. Knowing the right size and fit for the cat will be very important to the cat and you. A carrier in which your cat will like and a carrier that easily picked up and put in the car.

The first thing that you will want to do after purchasing the carrier for your cat is. Let the cat get use to the carrier being around. Set the carrier in the cat area for a couple of days and let the cat investigate with it. Do not push the cat into the carrier or your cat will not want to go in the carrier. After that, you will want to play with the cat with the carrier by putting something that the cat loves to play with in the carrier and see if the cat will go in by it. Once you have the cat going in and playing with the item then you will want to start with the rewarding of small treats, for the cat. Allow the cat for a few days to do this, once the cat is comfortable and maybe laying down in the pet carrier, you will want to start with the door, not to close and lock it, by allowing the door be slightly open for a period of time till the cat is comfortable.

Once you are able to have the cat comfortable in the carrier and you may start with closing the door all the way and then locking the door. Leave the carrier in the place for a few days when doing this.

Next, you can pick up the carrier and carry the cat gently around the house, to get the cat to be comfortable in the pet carrier with you walking. You should do this for several times a day for a few days, just so the cat is comfortable.

Now is the big day, to go for the first ride, remember that your cat has not maybe been in the car. Sounds from the car and near by cars and traffic noise will tend to startle your cat. You may want to do the first drive in a quiet area, with your cat next to you. There is music out to play while you are driving, with your cat to help the cat to relax. Talk to your cat to help it relax and assure it that everything is all right. If at anytime the cat does get frighten you will want to stop and help the cat to relax to assure there is nothing wrong. By doing this the cat will want to go back in the carrier the next time.

Remember to take treats with on the drive; this will help the cat to know that they are doing a good job and that you are keeping them safe. When your cat is doing well in the pet carrier as you are moving you can give the cat a treat to let it know they are doing a good behavior. Do not at anytime yell or do anything to startle the cat, as your cat will have a fear of the pet carrier.

Have patience and practice with training the cat for travel. Now you can pack the bags and cats items that you will need and off on the wonderful vacation with you.

About the Author:

Burt Cotton http://www.petcarenews.org

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Friday, January 26, 2007

Cat Training With A Clicker

Clicker training is a reinforcement or reward for a cat when training them. Clickers are use most often for support when training a cat for a reward. Cats associate the clicker with a good behavior they will use for a long time. Clicker training is associated with classical condition (they associate the sound with food.) and operant conditioning (cat performs movement to receive food).

Why use a clicker and not tell a cat or make a sound to get your cat to do a trick? A clicker has a sound a cat can hear and associate good behavior. With words, our tones in our voice can change from time to time, which a cat can become confused with the training. With talking for the commands, a cat could mistake the commands. With using a clicker, it is more of a training tool to get the behavior started with the cat. Then you can put the clicker away for that behavior or trick once a cat has learned the behavior

When taking the cat out for a walk or on a trip, the clicker is a good item to carry along with you. Cats can get distracted with other people, or animals in the area. With using the clicker, it will reinforce the behavior that you have taught them. In addition, a clicker can help you with having your cat walk with you instead of wondering around.

With the clicker, a cat can be trained using three easy steps: Get a behavior, mark a behavior, and reinforce the behavior. Get a behavior is the first step. A good example would be for the cat to jump a hoop. The cat will have to know that when you click that they get a treat. Start with very small treats in your pocket. Clicks, Treat, Click Treat do this for a few times until you see the cat coming for the treat on the click. Next marking the behavior: You will have to show the cat the hoop. Once the cat touches the hoop, click, treat. Then show the cat to go though the hoop once it does click, treat. Continue to do this until the cat goes though the hoop on its own or your command. Reinforce the behavior Remember to have snacks handy so when you do see your cat go though the hoop a snack is available.

Training a cat with a clicker can be fun for both you and the cat. Taking steps in training will be rewarding to you and the cat. Try not to rush a cat in training, as they can become confused especially if they did not get the step before down. The training will take time and steps to achieve this behavior. Patience, love, and rewards will be the key factor in training your cat.

The clicker is a good exercises tool for a cat. 10 to 15 mins a day you should get your cat to exercises. For exercising, you can have the cat use a hoop, play with a toy, and climb on the scratching post or something that focus on the cat getting exercise. Exercises will help the cat to stay healthy and help to keep it out of mischief.

Clickers can come with books to help you train, treats, and a clicker. Clickers come in many different size shapes, and color. You will want to research the clickers out. Check out a pet store, Internet sites give lots of information on training and using a clicker. Check out companies that make the clicker by using Internet to see what kind they offer and any additional information that you might need to get the process of training done. Check out articles about the clicker. Talk to someone that has used one. Talk to your area veterinary about training with a Clicker

Once you have used a clicker, the cat will get good exercise and be a healthy cat. The cat will be happier and you will be happier with the new behaviors that you have taught your cat.

To sum up training your cat, important things to remember is have patience, love and the clicker.

About the Author:

Burt Cotton http://www.catcarenews.org

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Thursday, January 25, 2007

Cat Toilet Training

One of the first things as an owner that wants to toilet train your cat is to know about your cat.

The behavior of a cat; the does, and don’ts of training a cat.

Since we are going to talk about potty training a cat, we need to set some basic rules down. Most important one is that if you do not catch the cat going potty on the floor at the very moment; it will not make any sense to the cat what you do to them about it. Cats remember things like that only shortly. No rubbing the nose of the cat in it, that will only cause pain, or do anything that would harm or hurt your cat. By doing any of these painful acts will only make the cat afraid of you and you will have a very hard time training your cat to do any behaviors, or taking care of your cat.

Let us look over the potty training a cat. Having a cat potty trained on any household toilet will save you thousands of dollars in kitty litter. Will keep the cats area clean, safe and dry, and since a cat does not like messes this is a great way to get rid of the mess for you.

Now you are wondering why someone would want to have the cat use the toilet and not the litter box. In the fecal, of the feline, when mixed with kitty litter can cause people of all ages to get sick. When the cat comes out of the litter box to a person, on its paws are the germs from the litter box. When you or family member is sick or aged people, they are very expectable to this disease.

With a cat being potty trained, the fecal goes under the water this will help prevent the disease from spreading. There are devices on the market that will help you potty train your cat. The devices come with books to help and support you with toilet training your cat.

Let’s look at the potty device, to see what steps are taken to get the cat to use the toilet.

First, you will need to put the device in the toilet. It is basically a small shallow version of a toilet bowl that fits under the ring on the toilet.

The recommendation is to put small amount of cat litter in the small portion of the plastic bowl. Then remove all other cat litter boxes, so the cat will only find litter in one place. Another thought is to cover the plants on the floor, so the cat will not be able to dig in the dirt.

With the device, that you get, there could be some type of fragrances to put on the toilet device to help attract the cat to that area. Leave the cat for a while in the bathroom, with the door closed, privacy is something that cat need and want and will the cat will explore that the litter in on the toilet and use it there. If there seems to be a problem with the cat going, you may want to put the litter box next to the toilet, this way the cat will get use to this and see the toilet, before getting the training started. In this time if you see that cat needs to go, pick the cat up and put it on the toilet with the device on so that kitty will see the device and the litter

This will all take time and lots of patience from you and some good training to the cat. The cat does not have natural instincts to go in the bathroom and go on the toilet. When a cat is older, this can be a real task as the older cats are usually set in their ways and do not like change. With this, you will want to use the slow approach.

In the end, you and your cat will be happy that there are no more kitty litter boxes in the home.

Rewards are very important in this training and hard also; you may not see or catch your cat on there going but remember to reward them when you do see them.

About the Author:

Burt Cotton http://www.catcarenews.org

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Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Train Your Cat To Be Groomed

Grooming for a cat should be done on a daily basis for proper care of your cat. In addition, with the proper care, your cat will stay healthy.

Brushing, combing, clipping nails, and cleaning ears, are grooming that needs to be done. By doing basic grooming on a regular basis will help in prevention with scratching furniture, and hairball management.

Hairball management can be managed using different products that can help with the hairball for the cat. Do not confuse this to substitute for this part of the grooming. Learn more about these products at your favorite pet store or internet site.

When training your cat for grooming, one of the first things you will want done, is to have the cat to be able to relax in your lap. By petting your cat gently on the head and then you will want to pet him down the back and continue till you see that your cat is comfortable with you petting him in the areas that you will be grooming. Next, you will want to press gently on the paw pads to look at the nails, you will want to work on checking the ears. When you have achieved all these things, this is the time to introduce the brush by letting him check the brush out. Carefully start to brush him until you see your cat being comfortable with the brush. Remember a cat’s skin is sensitive and you will want to take real gentle precaution when grooming.

Training your cat to be comb will be the same step you have taken to be able to brush your cat. Be gentle, cats hair is easily matted, snarled, and skin sensitive. If you using precaution with doing the combing and you cause pain to your cat, they may not let you do this. Brushing a cat’s hair is very important, also with long hair cats combing needs to be done. With combing it helps get out the lose hair, and will make a nice looking fur for the cat.

Clipping nails, if you have never clipped your cat’s nails, please talk to a veterinarian, a local groomers, search articles about it, read books, and be very careful when you are cutting them. One thing to practice is having some one with you to help with this, so if the cat tries to move you have reinforcements. When cutting a cat’s nail, toward the paw is a pink area that you do not want to clip. This will be very painful for the cat and a visit to the vet quickly. Make sure when doing this that the cat is very comfortable with you touching its paws. Talk to him when cutting the nails to reassure it is fine and soon will be done. If your cat seems annoyed with cutting their nails, stop, and try later. If you are unable to do this, cat groomers trained to cut nails can do this for you and most time very inexpensive, a lot less then a vet bill.

Cleaning your cat’s ears is another basic grooming process, as in the first part of the article, makes sure the cat is comfortable with the touching of their ears. Once you know that you are able to touch your cat’s ears, now is the time to clean.

Use soft tip q-tips for this part, gently at first rub the q-tip around the out side of the ear working your way to the inside to be able to clean the ear. If at any time the cat resist, stop redirect the cat and then continue until you can successfully clean the ears.

Grooming your cat is also caring for your pet; just feeding your cat is caring. Grooming is also a great way to interact with your pet, for healthy relationships.

Search out more information on training your pet, tools to help with the training and caring for your pet. Check out books, pet stores, search on the internet there are great articles, ideas, and suggestions on training your pet. One way of training may not work but some one else may have different approach. Not all cats train the same, just as we do not teach the same.

About the Author:

Burt Cotton http://www.catcarenews.org

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Article Source: www.iSnare.com

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