This is a must see.
21 JanWhen Cats Attack!
13 DecCats and Kids
My cat’s first experience with a toddler was very negative for her so when my friends came to visit with their son, Xander, I didn’t even think about my cat’s stress level going through the roof. Xander is the sweetest toddler you’ll ever meet and super well behaved. He has a small dog as a pet, a cockatoo parrot and a cat of his own. His parents showed him how he was supposed to treat animals and he is a very affectionate boy.
When he saw Ninja, he was dying to love on her (and I mean really love on her and not hurt her like some kids might accidentally do) but Ninja was very untrusting and hissed, growled, and swatted at poor Xander. It took me a little while to realize she assumed EVERY toddler was going to be mean to her after the first one.
I had to seriously stand back and look at the situation and just how much it had affected her. I don’t think I realized to what level until now.
Animals hold those “first impressions” against you, and whether a toddler hits and kicks your cat or a man with a baseball cap does the same thing, the cat will remember it and anyone resembling that first mean person is going to get a rude disliking from the cat.
But there’s good news too, as you can work through it and make it better which is good for everyone including your cat. I don’t want Ninja getting to a stressing point every time she sees a 16 month old.
Tips for emotionally conditioning your cat to like things it had a bad past experience with:
- Every time Ninja sees a toddler, I cue a different behavior from her and give her a treat. This will teach her with repetition that when a toddler comes around, she will more often than not get a treat and in tune, will result in happy feelings.
- When a toddler comes to visit, I let them (if they’re willing) put out her food and give her treats. This associates the kid with good things.
- I also try to keep her around as many well behaved toddlers as I can that are use to having pets they could hurt if they tried but know the boundaries of not to. This helps Ninja realize not all kids are bad, nor are they all going to hurt her.
08 DecMotorhome & RV Traveling With Cats
I had no idea how much my cat would LOVE traveling around with me in our RV. It’s no secret cats LOVE new things, but this was a traveling hotel she was never checking out of!
- Cats get into anything and everything.
Ninja has darted into every single opening, cupboard, crack and crevice there is on our RV. She loves exploring and checking everything out which we have let her do… unfortunately she also likes to check it out AFTER you add new things to it as well, such as the food cabinets. So making sure things are wrapped tightly is a must which we learned the hard way. Cat hair in the food is not such a good thing.
- Cats need their own space and familiar and fun toys that let them know they are home.
I couldn’t leave behind Ninja’s favorite toy; her circular ball spinning, cat nip inhaling, nail clawing… toy. She loves this thing and got it for Christmas one year. Once I put that on one of the bunk beds in the back, she claimed the entire bunk as her own. I feel bad for company when they come, if they ever come, because she will be kicking them out of “her bed”. However, it made it easy for her to adapt to the new space and she loves sitting by the window looking out.
- You can never cuddle too much.
Keeping night time rituals and letting Ninja know she can stay on our bed helped her realize this was our traveling home. We brought along a blanket in a texture she LOVES and we use it as a “throw” on our bed so she knows she’s always welcome. She definitely got the hint and loves movie nights in bed.
01 DecHow to Travel With A Cat
I’m going to be on tour traveling around and performing in venues all over the world and just have to bring my cat, Ninja along. I thought about sending her to my parents, thinking maybe the constant travel would be too much. However, I decided I would at least give it a try to see first.
Because of the constant travel schedule, I wanted to figure something out to be able to let her go outside like she would normally be able to do at home. And although she is leash trained, it’s hard to find time to super vise her all the time while she’s outside. I’ve been able to put her on a long lead and let her hang out outside by herself but just very close to the RV so that if an unleashed animal came by I would be aware and be able to get her inside without any trouble.
However, I wanted her to be able to walk around unleashed somehow… but don’t feel comfortable letting her around the parks we are at because of all the other animals (horses, dogs, and more)
So I was able to figure out this great (and cheap) tent set up. It’s 10 feet by 10 feet and cost under $100. It packs small, opens big and works great for my cat. She thinks the walls are real, and doesn’t know she can slip right out from under them. She whole-heartedly believes the only opening is by the zipper which is great because she doesn’t try to get out and is able to be off a leash inside.
In the above picture of me with my birds inside, you can see Ninja to the right, the black “blob” checking things out. It has been a dream having her in there and I’m able to easily spend time with her outside without having to worry or have her on a leash of any kind.
It’s a great traveling solution that has worked for me, that I hope can help some of you out there as well.
23 NovSinging Cats
I had to share this video, it’s pretty funny. A great reason to teach your cat to “speak” on cue!
19 NovThe Unscarable Cat
So as you all know, my cat has successfully scared me twice and I’ve got nothing on her. Basically, 2-0 and I’m losing the game. I tried to use my husband as a means to scare her (I asked for help) and so this was his attempt.
3-0.
16 NovBeginner Cat Trick Training
After training my cat Ninja to do some very basic behaviors like come, sit, stay and target I decided to move onto jumping behaviors. I thought she would have fun with them and I knew I would.
The next tricks I taught her were:
- Jump up (onto objects I point to)
- Jump from point A to point B
- Jump through a hoop
- Spin on command
- Jump into my lap on command
Making it a total of 11 tricks she has learned in 1.5 months. I gave her an entire month off training because I was traveling with her so it has been over a span of 2.5 months if you get real specific.
Teaching any jumping behaviors came very quickly to her. Once she learned the “jump”, the other jumping behaviors were a piece of cake for her to master.
The toughest one which I assumed would be the easiest was the “spin” which I think was so basic it bored her. So I had to make sure to mix up her training sessions a lot and make things more random for her in an effort to make the training more fun and less predictable on her end.
I actually had the best time teaching her to jump into my lap on command. It happened in just two days and it was a lot of fun. I hadn’t done any training where she had to do something on me so that changed it up a lot for her and took her a little bit to figure out that I was actually part of the behavior. Once she figured that out, it went super fast!
The other day I was able to really test out some of her training. I had a friend over and she performed every trick she knew in front of my friend which I was very impressed about. She hasn’t had to perform in front of anyone yet and she acted like nothing was different.
I was also outside earlier the next day and I heard a cat fight behind my fence. I kept climbing it and looking over, expecting to see Ninja and some other cat but hoping it wasn’t her. Finally, I called her and she came running and jumped over the fence into the yard… untouched. She looked like she had either done the butt-kicking or was watching it all happen… or clueless, who knows! But I was very happy she came on command from outdoors and out of sight.
Her training has really been useful for every day life with her. I recommend everyone train their cat, it makes a world of difference and really just makes your life easier, too.
15 NovCat Training Video
Here is a video of some of the things Ninja has learned in the past couple months. The newest trick she learned on this video was the “spin” and something I have noticed with her training is that she does the trick she just learned best when cued others she already knows well.
Her weakest trick is probably the “stay” which is why I didn’t click nor reward for it in this video. Instead I asked something else of her and ignored the behavior I didn’t like.
More to come soon! She just finished up learning how to jump into my lap and I am excited to get video footage of it to share.
14 NovAttempt #2: Trying to Scare My Cat
Well, one positive thing about me is I never seem to give up! But that hasn’t really helped me in my efforts to “sneak up on” my cat thus far… here is my second try back firing again. I can never seem to scare Ninja back as many times as she comes around to scare me!
03 NovTraining Cats Tricks
When starting to trick train my cat, I didn’t really know what to expect out of her. She’s only 4 years old, so she’s still pretty young and peppy and her and I already had a fairly good bond to where I could hold her attention. I made sure to give her some days off, since that is very important in training (everyone’s brains need a break!)
But I don’t think I ever expected to be able to teach my cat NINE TRICKS in just ONE MONTH! Some tricks took one day, others took maybe two days and some I worked on for longer just to make sure she had it right and maybe even to progress it further and get it better.
I also made sure to go back and cue tricks she already knew well while training a new one so that it would help build her confidence in learning – that way she would try new things and progress even FASTER.
I thought I had a good relationship with my cat, but now that her and I have discovered the world of training, our bond is SO much stronger than before. I can’t wait to keep going with her training. Since I’m traveling extensively and have been all month, she has had a month off of training (at least when it comes to learning new tricks) which I am hoping will help her motivation when we get home and start some more new things!
It has also been really fun to show her videos off to friends and family.
So don’t under estimate YOUR cat and what he/she can do! Even if your cat doesn’t even like you, you can use food at first as your cat’s main motivation to come to you and begin training with that. Eventually, your cat is going to enjoy training so much (and the treats, praise and pets that come along with it) that it will LOVE being with you, too! And you won’t believe the bond you’ll have.