When your cat is too hungry, it’s not a good thing. And when your cat isn’t hungry enough, it’s not a good thing either. Both result in your cat refusing to train.

When your cat is too hungry, it’s way too focused on the food and whatever it needs to do to get to it rather than the behavior you are asking. It’s just a pure lack of focus that you really don’t want.

When your cat isn’t hungry enough, it has the same focus problems but for the opposite reason: it really doesn’t care whether or not it gets the food and will do the minimum it has to, to get the reward. For example, if you are working on something new that the cat is having a harder time with; it will probably offer tricks it already knows instead as an easy way of earning the treat rather than the hard way of really working it out in its head.

If you are noticing your cat is too hungry during a training session, you can simply cue a really easy behavior it already knows and give a large reward in an effort to fill your cat up faster to its neutral training weight where it will work well for you. Or you can always give your cat a small meal and come back a little later to train. I often let my cat come to me as she will stand at my office door quietly and when I turn to see her she will run as fast as she can to the training room entrance letting me know she wants in to train. I usually will then get up and do a couple repetitions and then go back to work.

If your cat seems to be unfocused and uninterested in the training often, you may need to wait longer between when your cat eats and when you train so that it digests more and is more willing to work for food. There is a healthy motivation balance; you just have to find it.