Training
 
Princess Kitty's Rules for Communicating with Cats

• Communicate with all the senses (sight, hearing, touch, smell, taste). Try visual signals, verbal commands, a clicker, words of praise, pats, food rewards and loving thoughts.
• Notice how kitty responds. If you don't get what you want, find another way to ask for it.
• Remember that kitty has his/her own point of view. The more you understand a cat's perspective, the better you will communicate.
• Be flexible. Especially in behavior training, be willing to try something else.
• To change what kitty does, you must understand how and why he/she is doing it.
• Give kitty choices, and make sure that the choice you prefer will attract kitty the most. (Example: To make doubly sure kitty's catnip-scented, sisal-wrapped scratching post is more appealing than your furniture, treat the furniture with a tiny spray of cat repellant. You won't smell it, but kitty will find it disgusting!)
• Force won't work! Motivate kitty to choose to cooperate with you.
• You can train any cat to some degree, as long as both of you enjoy it. Have fun together!
• "Failure" means only that you found something kitty won't do, so it's time to look for something kitty will do. You can't really fail, because you are always learning something about kitty.
• Break every lesson into the smallest possible steps, and train kitty one small step at a time.