posted by on Jan 25
For every famous Cat that you have seen on TV and the Movies they were trained to do their acting part in those scenes that made us laugh or cry depending on the show. That training more than likely involved the use of treat as rewards for positive encouragement. Most People do not know that cats and even kittens are trainable to do tricks and scenes for a show. One of my friends had training contest with his neighbor’s pet dog and every time I went over to visit with pride he would show off Fritz’s new trick. By the end of summer he would be happily singing in the yard just loud enough for his neighbor to hear and laugh because Fritz could catch, sit, stay, come, lie down and jump into the air paws out to pounce onto something. Hunter the neighbor’s dog would sit and come that is good for a dog. Oh yes, the name of the song that was being song was “Anything you can do I can do better.” Can you picture two grow men one sing and the other forced to say Yah, Yah you win and both laughing about it later. If you are going to train your cat you will need some supply of treats and some patience.
Using treats help stop behavior problems like scratching your living room furniture. You cannot stop your cats natural instincts like scratching to mark their territory or just exercising. You can channel that energy to teach them to scratch on their own scratching post or tree and they will think that it is their personal piece of furniture being territorial as they are and a little catnip added to so incentive cannot hurt. Cats are more independent than other pets and are happy to be left alone but, they are very affectionate and it is at these times is when you want to start you training section. Be patient, consistent and with each quality time you spend with each other. Remember sometime being consistent means stopping what you are doing to stop the bad scratching habit with a stern NO!! Then take them over to their scratching post or tree and praise them and give them a treat for doing a good job. Before you know it you and your cat will train on how to play catch.
Treats are used to help administer medication from the veterinarian treat call hide a pill in Salmon and Chicken favor. There are Hairball remedy treats to help correct or eliminate hairball in your cat or kitten.
There are some games that you can play with your cat that use treats as part of the game. The one that I like this time of year because Zak and I are watching a lot of football is catch or pass the treat. It started with Zak at one end of the couch and me at the other. I would give the treat an easy pass through the air toward him and he caught it. Complete the pass was completed by Zak first down. I give him another treat just for catching it. We had a lot of drop pass after that. If he missed it I wouldn’t say much, if he touched it but did not make the catch I would give him a lot of positive comments and attention. Whenever Zak made the catch you thought it was the winning touchdown pass completion at the Super Bowl. Pretty soon he was making more catches than the Browns receivers were this year.
Making your own homemade treats is a great way to show how much you care about them. The next time you have the oven going to make your husband or family that hot chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven, do not forget the rest of the family and make a batch of homemade treats for your cat. Here a favorite of Zak’s. After we pull our cookies out of the oven my wife will mix 6oz. of Tuna do not drained tuna, 1 cup of cornmeal, 1 cup of Flour and 1/3 cup of water. Mix all together into one bowl. Take wax paper place on the counter and flour wax paper lightly and then dump mix onto wax paper and roll out to 1 / 4 inch thickness or less and cut out treats into shapes that you want but make then small in size. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees or I our case reduce the oven temp to 350 degrees Place your treats onto a greased cookie sheet and Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool and treats for everyone. Note we cut our treats into small footballs better to pass with, TouchDown!