Sure, I’ve read about the differences of training cats and dogs, but now I’ve experienced it for myself. And yes, it’s different. I’m not quite sure why.
As Drs. Foster & Smith point out in “ More Than One Way to Train a Cat“:
Cats can learn, but not like dogs. People who are used to a dog’s quick obedience response are sorely disappointed to find out that cats do not respond to the same training methods. In order for a cat to learn something, she must want to do it. If a cat is not inclined to want to do something, the trainer must make her think that she wants to do it.
People are just amazed when I tell them that I train my cats. And I’m not talking about training them where to scratch, or to use the litterbox either. My cats know sit, down, come, go to your mat, crate. They jump over hurdles and through hoops. They run through their tunnel. All on command.
Yet I must admit that training Chester has been easier. Do dogs really have a need to please? More and more elightened trainers don’t think so. Yet how do you explain the fact that within 6 weeks, Chester has learned a pretty reliable sit, a not bad down, a decent leave it, shake, and more? I think it took the boys months to learn most of that — and they don’t have a “leave it” nearly as realiable as Chester’s.
Is it that dogs learn differently? I don’t think so. I think the principles of learning are pretty much universal, frankly — even down to us humans. As written in “Basic Cat Training or How Cats Learn“:
The key to training is to make sure that whatever you want your cat to do is exceedingly rewarding and pleasurable. Whatever you don’t want your cat to indulge in must never be rewarding or fun, in fact, it must be unpleasant.
This is true for dogs, too. And humans, btw (which is why nagging rarely works).
Now, some dogs will train for things like play, or walks, or just even praise. Not Chester. Chester most resembles the boys when it comes to training: he lasers in on the treats. The way he stares at the treat bag is a tad disturbing, frankly.
Generally he prefers training to play. Not always, of course, but if you try to start training something while we’re playing (drop it, for instance), he’ll lose all interest in playing. Once he’s earned the first treat, you just can’t interest him in playing again — he wants more treats.
The boys have almost the same focus on treats, but they don’t have the same attention span. Sad, isn’t it? Chester is almost 5 months, and the boys are almost 5 years old. But the boys will get tired of doing the same thing rather quickly. Chester seems pretty happy to repeat the same thing, as long as he understands what he’s being asked to do and the treats keep coming.
The bottom line is that both cats and dogs can definitely be trained. For whatever reason, though, dogs just seem to be more eager to train and quicker to learn.
OTOH, it may be that I’m a better trainer (ha!) than I was 4 years ago, or that the help we’ve gotten from our puppy kindergarten classes has made it easier to train Chester.
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