Some time ago I bought a Sherpa bag for the boys, thinking they might prefer the soft carrier. Even though they love their crates, they didn’t want to set foot in the Sherpa bag. It gathered dust for years. I did some training with Chester and the bag, and he accepted it fairly readily.

Fast forward to now. Now there’s a very real possibility that I’ll have to fly somewhere with the boys in the near future. If I don’t want them to be in with the checked baggage, they have to come to accept a smaller, soft-sided bag.

I started tonight. I’ve done some playing with them and “101 Things to Do With a Box”, as I mentioned in “Getting Animals to Think“. So tonight, I worked with both of them one-on-one. I simply put the carrier down, and clicked and treated them — making sure to put the treats in the carrier — for any interaction with the carrier.

And they responded beautifully, both going into the carrier (with the top unzipped, mind you) to get their treats. And the second they were in there, I’d start raining treats down, in the carrier, so that they’d remain there for a few seconds.

Of course, I’m going to have to very, very gradually work on getting them comfortable with the carrier with the top zipped shut. I’ll also have to work on getting them to go and come out of it on command. I’m not sure I have enough time!

But the morale is that you should train your cat/kitten to be comfortable wiht a crate, and going into and out of the crate, from the moment you get them home. I can’t begin to tell you the number of posters I’ve seen write in saying they have to move, only have a week, and their cat hates the crate. You never know when you may have to move your cat using a carrier.

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