Cat Leash Training

July 23, 2016

The majority cats of can be taught to walk with a leash; however few cats find difficult to learn the new experience of walking outside with a leash. Kitten will be more easily accepting this new experience of harness since they will recognize it more naturally. Hence, this phase is considered as the most excellent phase to teach harness although grown-up cats can also learn harness if you train them the correct way.

Harness An Introduction:

Positive experience such as food is considered as the best influence to teach the cat about harness. The first step is to either leave the leash around the food dish of cat or letting the cat to sniff it while you are holding it or after that treat the cat with food.

Remember that, the cats’ get easily annoyed by new sounds so try to undo the Velcro or snap the harness together so that the cat gets used to new noises.

Put On the Leash:

After your cat has recognized the leash put it around and don’t tie it up. Now treat your cat to divert the attention from leash and assist the cat to correlate leash with a positive experience. Always prefer mealtime to put the leash around so that it diverts your cat from experiencing new sensation.

Once your cat is at ease with leash, tie it up around your cat so that two to one fingers can adjust under the harness. Tie it up only for one to three minutes and then treat the cat with food again. Keep doing it for certain days and check the reaction towards harness.

Leave the harness on for a few minutes, and then provide another food reward. Do this for several days and pay attention to how your kitty reacts to the harness. If comfortable, tie it for a longer time and if the cat gets annoyed give food to divert the attention.

It’s quite typical for cats to refuse to walk with leash. As it is a totally new experience for cat. Give them some time to adapt to harness.

Attachment of the leash:

It takes some time for cats to get adapted to leash. Once the cat is comfortable with leash, try to walk with cat or let it wander freely in a room with less furniture so that leash doesn’t get snagged. During this practice, keep on feeding your cat as a treat. Once you both have enough practice, put a slight pressure on cat to respond to you. If she responds well reward her with food.

A Trip to Outside World:

The early trip of cats must be in peaceful places which are relatively free from animals and people. They should be taken to quite places near your home where you can loose their leash a bit and walk behind them. Let them explore the nature freely and don’t push them into anything. Beware of the cats’ panic episode. If it gets frightened, wrap a towel around to take frightened cat inside to avoid bites and scratches.

Few points to remember when walking outside with cat:

· Never ever leave them unattended

· Never let the leashed cat to go outside on its own. Always carry it by own self

· Don’t put the harness around the cat when its pestering for walk. It can be a negative reinforcement for cat

References:

· http://www.adventurecats.org/backcountry-basics/train-your-cat-to-walk-on-a-leash/