Thread: Mellow and the CLICKER TRAINING

That is really cool, at what age did you start training Mellow ? I have seen the clicker used on dogs and chimps too so I can't see why it shouldn't be used on cats

Thank you. I started when he was little, almost five month and he learned "up" and "foot" in more or less two weeks. I've started some days ago to teach him the "sit" and now I'm trying to teach him some new exercises. You should try, clicker stimulates their intelligence, but their attention doing clicker training is not so long, so you need patience and just five minutes every day.

Very clever....I've never tried clicker training even with dogs so it would be interesting to look into it more.

Thats amazing. I'd love to try that with winston!

Where did you get the clicker from ?

I bought the clicker from a web site but I found it also in many shops. If you want I can write you how to use it.

That would be great thanks !

It will be not so simple to explain it in english, but I try.
First of all you should associate the clicker sound to some positive (compliments and food). The first time you use clicker, call your cat, click and give food, repeat it some times, in this way the cat hear the sound and link it with a reward.
Then you should start with a simple command like "UP". Take a chair and call the cat. When he arrives, click + compliment ("good boy") + food (always in this order). Let him see you have food in your hand and simulate to put it on the chair while saying "up" to the cat.

-If the cat jump, click (IMMEDIATELY) + compliments + food. Repeat the exercises lot of time, when the cat seems to know the command, ask him to jump everywhere and without food.
-If the cat doesn't jump you should wait and invite him nearer the chair, when he comes C + C + F. Repeat it more times and every time always higher, if he put the paw on the chair C + double C + double Food. And so on...

It's really simple but you have to follow some rules:
- Click immediately when the cat does the action, neither before neither after.
- Do not train your cat so long, he will lose his curiosity while it should be always a game.
- Always congratulate the cat and do not reward him with only food.

If you have any furher queries I'm here, and tell me your experience!

I used clicker training with my dogs. It is basically a marker - a lot of people get it wrong because your timing has to be perfect and I have seen people clicking away trying to get their dog to do something - this is totally wrong, but its easier to use than your voice like saying good boy when a dog sits because the dog or cat doesn't always understand what he is being rewarded for as its harder to get the timing right.

Like Marty says you first need to get them to learn that the clicker means a treat. By just clicking it and then giving a treat this doesn't take long to link the two together. Once you see that they look for a treat when they hear the clicker you can start to use it for training. Be careful not to click though too soon or too late. It has to be the minute their bum hits the floor if you are using it to teach the sit.

Clicker training is great for advanced training and people that train hearing or seeing dogs use it. My dogs learnt to sit, lie down, stay and come all by the time they were 8 or 9 weeks by using it.