Aside from being cute and fluffy, cats are brilliant animals as well.
Besides laying around and shedding all over your seats and demanding all your attention, cats also have a surprising bag of tricks up their sleeves.
Sometimes, even ardent feline-lovers do not have the full details on how many tricks their furry friends can achieve.
Do you? Here are a few tricks your cat might be hiding from you.
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1. Use the Toilet and Flush
Just like your younger kids, your cat can actually use the toilet and flush it with some toilet training.
While this is no mean feat for a cat, you probably shouldn’t train your cat to use the toilet. As convenient as it might be for you, it might be uncomfortable for your cat. Cats naturally prefer to do a scratch and cover.
While your cat might get the hang of using a toilet, it’s best to stick to a cat litter pail.
2. Sitting on Order
It’s often thought that cats are not as trainable as dogs are. And to some extent, this is true. This does not, however, mean that cats are intrinsically unable to learn any skills and tricks.
Sitting is a foundational skill and makes up one of cats’ natural poses. Seating is also a foundational building block for other trainable skills.
Before you can train your cat to sit, you must learn to get and hold its attention. To do this, it’s recommended that you hold your cat’s favorite treat in your hand and hold it a few inches above the cat’s ears. Then move it towards its tail, prompting it to sit.
3. High Five
You have probably had a few impromptu high fives with your cat over the years. You might be unsure whether this is a spontaneous move or a trained trick. Well, it can also be classified as a trick and can be taught as well.
This will take some practice and some incentives as well. The training is similar to that of seating.
To start, hold your cat’s favorite treat in your cat’s view and let them reach out for it.
Instead of letting it get the treat, high five the cat, alongside praises and reward the cat for its efforts.
4. Jump through Hoops
This is probably something you have seen bigger cats in the feline world do. Your cat can do this as well.
The best way to train a cat to jump through hoops is through luring. Here, you use their favorite toy to make them follow the toy or a treat by going through a hoop. As always, praise and reward them each time they do.
There is a Bag of Tricks
These are just a few tricks your cat can do very well, given some time. However, learn your cat’s personality and read their body language to understand what they like and do not like doing.
