Harness/Leash training, and question about identification

[proudmomof3cats]

Hey all,

I recently decided to start harness training our youngest cat Evil, as he really needs a good outlet for his energy and curiosity. I read a lot about it and found many horror stories of how cats dont take to harnesses well, and that is can be very difficult, but I still figured it was worth a try. So, I put the harness on him one afternoon expecting it to not go well, but amazingly he took to it perfectly, first few seconds he walked a little funny.. but within about a minute he was already acting as though nothing was happening.

Anyways, fast forward a few days, he is completely content in the harness and has been outside for short walks around the yard and absolutely loves it! It seems this will be something that we will be doing regularly with him.

I do have one question though, what do you guys suggest for IDs? I know about microchipping, and was considering something like that, but I wanted to know if anyone else had better suggestions? Do you use just collars with tags? Or are there other options? Until we have a good means of identification we are keeping him confined to just our yard, but would like to do longer walks.

Thanks for any help!!

 

[harleydiva]

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• harleydiva
• May 12, 2013

 

[vball91]

OMG, Gideon looks so cute in his harness.

 

[jcat]

Jamie (RB) was harness-trained and managed to slip the harness a couple of times in the 13+ years I walked him every day. He also managed it twice (with difficulty) while wearing a jacket. He was microchipped, tattooed and wore a collar with an ID tag. If you use a collar, make sure it's a breakaway one and test the clip yourself to make sure that it actually opens. A collar can easily be lost, so usually isn't enough as a stand-alone means of identification. The problem with just microchipping is that if a lost cat is found, a lot of people won't go to the trouble of having it scanned for a chip, so it's best to have a back-up means of ID. Some people have their cats chipped but don't bother to have them registered, which defeats the purpose.

Mogli is an indoor kitty, but he's chipped and also wears a collar with his name and our telephone number.