Harness Training Safety Tips

[Diana Faye]

Boy I'm getting a lot of use out of this site- hope you all don't mind my posting with every thought that comes up!

My goal is to harness train 2 kittens (5 mo & 7 mo) and so far it is going well, but I have some questions on how to be proactive about safety. I had a friend help me the other day, so both kitties were out at the same time (eventually, I'd like to take both out on my own if possible). We started on the deck and the kitties led us into the yard, so we let them explore for a short time. It was a great experience, but brought up more concerns for me.

1. I chose to go out around dusk, so the area here is quieter. It's pretty rural, but there seems to be a band of dog walkers at certain times and of course there is the occasional car. What do you do (or can you do) to prepare for an inevitable "scary" moment? One kitten is somewhat skiddish, and will squirm like the dickens to get away in a panic (rare but still). The other appears to be totally unphased by anything, but that only makes me wonder more what his breaking point might be, and how he might react. How can I be prepared to keep them safe?

2. Back to dusk and general weather- it is getting colder here, and my youngest was shivering right away, and a few minutes later so did the other one. I kinda let the cats let me know what their comfort was, and they chose to carry on. Now, I may be asking the wrong crowd here but would I be a crazy cat lady if I tried to find little sweaters for them? And/or an LED light for better visibility? Fellow cat walkers, what do you use for your feline adventures?

3. Expanding on the above, do your kitties carry any identification on them when they go out? Most of the jacket style harness seem so high up on the neck that there doesn't seem to be much room for a collar. The strappy H types seem like it would be better for adding a collar and tags, but I worry about how secure they are.

4. Climbing. Attempts were made, with the youngest doing a remarkable impression of a squirrel. Do you allow any climbing up trunks or is that off limits?

5. 1 cat at a time, or multiple? I figure right now I'd have to go with one at a time, or both if I have a friend to help, but is taking 2 cats by myself a possible goal? They've grown pretty attached to each other and hate to be apart.

6. Do you have any other safety tips that I may not have considered? It's inspiring to see stories of people taking their cats on long hikes, camping trips, etc but the concept is still very new and all these adventure cats might as well be unicorns to me. I'd love love love to take regular walks and go camping but I'm terrified of the idea of them getting loose.

 

[Furballsmom]

Hi!
You may have seen this thread, but if not some of your questions will be answered here;
Buddy - The Making Of An Adventure Cat?

 

[Notacrazycatlady]

Boy I'm getting a lot of use out of this site- hope you all don't mind my posting with every thought that comes up!

My goal is to harness train 2 kittens (5 mo & 7 mo) and so far it is going well, but I have some questions on how to be proactive about safety. I had a friend help me the other day, so both kitties were out at the same time (eventually, I'd like to take both out on my own if possible). We started on the deck and the kitties led us into the yard, so we let them explore for a short time. It was a great experience, but brought up more concerns for me.

1. I chose to go out around dusk, so the area here is quieter. It's pretty rural, but there seems to be a band of dog walkers at certain times and of course there is the occasional car. What do you do (or can you do) to prepare for an inevitable "scary" moment? One kitten is somewhat skiddish, and will squirm like the dickens to get away in a panic (rare but still). The other appears to be totally unphased by anything, but that only makes me wonder more what his breaking point might be, and how he might react. How can I be prepared to keep them safe?

2. Back to dusk and general weather- it is getting colder here, and my youngest was shivering right away, and a few minutes later so did the other one. I kinda let the cats let me know what their comfort was, and they chose to carry on. Now, I may be asking the wrong crowd here but would I be a crazy cat lady if I tried to find little sweaters for them? And/or an LED light for better visibility? Fellow cat walkers, what do you use for your feline adventures?

3. Expanding on the above, do your kitties carry any identification on them when they go out? Most of the jacket style harness seem so high up on the neck that there doesn't seem to be much room for a collar. The strappy H types seem like it would be better for adding a collar and tags, but I worry about how secure they are.

4. Climbing. Attempts were made, with the youngest doing a remarkable impression of a squirrel. Do you allow any climbing up trunks or is that off limits?

5. 1 cat at a time, or multiple? I figure right now I'd have to go with one at a time, or both if I have a friend to help, but is taking 2 cats by myself a possible goal? They've grown pretty attached to each other and hate to be apart.

6. Do you have any other safety tips that I may not have considered? It's inspiring to see stories of people taking their cats on long hikes, camping trips, etc but the concept is still very new and all these adventure cats might as well be unicorns to me. I'd love love love to take regular walks and go camping but I'm terrified of the idea of them getting loose.

I take my kitties out for walks semi-regularly. It started with my first kitty, Angus. When I first got him, he was a serious door darter to the point where I had trouble getting in or out of my apartment. I felt like it was more curiosity than anything, so I started taking him out on a harness. He picked up pretty quickly that he was only allowed outside on the harness to the point where he would go over to where I had the harness and leash stored and start meowing at me when he wanted to go out. I only had Angus at the time so I could concentrate on getting him used to the leash, although it mostly consisted of him meandering around, laying in the grass and eating the grass.

He does enjoy climbing and there are a few trees around he gets up. He's limited to the length of the leash in terms of how high he can go. The biggest challenge there is the leash getting tangled in the branches.

I don't keep him out past dusk so I can't help you there, only because it's not completely safe for me (a woman) to be outside after dark. I don't live in a crime-ridden area, but I do live in an apartment with four different apartment complexes in proximity to one another and some of those other apartment complexes have safety issues.

I will say that there was a huge benefit in Angus being familiar with the area. Mostly he's pretty laid back and enjoys being outside. However, loud noises (loud mufflers, motorcycles, basketball bouncing on concrete) all freak him out. Initially, he'd try to dart off frantically away from the noise in a blind panic. After a few months of walks, when a noise freaked him out, he started running (as fast as he could drag me) straight back to the apartment and put his front paws on the door trying to push it open. Now, when he wants to go in or when he gets scared, he starts heading for the apartment and pushes on the door. So at least if he does get out, I know that he can find the apartment even if he's scared, because he's familiar with the area.

I just started taking Leo, my new kitten, out with us. He's a lot more skittish at this point--curious about the outdoors but scared of a lot. I tend to keep his leash shorter, so I'm closer to him since Angus is an old hand at the harness and leash. Side note: a large harness designed for a ferret fits a 6 pound kitten perfectly--I didn't like the first figure eight harness I had for him. They do both wear collars with id tags in addition to their microchips, I just fasten the harness over the collar. It's a little harder to take pictures with two of them, so most of my walking pictures are from Angus's exploits over the summer when it was just the two of us.

One tip I can give you is to carry their favorite treats. If I need them to come back to me for whatever reason (car or motorcycle coming and I know they'll get freaked out before it happens), usually shaking the treat bag and giving them a treat when they come works beautifully.

I'm still working out the kinks in taking them both out at the same time, but Angus had a lot more one-on-one time to get accustomed to it before Leo came along.
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[sabrinah]

I only take my cat out in my fenced in yard so I can't help much, but I think tiny sweaters would be wonderful! Please post pictures if you get them.

 

[basscat]

Start young and leave the harness on them most all of the time.
25ft retractable leash, you control the length.
Let them climb if you don't have to be somewhere anytime soon. Because you'll have to wait on them to come down, and sometimes that could take hours.
Run the leash through a 3ft long piece of PVC pipe when just starting. Errr, nevermind, you probably won't have that problem.

 

[Diana Faye]

I'll have to work on getting some pics, but today I got out of work a little early and the weather was nice, so I took them both out by myself. It was an interesting experience but went well.

Simon finally got big enough to fit in the step in harness I got him, but I didn't like how low it sat across his shoulders. It did seem more secure vs the H style. There was one moment where they wanted to go in opposite directions and pulled against me, but both stayed in their harnesses and I was sure to not pull the leash forward. Eventually they sorted it out, but there was a lot of switching hands and twirling around as we haven't quite got the coordination down.

Simon climbed about a foot up a tree- he didn't get a running start and learned it wasn't as easy as he thought. Garfunkel got a good scratch in but wanted to go bounding into the leaves. May have to take them out one by one for that lol.

I think they kind of understand "come," or they are content to be with each other. There was one moment Simon hit the gutter and scared himself, and he darted under my feet, so I'm glad he didn't freak out or try to run away. Garfunkel took some convincing that digging to get under the neighbor's porch was not a good idea. Both of them let me pick them up and readjust, so that was a good sign.

It didn't feel very cold out, but Simon was shivering. Not sure if it was nerves or just chilly, but sweaters may be a good idea.

 

[Furballsmom]

basscat , re the pvc you had somebody get cranky?

 

[Wile]

My goal is to harness train 2 kittens (5 mo & 7 mo) and so far it is going well, but I have some questions on how to be proactive about safety. I had a friend help me the other day, so both kitties were out at the same time (eventually, I'd like to take both out on my own if possible). We started on the deck and the kitties led us into the yard, so we let them explore for a short time. It was a great experience, but brought up more concerns for me.

Nice! They are the perfect ages to start training. I don't recommend taking them out at the same time. "Herding cats" is a metaphor for a reason. I have a strict 1:1 human:cat ratio because walking a cat can be very unpredictable and even dangerous at times.

1. I chose to go out around dusk, so the area here is quieter. It's pretty rural, but there seems to be a band of dog walkers at certain times and of course there is the occasional car. What do you do (or can you do) to prepare for an inevitable "scary" moment? One kitten is somewhat skiddish, and will squirm like the dickens to get away in a panic (rare but still). The other appears to be totally unphased by anything, but that only makes me wonder more what his breaking point might be, and how he might react. How can I be prepared to keep them safe?

When I take my cat out I scan constantly for cars, dogs, and other cats, and always cross the street when a dog comes. Slowly over time your cats will gain experience and get used to the idea of dogs, but it will take a while.

2. Back to dusk and general weather- it is getting colder here, and my youngest was shivering right away, and a few minutes later so did the other one. I kinda let the cats let me know what their comfort was, and they chose to carry on. Now, I may be asking the wrong crowd here but would I be a crazy cat lady if I tried to find little sweaters for them? And/or an LED light for better visibility? Fellow cat walkers, what do you use for your feline adventures?

I have sweaters for my cat. My rule of thumb is if it is cold enough for me to want to wear a hat, it is cold enough for my cat to put on his jacket. They sell tons of jackets for dogs. If you buy a dog jacket you'll want to look for one that is long with a single velcro strap around the front rather than a full sweater with leg holes/sleeves. Cats seem to have greater range of movement in their front legs than dogs, and the sweaters with leg holes usually restrict the front leg too much. It makes it harder for them to walk. I have an led light but haven't been using it much for the past few years. His jacket has reflective patches on it, which does the job.

3. Expanding on the above, do your kitties carry any identification on them when they go out? Most of the jacket style harness seem so high up on the neck that there doesn't seem to be much room for a collar. The strappy H types seem like it would be better for adding a collar and tags, but I worry about how secure they are.

My cat is microchipped. He wears a harness, but I've never put a collar on him and he doesn't have tags. I use the strappy H style harness. It seems to work best with a jacket as well.

4. Climbing. Attempts were made, with the youngest doing a remarkable impression of a squirrel. Do you allow any climbing up trunks or is that off limits?

Sometimes he'll take a running leap at a tree trunk. Generally I don't let him climb or go under cars because it is a pain to get them untangled our out. He no longer walks under cars, but sometimes he will take a running leap at a tree trunk and go up a few feet. You can play it by ear.

5. 1 cat at a time, or multiple? I figure right now I'd have to go with one at a time, or both if I have a friend to help, but is taking 2 cats by myself a possible goal? They've grown pretty attached to each other and hate to be apart.

Always 1 cat at a time. Multiple is asking for trouble. If they both panic and go in different directions what will you do?

6. Do you have any other safety tips that I may not have considered? It's inspiring to see stories of people taking their cats on long hikes, camping trips, etc but the concept is still very new and all these adventure cats might as well be unicorns to me. I'd love love love to take regular walks and go camping but I'm terrified of the idea of them getting loose.

Keep it close to home in the beginning, and bring a pillow case with you to stuff the cat in just in case things go south. Keep in mind that cats keep a territory, so generally you aren't going to go further than a km from your home, if that. I don't think that camping or hiking are doable unless you can hike a trail out back your house or have an extraordinary cat.

 

[basscat]

basscat , re the pvc you had somebody get cranky?

Yeah, you can't take the leash off if he's tired of training. Err...attempted training.

 

[Furballsmom]

For those of you who don't know, basscat is referring to a bobcat

 

[basscat]

For those of you who don't know, basscat is referring to a bobcat

Shhhh...He doesn't know he's a one of those.

 

[Furballsmom]

heeheehee, I hate to think LOL