Playing & Training

[reiten]

First the play part. It's been getting hot and during the day my cat Kika isn't interested in running around chasing the string toys I normally use. The problem is that she is walking around and demanding attention, looking for things to do and generally annoying me. With her like that I can't really work and it's becoming a bit of a problem since closing the door to my work room isn't an option with the heat. So the question is: Does anyone have any good ways to play with her, preferably things that don't take a lot of room and I can make myself? And I have already tried dangling toys in front of her to play with her, but she loses interest rather fast.

Next the training. I have been trying to do clicker training with Kika and while it works I am a bit unhappy with it. I have been doing it for ~1.5 months now and have managed to teach her to follow a stick(works 9/10 times) and come to me(7/10 times) when I call her in a specific manner. The thing is that when I train her I can only do a few repetitions each time and she often ignores me wen I want to train. As I have read it's normal in the beginning, but it should get better with time, but I haven't seen any improvements in this direction. I think the problem might be the motivation – the dry food I'm using might not be the best option. Am I right on the motivation part or am I doing something wrong?

Next about taking my cat outside. I have been getting her used to a harness and that's going fairly well. She still has the problem of laying down a lot and not wanting to move, but that's the same reaction as when she had to wear the apron(not sure how to call it) after spaying. The main thing I'm worried about is taking her outside. I don't think that carrying and putting her down outside is the best option as her first reaction when she enters a new place is to bolt and look for a hiding spot. Can someone who has gone through this give me any tips?

Now just a question out of curiosity. About every 3-4 weeks Kika has 2-3 days and nights of extreme activity where no amount of playing manages to make her tired. Luckily she is not destructive during these time, but she is annoying and a bit sleep-robbing. I was curios if other cats have such repeating “habits”(Just in case so there are no question about it - Kika is spayed).

Thanks for reading my wall of text and answers to any of the questions.

 

[catspaw66]

About her extreme activity every 3-4 weeks, check the phase of the moon, and record it in a journal. I think you will find that the phase is the same each time - either full or new moon.

Toys you can make - paper towel roll closed at one end, empty small bottle with a few dried beans in it, crumpled balls of paper, ping pong balls. Just keep trying a new toy every few days. The noisy ones need to be picked up at night, of course.

I have never tried clicker training any of my cats, so I can't help you there.

Harness and leash training, while it can be done, takes longer with cats as they are SOOOO independent. There are several people on here who have cats that walk on leashes. They will probably chime in and give you some personal advice.

A lot of us would suggest you get Kika a companion cat, but you need space and resources to have two. Since I have 5, any one that wants to play will usually find another one that is willing.

 

[reiten]

I'm going to bump this thread since I would really like to see a response to the clicker training part.

And thanks for the reply.

 

[jcat]

Mogli has been doing clicker training for about two months now, and loves it. He's got all sorts of food allergies and IBD, so he gets little pieces of rabbit meat as his reward. He's so greedy for it that he even goes and gets his clicker when he thinks it's time for a session. :lol3: Any kind of meat or cheese might work better than the dry food. How about dehydrated meat treats?

I usually do it in alternate rooms and have him jump up and down, switching the objects and distances constantly, "sit" and "come". We haven't tried "stay!" yet. We switch back and forth between the target stick with a clicker and a plain old clicker. At first I just pointed when using the clicker without the stick, but now he's learned the verbal commands. Sometimes I point when giving them, sometimes I don't.

I would check the phases of the moon as Terry suggested. Jamie was a "lunatic", i.e., very active around the full moon, and Mogli is the same way. We've got a clock that shows the phases, but normally don't even have to look at it to know the moon is (soon to be) full.