Teaching Your Cat to Target

Описание: Targeting, not just for dogs anymore! Here's a short video to help you get started learning how to teach your cat to target.

In this video you see me working with Kate, our 17 year old Manx cat. Yes, old cats can learn new tricks! This is her first session learning to target.

Targeting is useful for many species, including cats. When targeting becomes a learned behavior, it can be used to help your cat easily move into a cat carrier, to help your cat stay focused on you during a vet visit (and the vet visit will be less stressful because the cat associates fun with the game), to easily move the cat onto a surface or off of a surface (perhaps your counter?) and it’s a lovely foundation behavior for a variety of cat tricks.
Playing this targeting game is also mentally stimulating and so many cats today need daily enrichment to their lives.

In this video, I begin using a Terry Ryan Clik Stick™ and also show targeting to my finger. If your cat is hand shy, targeting your finger or your hand helps develop a positive association with your hand reaching toward the cat. This was Kate’s very first targeting session, so I’m looking forward to continuing to work with her to show her progress.