Discipline, Clicker Style

Our socially extroverted 8-month old kitty, Dalton, follows a red stick wherever I take it – up his kitty condo, through a tunnel, on our laps, and into the kitchen, (though not on the counters!). He also is totally cool with having a kitty harness/leash put on him for outdoor walking, getting his nails clipped, and using a fairly elaborate kitty litter system. All of this on top of spending 8 hours sleeping in our bed, not waking us up.

I’m sure that getting him through a breeder is in one sense an element in a well-behaved cat. But most of these impressive feats were drilled into him over the course of three weeks by me through a combination of kitty treats (Trader Joe’s Omega-3 essentials, tuna for kitties, and freeze-dried wild Alaskan salmon nibbles for cats), a hand-held clicker, and lots of positive encouragement. I’ve yet to hear a decent argument why toddlers can’t be trained the same way.

This is all gleaned from a training manual titled “Clicker Training for Cats”, with a cover picture of a cat wearing a graduation cap and a “first place” ribbon (obviously Dalton). Sample titles include “Come when called”, “Playing the Piano”, “Walking on a leash”, and my favorite,”How to Toilet-Train your cat, clicker style”. Awesome.

Some cat owners keep a bottle of spray water to spritz in kitty’s face if it gets in the way while cooking. Other owners make loud noises to scare kitty away or discourage unwanted behavior. While these aggressive actions may be a short-term solution, kitty will inevitably get revenge at its owners through aggressive behavior of its own. In the end, positive, non-aggressive discipline makes for a calm, well behaved cat.

This training manual says over and over again, that aggressive behavior by the owner simply won’t work. Neither does scolding or shouting. Cats ultimately do what they want to do, but are motivated by selfish incentives (treats, for the most part). And they can be misdirected fairly easily, like “look at this shiny moving object!” – again, much like a toddler.

I’m confident our child will learn to enjoy the taste of omega-3 freeze dried salmon, since that’s least likely to cause early-onset childhood obesity or diabetes. But the new kid will have a lot of catching up to do. At Dalton’s fast rate of discipline has demonstrated, the cat will be using the toilet while our kid’s still in diapers. Thanks clicker!