928：Why You're Probably Training Your Cat All Wrong

Why You're Probably Training Your Cat All Wrong Yes, they're independent and willful, but felines can be taught certain behaviors—to the benefit of both cat and human. By Linda Lombardi Training has always been part of the deal when you own a dog, though methods have changed a lot over the generations. Cats are a different story—but they shouldn’t be. “People don’t traditionally train cats because they think of cats as ... independent and full of free will,” says Sarah Ellis, co-author of The Trainable Cat. “What they don’t realize, though, is that they are subconsciously training their cats on a daily basis.” The bad news is that you’re often training your cat to do the opposite of what you want. How many times have you yelled "No!" and run over to scoop your cat off the kitchen counter? And yet, it never seems to learn. There’s a reason for that. You think you’re scolding, but you’re “inadvertently giving the cat attention, which, in the cat’s mind, is better than nothing, and so it’s rewarding,” says Mikel Delgado, a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Veterinary Medicine at University of California, Davis. It’s a basic principle of training: If a behavior results in something the animal likes, it’ll do it again. So, stop letting that principle work against you and get it to work for you instead. “Reward what you like and ignore what you don't like,” says Delgado. … https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2018/05/animals-cats-training-pets/