I picked her up and took her straight to a vet where an extensive program was established to save her. It is funny to think of it now but she actually lived on the kitchen counter in a ten-gallon aquarium with a heating lamp over her. She was so small and sickly but as the weeks went by she became strong and playful.

As soon as she was fully healthy I started working her. At eight weeks of age she was working in our full size dog agility field. I started out, as I always do, teaching her a bridge and started off pairing it with food, chase games and petting. The food and the chase games proved to be excellent for my purposes. The petting I have used for other cats was not something she wanted so I abandoned it.

Come is always the first lesson I teach. I spend lots of time on this one. I start inside the house and then move outside. I want a cat to leave what it is doing and respond immediately. I use both an audible cue and a signal for it. There are times when the cat doesn't see you so an audible is necessary. And, there are times when no sound is appropriate so I like to use a signal that will bring the cat running to me. I want to be able to use both cues together or either cue separately and I want a strong response. When the cat looks away I hide and call for her. This teaches it to search for me and pay more attention to my movements. I never go to a cat with food. I reward it only when he comes to me.

There are times during a training session where a cat will just walk away. I have seen beginner trainers follow the cat around and attempt to entice it with more and better food rewards begging for its attention in an attempt to bring it back to the lesson. This procedure, unfortunately, encourages the cat to pay less and less attention because the rewards are being offered at the wrong time.

Although you can get a cat to work for quite an extended length of time on a behavior that has already been established. In fact, to finally get the perfect picture of Copper jumping over the 24-inch agility jump, she did it eighteen times in succession. However, it is necessary during the learning phase to keep sessions very short. Learning is work and can be trying for the animal. A few minutes or even a few seconds of time well spent can produce excellent results. It is best to quit at a high point and come to the next session with a pleasant memory of the former.

I practice the come cues to and from every room. I want the cat to come running to the sound of my voice or other audible cue when he can't see me. I never call the cat over and over and reward him for a slow response when he finally shows up. If he doesn't come immediately when I call him I don't call him again. Now and again even a trained cat will fail to respond quickly to a come cue. When that happens the session, such as it was, is over and so are the rewards. It doesn't take him long before he sees that there is a time limit on his response.

I start out in a stress free and familiar environment with limited distractions to teach the come. I spend more time on it than on any other behavior. After all, if you can't find the cat you certainly can't train it. It is quite possible to spend more time trying to locate the animal than will be spent on the entire session. This is just not very good use of training time.

The come is also very important in an emergency situation. When a cat becomes frightened it is important to know that he will come to you rather than run in another direction. If you are planning to work outside this is even more important.

Most people feed cats all at once and then simply leave the room! The cat hears the can opener, charges into the room and gets an entire meal for his trouble. This is, in my opinion, a huge waste of training possibility. Why not divide the can of food into many small training rewards and get the cat to work for it? Any cat that can eat is not too young to train to come on cue! Training is interesting, stimulating and enjoyable for any animal. You have to feed your cat anyway. Why not use this fact to best advantage? Training a cat by using his regular meal is the ultimate in efficient training and certainly helps in the establishment of a predictable training schedule.

Catherine J. Crawmer copywrite 2002

Catherine Crawmer's book, Catherine Crawmer On Training Cats is a book for both the beginner and the advanced trainer. It includes basic training, helpful exercises and solutions to common problems. It also covers exotic and large cats. The book is available here in the UK shipping over the Internet.