Whoever said that getting people to do what you want can be like herding cats never herded one. Cats in fact do like to cooperate, and you can use that to your advantage in brightening your pet’s day with feline agility. That’s right. You can teach your cat to jump through hoops, climb stairs, weave between obstacles, and clear hurdles. It doesn’t take special equipment to shake up your pet’s routine right in your own home. A hula hoop, stacks of books for the cat to weave around, a collapsable toddler tunnel, and a step stool to climb over will get you started. If you and your feline partner end up perfecting your routine, you can even enter an agility contest put on by the Cat Fanciers Association. Spectators will marvel at your pet’s ability to perform the feline equivalent of a triple lutz.
But winning ribbons isn’t really the point. It’s just to help your cat engage her bright mind and agile body in a collaborative effort with you. Here are some tips for how to encourage your cat to follow through on your cues.
Helping your cat get the hang of it
You can start out with passive teaching if you’d like. For instance, set a hoop between two chairs. If your cat goes through it, click a clicker to let her know she will be rewarded, and offer her a delectable morsel of food. The clicker serves as an immediate signal that the reward is coming so your cat doesn’t lose the thread of the lesson in the couple of seconds it takes to get the food from you to her. Think of it the way you would think of an e-mail notice that your pay has been deposited into your account. The money’s not in your hands yet, but you know it’s going to be there for the taking.
After a while, you can add the word “hoop” to the routine. That way, your cat will learn that she gets the reward when she follows through upon hearing the verbal cue rather than simply because she decided to walk or jump through.
Another way to teach your pet is with lures. This is important if you ever want to graduate to judged agility contests because food treats for your pet are not allowed in the arena. If any crumbs drop, they could prove too much of a distraction for other cats going through the paces with their people. Consider using a lure with shiny or sparkly ribbons to entice your cat around book stacks or other objects that can serve as makeshift cones, or to get her to come through a tunnel. The tunnels are often made of somewhat see-through material, so if waving a lure at the far end doesn’t entice her to move forward, dragging it over the top of the tunnel might get her to go after the shadow she sees from underneath.
If you’d like, you can use a combination of lures and treat rewards. Use the lure to make the activity happen and the reward (preceded by a click of the clicker) to let your cat know that cooperating has its pluses.
Never show impatience if your cat is not getting it — or doesn’t want to get it. This is supposed to be fun, after all. It’s not like she won’t get into college if she can’t master it. But if she does start to get the hang of it, you can begin teaching your pet to go through an actual agility “course,” perhaps starting with jumping through a hoop, then climbing a small set of stairs, followed by making her way through a tunnel, and finally weaving through obstacles. From there you can decide if you want to enter competitions. Courses come with hurdles and other equipment that are set to specific heights and other specifications.
For more information, go to the website of the Cat Fanciers Association and type “agility” into the search bar. Navigating the site is not completely intuitive, so you may want to resort to googling the particular information you’re looking for, followed by the letters “cfa.”
