Turn your bad cat into a great pet

My last cat -- a gray, tiger-striped kitten from a shelter in Spanish Harlem -- was named Katie Nightmare. She earned that name thanks to her passion for scratching, biting and nocturnal ambushes. If she'd been a dog, I would have hauled her off to obedience training or at least sought expert advice in the pages of a training manual. Instead, I just considered her occasionally hair-raising behavior part of the cat package.

I'm not alone. Among my cat-loving friends and colleagues, only a few have sought professional help for challenging feline behavior. Poor litter box aim seems to be a threshold for many. But cats can, and should, be trained and socialized for the happiness of everyone involved.

"I think that most people believe cats are too independent for training. And although cats tend to be more independent than most dogs, they still have the ability to learn," says Jennifer Schneider, trainer-owner of Cats Can Too!, a Seattle service specializing in cat training and problem solving.

"Cats need a bit more motivation ... but I have found that cats actually love the training process." More importantly, Schneider adds, "Training your cat will teach them how to live peacefully in your home."

Schneider uses positive reinforcement, specifically clicker training, for teaching cats to sit, come when called, use the litter box, scratch the cat post (and not the furniture), play-bite toys rather than fingers and so on. (Clicker training, which involves rewarding animals with a treat and a click, has been used successfully with horses and chickens as well.)

In addition to direct training, Schneider advises cat families on home strategies to encourage good behavior, such as placing scratching posts away from food sources, having the right number of litter boxes in your household, and providing plenty of toys and interaction to keep cats happy.

Orchestrated socialization with other cats, dogs and people also helps keeps cats on the straight and narrow. Schneider is the instructor for the Seattle Humane Society's new Kitten Kindergarten, which launched in June.

The first kitten socialization and training group in the state (and one of only a dozen or so around the country), its classes include human handling, simple obedience and structured playtime. One-hour classes meet once a week for three weeks, for kittens 8 to 20 weeks of age. The cost is $50 per three-week session.

Play is a key strategy for nurturing a happy, well-adjusted cat. Not only does structured play reduce stress and boredom, which lead to other problems, it helps fight feline obesity.

The pros at the Denver Dumb Friends League (DDFL) recommend channeling a cat's prey drive with play hunts. A fishing pole-style cat toy that imitates the noise of flapping wings or slides "mouse-style" across the floor usually does the trick. For example, Mud Bay sells Purr-fect Feather Cat Toys ($9.95), feathers at the end of a plastic line, and Linda Buckingham's Mouse-on-a-Wire ($6.75), a handmade sheepskin mouse at the end of a six-foot cable.

Remember to let your playmate catch the "prey" when you finish a 15- to 20-minute "hunt session." The folks at DDFL also suggest following up with some canned cat food to mimic the end of a real hunt when the successful predator eats his or her catch.

One sign that finding constructive solutions for pet problems is moving to center stage is Animal Planet's new cat whisperer. Australian vet Dr. Katrina Warren stars in Housecat Housecall, which debuted last weekend and airs early Saturday and Sunday mornings. Along with a pair of behaviorists, "Dr. Katrina" tackles hunger strikes, bossiness and excessive licking early on. I'll be Tivo-ing the episode on attack-cats to see where I went wrong.

Copyright © The Seattle Times Company