I mentioned that I taught Shyna some tricks as she is really smart. Some time ago she started to stand up and it looked like she would imitate a Meerkat. Later I did have the idea to teach her some tricks and the Meerkat trick was on the list too. It´s not that difficult to teach as you might think. All you need is patience and a good idea how to do it.

In case you have a cat and in case you are interested to teach the Meerkat trick, I will tell you how to do this. All you need is the favorite snack or treat of your cat. Let the cat nose on the treat to show that you have something special. After that, try to raise your hand and the treat (high enough) in the air high enough above your cats head. I guess you know what will happen? The cat will probably stand up to nose on the snack and this is the goal. I should add that it makes sense if the sign (raising the hand and the treat over the cat’s head) must be somewhat clear, I mean choose a signal like a raising flat hand or a raising the hand with the extended forefinger, for example. I mean just in case you want to teach the cat something else with a similar signal. The cat should really understand that there is a difference in your signals and the tricks.

Does this sound easy? It is, upon condition that you have a lot of patience and that your cat likes it. 🙂

The main goal is indeed, that we want to try these tricks also without snacks or treats later. I have done it so, that I sometimes gave a treat and sometimes not. It´s like teaching dogs, they shouldn´t learn that they always get something tasteful, the focus should be the trick as we don´t want an overfed cat and we also don´t want to teach the cat how to be a “foodaholic”. Also remember that cats don´t have that much patience, we don´t want to ask too much and we don´t want to annoy our cat. Five minute exercises per day or every few hours, should be way enough. But you will notice how much your cat will allow and if she will allow it. If your cat likes it, then it will be a fun activity for you both.