I always wanted to create this video but I dislike video editing or I don´t enjoy it as much as I love to play with other graphic tools. Anyway, I´ve done it now. I mentioned several times that I do practice tricks with my cat and that she is kinda talented but I just have shown you images but not videos. I always wanted to record one of our training sessions. Now I did that and you can see some minutes of our training unit in the following video…
In this training session we did practice “sit”, “give me paw”, “give me five”, “come here” or “jump here”, “stand up” also known as “imitate the meerkat”, “turn around” and “lay down”. When I did hold my flat hand on the couch at the end of the video, she usually would lay down but she turned around which is wrong and I accidentally rewarded her with a treat which was wrong as well. But apart from the few mistakes, we had a good training unit and she is very good. It´s all about hand gestured and speaking but I noticed that cats or at least my cat is more keenly to my hand gestures or body language. We by the way don´t do clicker training, we do the old-school kind of training with treat rewards, in case you did wonder.
One of the facts about cats is, that they can learn tricks as a dog. Many people think that it is bad to teach a cat tricks but I do think it is not bad to engage cats with tricks. So if you are interested too, I wrote some articles about cat tricks and there might be more in the future.
At the end I also want to say that it is cool, that you can choose music for your uploaded videos in the YouTube music library. I have chosen a song by the Lounge Art Ensemble and the song is called “Cats and Kittens”. Not only the name of the song fits, the style of the musics fits to the video pretty much as well. I think that kind of jazzy style fits to a cat movie, what do you think? And did you laugh about my cat training video or did you like it? I hope you had to laugh. But you can tell me your opinion in the comment section, I mean if you like, ok? 🙂
Diary of Dennis 
Nice video! Cats are very smart and they learn things even when you don’t train them. I had a cat that learnt to watch TV and she even had her favorite type of shows. As with dogs, training rests a lot on their being bonded to you and trusting you. You have obviously earned your Shyna’s trust and love ! I enjoyed seeing her cat-like behaviour in response to your hand requests. There is always a lot of unspoken communication that goes on between cats (or dogs) and their owners. A lot of body language and gestures, and I also think that treats are fine to reward what might not have been of great interest to the pet in the first place… ! I like your Shyna.
I pretty much agree with you. Cats are extremely smart. I noticed it when my cat learned how to open doors: https://diaryofdennis.com/2013/09/13/my-cat-can-open-doors/ but the funny fact is that I didn´t taught her how to do this. I guess she learned by watching 😀 Your experience with the TV shows sounds funny too!
Thanks for saying that it seems that I earned her trust and love. Yes, I do believe we both are a good team 😀 She is often watching me and if I go to another room, she often follows me just to find out what I do there. I always wanted to give her a good home, since the beginning when I got her 6 years ago. I am very happy that she shows me trust and that she is happy here. This makes me happy too.
About the treats. I use them at times as a reward to show her that I liked her tricks or to help her understand new tricks. But according to cat training, best advice is to not always give treats as rewards, otherwise the cat would learn that it is only about rewards. But it´s meant to be engagement, a game and to have some fun together and to activate her mind. That´s what I want to teach her 🙂 But the rewards help at the beginning to discover some new tricks. And indeed, she does not only get a treat if she showed me some tricks or if we played. But as you said as well, I guess too that she does understand that the rewards are just a minor matter and that it is more about the activity. Her tail movements in the video show it 😀
Thanks for your nice comment.
I have known several cats that – on their own -learned to use the handle to open doors. It is magic to see them stretch up, turn the handle, and go through as the a most natural thing.
They are very observant animals, I believe more curious and observant than dogs. My TV cat also figured out how to slide the screen door sideways so she could slip outside. She just was not long enough to reach any door knob … Thanks for responding.
True, observant and curious animals fits very well. 🙂 They really try to understand their environment and that can be at times pretty funny, I agree 🙂 It´s funny to hear other stories of people with cat experience. Looks like your cat really discovered all corners of your rooms too 😀
Really interesting, thanks.
My cat has learned to follow hand and or voice commands too but I didn’t initially set out to teach her. I guess I was just responding to her good or bad behaviour and she learned the cues. Good=pat and bad=no pat and maybe stern voice.
It’s handy to get her to leave a room at night or get her to come to you (and off the lounge / bed). She sits on voice command, and will not jump up if I put up my palm. She also comes to a whistle. Will have to try the high five! CC
As Vera said here… cats seems to be very observant animals as well. It´s interesting to hear how pet owner and pets develop a way to communicate with each other. Interesting to read your experience too.
High five is really funny. I showed it a friend yesterday and he had to laugh and said “This is awesome!” 😀 I guess you and your cat will have fun too trying it. 🙂
Hey Dennis,
Love the video and the tricks, you and your cat did great! Thanks for sharing. I’ve never tried to train my cat, but since he absolutely loves treats, I think he might be willing to learn (for the treats of course). I love the high five too. 🙂
Hi Dave. My reply is a little bit late as I have been busy. I´d say try it out with your cat. It is really fun and if you cat loves treats, it will be an advantage to start the lessons. Hope you both will have fun 🙂