My cat Shyna knows quite a lot of tricks. When I shot the photo above, I said “Give me five” but in German. But I wouldn’t be surprised if she can do it if I say it in English. I say that because I taught her a lot of tricks and I noticed that she doesn’t only listen to me, it is also that she looks what my hands are doing. A flat horizontal hand for example does mean “Give me your paw”, while a vertical hand does mean “Give me five”. It works both ways, I can either use my hands without saying anything, or I can hide my hands and ask her first to give me her paw. It’s funny when you realize this, because I noticed it at some point when we practiced tricks. By the way, she knows all kind of common dog tricks, but she can do more tricks than most dogs I know. The last thing we practiced is to jump over hurdles. I can use a large pillow and ask her to jump over it and she will do it. She likes these tricks, and if I don’t do these things with her for some days, she will be quite mad at me (laugh).
Diary of Dennis 
[ Smiles ] Cats are highly intelligent animals; so I am not surprised that she is capable of giving you a five.
Yes, they are good learners. Most people won’t teach cats tricks because they think they have their own mind, and yes they have but with a bit of patience it’s possible to teach them things. Also many people think that cats don’t like it if you give them orders, but I do think learning tricks is not about giving orders but about giving the cat another type of activity to kill boredom. 🙂 She really likes it, it’s like playing 🙂
I love it when Oliver gives me a high five.
And I bet he likes it too 🙂 Many people think that you shouldn’t do tricks with cats and people who say that argue that it’s because cats have their own mind and are different than dogs… I don’t believe in this, yes they have their own mind but I believe that any kind of activity is good for a cat. So, doing tricks with cats is keeping them active, and my impression is that Shyna loves it. Cats want our attention, and doing stupid stuff with them is exactly what they like, if they are in the mood for it of course 🙂
I do regularly teach her new things, and when it’s something new for her, I find it funny when she tries to figure out what I want her to do 😀 You clearly see how the cat-brain is working, and it’s even more exiting when she starts to understand the trick (cats face expressions are an open book) 😀 It’s fun 🙂
Cats can be trained just as well as dogs. But you just need to train them differently. 😉
Exactly 🙂 And a bit more patience is needed 🙂
🙂
I’m impressed. I can barely get my dogs to notice me at all unless they see food in it!
I noticed quite early that my cat is a good learner… when she was still a kitten, I was sitting in the living room and noticed wind in my apartment and thought this can’t be because I did not have my windows opened. I did take a look and noticed that my cat was not there anymore, and the main door was opened. I found my cat roaming down the external staircase. I was both, shocked and amazed. Shocked that I from now on would have to lock all doors with a key, and amazed that my cat learned what a door handle is for and how it works. Here is a video of her opening doors but as said, she knows it already since she was a kitten, which means in the video she is older: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ2mt0fUkbY
The fact that she understood what a door handle does, and how she can use it made me realize that she clearly pays attention to the things going on around her. I thought it could be possible to teach her tricks and started doing this, and it worked despite what all those cat-experts in the internet claimed (laugh). You can’t and you shouldn’t teach cats tricks they said, but I said I can and will do it. People think they have their own mind and you shouldn’t influence cats, but to me it’s not about influencing the cat but giving my cat an activity. Dogs are happy if you do things with them, I can’t see why it is any different with cats. My cat appreciates it when I spend time with her, no matter if it’s playing or doing tricks 🙂
Cats are also supreme teachers. And many of them have traits that seem to be self-taught: the greeter cat, the wake-up NOW cat, the one who begs at the table or, if not watched, STEALS from your plate, cats who invent water games. The most fascinating is the one who throws the cat expert ideas right out the window: they anticipate, they plan ahead in games, they like to do the double feint.
and I had one who would sit at the top of the back stairs while I threw small tinfloil balls up at her. Some she’d hit back, some she would root out and push back down the stairs. More, she was saying. More. One day I heard her upstairs, making a hell of a racket in the hall. When I went to the bottom of the stairs, there she was at the top, looking as expectant as a kid at Christmas. And she threw me the first toy, lol. She wanted to play, so we did.
I’ve never had less than two, and usually more. They learn from each other, and it’s fascinating to watch them interact.
I love that video. The Independent Cat.
Haha, I know what you mean. Shyna doesn’t like most of the common cat toys but she will find things that she likes and offers me to play with the things. Tinfoil balls are one of her favorite toys too, as same as paper balls. When I visited the bakery and come home, Shyna will be near me because she fully expects that I will make a paper ball out of the bakery bag once I ate my stuff 🙂 Life keeps you busy, apart from feeding the cat I don’t have time to play every day… so, now and again when I was too busy and did not play with her for two days, she even drops some toys as signs on my pillow or at places in the apartment like the computer chair.. like one of her paper ball for example as if she would want to symbolize “Hey, I get that you are busy but take my paper ball as a sign of dissatisfaction” (laugh). They really know how to get your attention 🙂
I knew that my cat is pretty creative since she was a kitten… as I told someone else in the comments here, when she was very young I noticed a wind in my living room. That was strange because I had no windows opened… I checked and noticed that my main door to the public stairway was opened and my cat was away. I found her roaming around in the external stairway hall. I had issues to understand why the door was open, just later I noticed that she can do this. She fully understood what a door handle is, that it somehow can open a door… I was amazed that a cat can understand that if you put weight on the door handle, it’s open the door. So, she started to jump on it, using the full pressure of her body to move the door handle. So, they even learn from you, by monitoring your activities lol. Really impressive. She learned this on her own as a kitten, but I recorded this when she was already older. Here is a video of her doing this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DZ2mt0fUkbY
It’s really mind blowing and shows how intelligent cats are. This is not something I taught her, it’s because they really pay attention to the things happening around them. Cats are just cool 🙂
One thing you might like to try, if you haven’t already, get some of those tiny round metal ‘jingle bells” and wrap one into a foil ball, not tight enough to muffle the sound, but tight enough so she can’t get at it. If she takes to it, you will always know where she is, day and night. All night.
I have this type of toy her but from a pet store. It’s a plastic ball with a small metal ball in it that makes sounds. t’s strange, she doesn’t like it. Could be that she likes a DIY version better, especially since she likes tinfoil more 🙂
I rarely find a cat who tolerates the store-bought version, but nearly all of them will kick a DIY around, often at 3 AM. Under the bed.
Hehe, yeah, cats abolutely love DIY stuff 🙂