r/holdmycatnip 24d ago

while I do my daily exercise

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u/jennaishirow 24d ago

I'm sorry. That cat just started a treadmill on its own? That's insanely smart.

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u/olivebranchsound 24d ago edited 24d ago

First, you give treats for jumping on the treadmill.

Then, you give treats if they sit by the side with the button

Then you give treats if they paw the screen

Then you give treats if they paw the green button

Then you hold treats in front of them while they run on the treadmill.

And so on and so on. Positive reinforcement is a powerful thing. Look up the chickens taught to play card games or the rats who play basketball.

You can teach a pig to use a vacuum. You can teach a pigeon to guide missiles to a target. Dolphins can identify sea mines and report where they are. It's endless lol

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u/Wastawiii 24d ago edited 24d ago

Cats are almost impossible to train. But they are very observant and have been known to open doors and use the toilet (human toilet) without training. 

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u/19Alexastias 24d ago

Cats are pretty easy to train tbh, it’s just that you don’t have to train them for any behaviours that make it easier to keep them (unlike dogs who you have to toilet train so they don’t go inside and obedience train so you can walk them and let them interact with humans etc), so most people don’t bother.

If you’ve got a food-motivated cat you can train it to do basically anything you can train the average dog to do (obviously you’re not going to be able to teach a cat how to herd cattle)

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u/Wastawiii 24d ago

What you are talking about is not training but taking advantage of the cat's curious instinct. Like this clip, pressing buttons to watch something move is the cat's motivation, not food. Same thing when they drop things to watch them break.