Hi, thought I would start a thread on things we have trained our cats to do??

I trained my Ragdoll to use a harness and lead, which really was not a hard task, he really enjoys going for walks but not near roads

__________________
Adorable Ragdoll Cats

I am also thinking about training with a harness and lead for my BSH. What age did you train yours? He wants to go outside but I am afraid once he is out he will want his freedom and I have already lost 2 cats this years due to road accidents.

I've never trained any of my cats to do anything too busy training dogs. I did have a video of a cat doing a mini agility course, which had been taught using clicker and a target stick, unfortunately I leant it to someone and you guessed it didn't get it back.

Long time ago I had a huge moggy Terzor, who loved to walk on harness+lead; sometimes up to 2 miles but after this he would come and stand in front of me to be picked up and carried back home. Thought that kind of training shold start at early age.

All the cats I have harness trained have been in their 1st year.

I started by putting on the harness for short spells though out the day, (never leave them unsupervised at this stage)

Please use a cat harness not a dog harness, there is a difference and a cat can get out of a dog harness, see cats are smarter than dogs

slowly increase the time of wearing it, its a good idea to make this time play time, it will distract from the harness aswell as make it great fun.

After a few days I attached the lead, which was quite amusing as he thought he was being followed about and all the other cats were pouncing on it.

I then thread the lead onto the washing line this lets the lead slide along easily when he goes walking round the garden.

I took out a blanket for us both to sit on and we had a great 1st day.

Another good item to attach the lead to is a tennis swing ball pole.(dont tie lead, thread lead.)

Once they get use to the washing line then you can slowly venture out of garden.

Its great to see peoples faces when you mention you have the cat out on the washing line

Dont forget to do a quick assesment for dangers ie, cant jump over the fence and hang themselves, tangle themselves up on chairs ect.

My cat looks forward to going on the washing line even though they do have a piece of the garden secured off for them.

GOOD LUCK AND LET US KNOW HOW YOU GET ON

__________________
Adorable Ragdoll Cats

Hi Denise, thanks for the info

I might be brave and try him out on it! Just feel really sorry for him, would love to have my garden "cat proofed" but have not the £ and the foggiest idea of how!

Will let you know what happens .......

Hi kitty, I have a section cat safe, let me try and explain how we did it and it wasnt too bad cost wise.

From my dinning room door to back garden we have a potio area.

we put posts on the outside of paveing slabes right up to the walls of the house.

We used trellising (dont know how to spell that) as fence panels then galvinised mesh on the out side of that. We just tacked the mesh onto trellising or you could use the plastic mesh instead of metel it could be cheaper.

Over the top we used plastic netting that is used to cover fish ponds. That cost twenty ponds and its a good size area. We secured that to the mesh by sowing it togeather with string.

Its great, we can sit out there with them and it doesnt feel or look like a cage

In the summer we can leave the door open and not worry about them getting lost.

Leo my nutured pet still thinks the washing line is best though, he is a very big boy and to see him laying out there on a blanket chewing on a bone is so funny.

Good luck, they love going outside

__________________
Adorable Ragdoll Cats

Thats brilliant!

Good bit of info

Thanks again Denise! I think I would rather try to construct an outdoor area for him as today I bought him a collar and that was tricky enough getting on him!

Thanks for the info ... will try and get my husband onto it!