Do kittens need training? It’s a good idea to train your kitten if you want to prevent unwanted behaviour such as scratching, biting and jumping into places you would prefer them not to be, like a baby’s cot or your counter tops. Thousands of cats get rehomed due to these behaviours, all of which are preventable through training.

Starting training at a young age will make the process easier as you’ll be preventing habits from forming, rather than trying to break old habits in adult cats. But training can be started at any age.

What Do You Need to Train a Kitten For?

When you think of what training a cat needs, the most obvious answer is litter box training. This is when you teach your cat to toilet in a litter box rather than finding somewhere else in your house, like a plant pot or your favourite rug. But there are other things you can teach your cat. You can prevent your cat from scratching your furniture by directing them to a scratching post.

You can also prevent playful or aggressive biting. Another pet peeve for cat owners is often finding their cat in places they shouldn’t be, like on counter tops, or on top of a dresser having knocked off a few ornaments. Finding your cat in a baby cot can be of concern for your baby’s safety.

Kitten training can prevent this from happening and is a great way to bond with your cat and provide them with mental stimulation. If you have a demanding kitten who always wants your attention, training provides allocated time for one-to-one interaction.

How to Train Kittens

The best way to train a kitten is through positive reinforcement. This means rewarding your cat with something nice when they perform a behaviour you like and ignoring any unwanted behaviour. By getting a reward, your kitten will learn to associate the desired behaviour with something nice and is more likely to perform it again. If the behaviour doesn’t receive a reward, the kitten is less likely to repeat it.

A good place to start is to first teach your cat a simple trick like ‘sit’. Use cat food, treats or another appealing food item as the reward and move the food over their head. As their gaze follows the food and their head moves back, they will naturally drop their backend into a sitting position. When they’re sitting, reward them with the treat. If you find that they don’t fully sit to start with, reward them when they start to drop their backend so that they know they’re doing the right thing.

When your cat is regularly sitting, you can start to add the verbal cue ‘sit’ just as your cat is sitting. This will form an association between the word and action. Eventually you’ll be able to get them to complete the task with the verbal cue only and you won’t need to reward them with a treat every time. To start with, only train for a few minutes at a time and slowly increase the training periods as your cat gets used to it.

When your kitten has mastered this command, you can move on to other training. Teach your kitten to scratch a post rather than your furniture by taking them to the post and giving them a treat every time they scratch it. If you catch your cat scratching something else, pick them up and move them to the post.

If your kitten walks away from training at any point, let them do so. It could be a sign that the session is too long, and they need a break, or it’s not engaging enough. For best results, keep the training sessions short (under 15 minutes) but frequent and use appealing treats like tuna or chicken.

Clicker Training Kittens

This form of training uses a clicker to signify the correct command is being completed and is then followed up with a reward. The animal learns that the click signifies that a reward is coming. The benefit of clicker training is that the trainer can reward the cat with a click at the exact moment the action is completed, rather than being rewarded after the action. When teaching a cat to sit, you would click as their backend starts to drop into a sitting position.

How to Train Kittens for a Litter Box

Kittens can be taught to use a litter tray in the same way as other training. At regular intervals put your kitten in the litter tray and let them explore it. If they toilet, praise them and give them a treat. If your kitten displays signs of needing to toilet, like scratching at the floor or circling, pick them up and put them into the litter tray.

If your kitten toilets on the floor before you get to it, never punish your cat, just place your cat in the tray and clean up the mess. In the early stages, it can be helpful to put one of your cat’s fresh poos into the litter tray so that they can smell it and make the association that this is where poos belong! Make sure to regularly clean the litter tray as cats don’t like to toilet in a dirty place. Most cats prefer to have more than one litter box, so that one is always clean.

Training a kitten may seem challenging but most cats enjoy the process, and it provides them with mental stimulation. Teaching your cat at a young age will prevent bad habits from forming, so you’re less likely to be faced with unwanted behaviour like biting, scratching and house toileting. If you need more help with kitten training, speak to your vet who can refer you to a pet behaviour specialist.

Everypaw Insurance for Kittens

Covered by our Cat Insurance, Everypaw's Kitten Insurance comes with 24/7 unlimited access to vets and vet nurses that can help with your pet's health, care, nutrition and behaviour. So you can rest assured your kitty will be well looked after.

Get a quote

 

Content provided from Vetstream's Vetlexicon Felis - www.vetlexicon.com/treat/felis

Vetlexicon is the world’s largest peer-reviewed online clinical reference source. All our content is written and peer-reviewed by over 1,000 of the world’s leading veterinarians, ensuring relevance, accuracy and quality.