teach your cat to spin
Everyone knows that you can teach tricks to dogs, but did you know that cats can be trained easily, too? Since many cats live their entire lives confined indoors, clicker training can provide valuable mental and physical stimulation. Enrichment improves cats’ lives, helping to make them healthier, happier, and more responsive companions. In this video, Megan Ramirez and her cat Pavlov demonstrate one of our favorite cat tricks—spin!
Megan started training this trick by teaching Pavlov to follow her hand in a circle (learn how to teach your cat to target here). She then faded out the target by clicking and rewarding the offered behavior. Megan uses tuna paste as the reward, as it is delicious, easy to administer, and quick to consume. When Pavlov was spinning reliably, Megan then inserted the cue “spin.”
Watch Megan and Pavlov in action in this video (video courtesy of Megan Ramirez Instagram: two_danes_and_a_weenie). Learn more about cat training through Karen Pryor Academy’s Train Your Cat course!