Kringle with my library copy of the book It was a tough slog, but I learned that training your cat for important but challenging tasks requires patience. You gradually build up to the motherlode, trimming claws or happily heading to the vet. I learned some delightful details about cats in this book. Did you know that cats lack collarbones, which is why they can walk along a narrow fence perfectly balanced, one foot in front of the other? (It’s also why they can squeeze into tiny spaces.) That a cat's ear corrugations (wavy bits) change the pitch of a sound, allowing the cat to deduce the height of whoever is making it? That a meal of mouse is about 30 calories?
The cat’s point of view on a vet visit was insightful: “unless taught otherwise, cats probably perceive a veterinary examination as the attentions of an unusual and definitely unwelcome kind of predator.” Knowing cats as both prey and predator helps to understand much of their behaviour. However, I quibble about comparing cats to children in their thoughts about veterinary indignities: “Cats, rather like small children, find it impossible to understand that something that’s unpleasant in the moment will be good for them in the long run.” A mother cat will groom each newborn by stimulating nether parts and licking off urine or feces -- pleasant? Grooming their own parts after a bowel movement -- pleasant? I’m sure there’s more unpleasantness that a cat can learn to tolerate -- like living with us, at times! I would rather say that the cat hasn’t learned to appreciate the benefits of the vet visit. We can help with that. How to train a cat to enjoy going into a carrier, travelling in a vehicle and visiting the vet are outlined in depth. A chart shows twenty steps for carrier training. If the cat balks, you go back a step, slow and steady, and never push. I liked the idea of first training with the carrier’s top off, then gradually adding other features like movement. Another excellent idea was to consider all the sensory aspects of what a cat fears. A carrier can pick up stress scents deposited at the vet visit, as well as other scents from the vet hospital. We can help by cleaning out those negative memories, and replacing them with the cat’s relaxed scent, obtained by cheek rubs on a cotton glove or blanket. Buying a new carrier is also an option. Training plans are provided for getting a cat to come when called, adjust to a new baby or other new resident, socialize a fearful cat, and more topics. Training a cat to be relaxed on a favourite blanket is interestingly a foundation of other training. Unfortunately, I found the writing style overly academic. Although the writers work hard to explain things, more editing for readability would have helped. Here’s an example: “When combined with desensitization, the stimuli are presented at a level below that which elicits fear, thereby giving the animal the best chance of learning that the reward on offer is associated with that stimulus rather than anything else.” A heavy lecture that required prying it apart to get the meaning. The writers mention that B.F. Skinner wrote an entire book on different patterns of rewarding good behaviour ("schedules of reinforcement"; actually written with another author). I read some B.F. Skinner. I was pleasantly surprised. Although an academic, he was the kind of writer I love: crisp and spare, using vivid language. Short sentences and small words where possible, especially when writing for a wider audience. I would have liked to see more of that style here. I appreciate the effort though. It’s always a joy to learn more about cats. - Irene Plett Details: John Bradshaw and Sarah Ellis, The Trainable Cat: A Practical Guide to Making Life Happier for You and Your Cat (2016, Hachette Book Group, ISBN 9780465093717); quotations found on pages 20, 67, and 89. Topics: Cat behaviour, cat training, book reviews
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