I am the Cat Butler and I want to teach my cats Teemo and Arya
how to ring a bell because I think it’s cute. Hopefully they don’t abuse it.
I tried to teach them when they were kittens, but no luck.
So for the longest time I didn’t think cats could be trained.
Well this time my cats Teemo and Arya proved me wrong.
I was doing it wrong. What I learned is cats are
extremely trainable and often trained based on signals rather than command.
You probably already trained your cat without knowing it.
Think about what happens when you shake the treat bag, or bring out the food bowl during meal time?
The cat comes running, right? Our cat has learned a signal,
the sound of a shaking bag or the sound of a food bowl
placed on the table that corresponds to something the cat likes, food, and is rewarded for coming.
At its core, cat training is teaching your cat to associate a desirable behavior with a reward.
In the next few minutes I will walk you through how I was able to teach my cats to ring the bell.
Before we begin, Teemo and Arya’s lessons today are sponsored by Petcube.
Petcube is a pet camera company that sells quality cameras that have a laser for your cats to play
with, a camera with a treat dispenser, or if you just want a simple camera.
The laser experience is similar to a cat chasing light reflections
and is something I can see Teemo liking.
I like pet cameras because they are specialized to detect the sounds our cats make, like meows.
The app would notify you when it happens. You can also check if the cat sitter
came and fed your cat. Petcube brings peace of mind that
your cat is taken care of when you are not home and I have found it useful for Teemo and Arya.
Petcube is offering an additional 5% off when you use the code thecatbutler5 at checkout.
The link to the camera will be in the description below.
So what do we need for today’s training? First we need a bell made specifically for pets.
It has a wider surface area and requires less force to press the button,
making it easier for your cat.
I find that the normal service bell for humans can be difficult for cats to use.
The bell I use will be linked in the description below.
The next thing you need is a treat your cat responds well to.
I find that cats who are not motivated by treats have access to food all day.
To build a cat's food motivation, we need to stop making their food readily available and
switch to feeding small, scheduled meals. For Teemo and Arya I usually use a single
ingredient freeze dried treat from Whole Life for their training sessions.
I find the quality good and the cats go crazy for them.
Next we want to fill a cup up with treats so you can easily reward your cat.
Now this is important. You want the treats handy so you can immediately
reward your cat when it rings the bell, That way your cat clearly associates
ringing the bell with a reward. This will encourage them to repeat the action.
Otherwise your cat may associate something else with the treat if you are too slow.
I also cut the treats smaller so my cats don’t get full too fast, as a result I can extend the length
of the training session. Now let’s begin!
The next step is to show your cat what ringing the bell is like.
Immediately after you ring the bell, eat something.
You are showing your cat that ringing a bell results in food in their stomach.
This is observational learning, it is the process of learning by watching the behaviors of others.
The targeted behavior is watched, memorized, and then mimicked.
It is similar to how our children imitate the behaviors of adults.
For example, a child may watch their mother eat dinner with a fork.
The child will observe the behavior and quickly learn how to use a fork themselves.
Over several days Teemo and Arya watched intently but made no move to ring the bell.
At this stage they have not yet associated ringing the bell to being rewarded with food.
The next step is to get your cat comfortable with touching the bell.
Every time your cat touches the bell, give them a treat.
It may be frustrating that your cat does not touch the bell.
But training a cat is all about patience and consistency.
Some cats are slow learners and learn at their own pace.
Teemo is a very slow learner. You can do it Teemo!
I think Teemo gave up today. It took him about a week
for him to consistently touch the bell. Whereas Arya caught on quickly.
Training your cats daily is also very important.
If your cat is struggling for the day. You can pick up the training tomorrow.
The next step is the aha moment for most cats. It is when the cat puts 2 and 2 together.
You place a treat under the bell and what will happen
is your cat will paw at the bell to get at the treat.
Sometimes they will accidentally hit the bell. When this happens, reward your cat.
After a few rings a light bulb went off in Arya’s head.
I press the bell, I get a treat. She started ringing the bell like no tomorrow.
Arya you want to slow down a bit?
Before I knew it I had run out of treats. So I had to take the bell
away from an eager Arya. Sometimes I even had to put
Arya in a carrier so Teemo could have some one on one training sessions.
While Arya was a quick learner, Teemo struggled. Teemo would give me the saddest face.
At times I was tempted to give Teemo a treat, How can you resist those beautiful eyes?
But I couldn’t because it would reward the wrong behavior.
If I gave him a treat now he wouldn’t learn to ring the bell.
Eventually he got the hang of it.
Now the final step, only reward your cat when they ring the bell.
By now Arya knew the drill. She walked up to the bell with swagger and
pressed that button with confidence. She knew what to do.
By this time I had lost count of how many treats Arya ate.
It was a lot. Where was Teemo?
Instead of ringing his own bell,
Teemo proceeded to steal Arya’s treats.
For Teemo it took a solid week of intense training for him to ring the bell.
We did it! Teemo and Arya!
Now let's see if Teemo and Arya will ring the bell together
and get Petcube to dispense a treat.
Perfect.
Last tip, hide the bell when you are done so your cats do not keep ringing it.
And if you need to stay in touch with your cat when you are not home, don’t forget to check out
the Petcube camera in the description below. Use the code thecatbutler5 for an additional 5%
at checkout. Comment down below how did your training go?
Hit the like button if you thought the video was helpful.