Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Potty training Freeway


Freeway

I have been fortunate enough to have had several very intelligent cats in my life over the years.  And I am happy to report that the trend continues.

Did you know that they "measure" a cat's intelligence by how long it take for them to learn a behavior? 

Don't get this confused with how long it takes a cat to DO the behavior once they learn it!  They are still cats....  and they have a timetable far different than humans...  or dogs...  or pretty much anything else.


I have always wanted to potty train a cat just to see if I really could and really got interested after watching the Fockers movies. 

Being frugal, I plotted and planned how to do it but never really took any action.  It was always in the back of my mind though.  One thing I knew was that I needed to have a dedicated toilet for the trainee....  at least during the training.

We currently have 3 bathrooms/toilets.  We also have 2 humans, 2 cats, and 1 self cleaning litter box. I think we can do this!  However, which cat shall we train?  I don't want to do them both as they already fight. 

Tessa thinks she is a princess and using a potty is already beneath her (pun intended) but I was able to teach Tessa to come when I call.  However, being a princess, she would just as rather you went to get her and carry her to where you want her.

Freeway, on the other hand, is somewhere between cat, dog, and crazy. 

Freeway is also trained to come when called and to date, she gallops to me 99% of the time.  If she has some type of prey cornered out in the yard, she is reluctant to come to me.

Lo and behold, a couple weeks ago, I saw a kitty potty training kit on the local online garage sale. WOOHOOO!  I purchased it and considered my plan of action.

It's a bit messy at first with spilled (but clean) litter but since I dedicated a bathroom to the training, it wasn't a problem. I showed the "litter box" to both cats separately.  Tessa showed completed disdain for the whole thing while Freeway was interested in checking out everything.

Freeway is the potty training guinea pig. She uses the toilet instead of the litter box a couple times a day. We are currently on step 2 of the training and I am thrilled with the results.  It appears that Freeway uses the toilet instead of the litter box a couple times a day.  I did find that Freeway was more likely to use the toilet if I had a small stool next to the toilet, which I am completely willing to do.

I have other tips for using this process also, if anyone decides to try it.  I am pretty proud of Freeway.

Never underestimate the combination of intelligence coupled with the right motivation.





 

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