Maine coon cats tips to care
Maine coon cats are known for their friendliness, love of human company and – above all – intelligence.
You can have every aspect of life lined up with your Maine Coon, from diet and health care to indoor and outdoor play areas and grooming regimen. However, there is one step left - to see if your kitty will respond to the training.
Is Maine Coon Training Viable or Should You Let Sleeping Dogs Lie? Read on for the best tips and tricks to teach your furry friend new tricks!
Is Training Maine Coon Cat A Good Idea?
Maine coon cat are intelligent enough to enjoy as much interaction as possible with their human parents.
Like dogs, Maine coons value contact, but they also retain a strong independent streak that will lead them to spend long hours outside hunting or playing.
Training Maine coons don't just involve teaching them to do tricks. If your Maine Coon is an avid explorer, but you feel the environment is not safe enough to leave him outside unsupervised, you can use training methods to:
Help them burn off energy with interactive games instead of hunting
Ask them to go for walks with you
If your Maine Coon tends to be chubby, you can also use training to get your Maine Coon off their bottoms and engage in vigorous play. Sedentary Maine Coons can easily put on weight, and a combination of exercise and diet is the best way to combat this.
Caring for Maine Coons can be a time-consuming job, but the more effort you put into training, the easier it will be to keep your cat healthy and happy.
How to Train Maine Coon Cats - Best Techniques
The best way to Maine Coons' heads is through their stomachs. The most effective training techniques for this breed involve rewarding your cat for what you want.
While older training methods involved the use of discipline to punish bad behavior, Maine Coons do not respond well to punishment and disciplinary teaching methods can easily lead to stress, the symptoms of which may be in your cat:
He's hiding from you
Refusal to eat
They obsessively groom or groom themselves, which can cause them to suffer from ingrown hairs
Developing allergic reactions or food sensitivities
In protest, they become more nervous and turn up their noses at wet or dry food that they usually love
Some cat trainers swear by clickers—small tools that make an audible click when pressed, used in conjunction with an instant treat—but you may find that a treat will do for your smart Maine coon. Their training involves three steps:
Getting your cat's attention
Rewarding for doing the right thing
Teaching more complex behavior
Getting the Maine Coon's attention
The first step in training Maine Coons is to get them to respond to your name. While this is an easy task for dogs, cats tend to be more reserved when called.
Armed with a plate of your cat's favorite food, you should place it in an easily accessible spot. Your cat's natural curiosity – plus the smell of food – will mean they're likely to come to investigate, but you should keep repeating their name until they look at you. Only then reward them with a tasty treat.
After four or five tries, your Maine Coon will equate hearing their name and looking at you with getting food. This lesson will stay with them for life. This is the reason why Maine coon price is high.
Rewarding for doing the right thing
The second step is probably the most difficult for you, but not necessarily for your Maine Coon.
If you want your Maine Coon to learn to sit, shake your hand, or give you a high five, you should reward them every time they do exactly what you want them to do. The difficult part is not to accept half-correct answers rather than demanding completely correct ones. Your Maine Coon cat will be confused as to what exactly triggers the treat unless you are completely consistent in what you ask for.
For example, if you want a high five, you shouldn't reward the cat for placing a paw on the back of your hand, but rather remain stubborn until you get palm-to-palm contact.
No matter how frustrating it can be – your Maine Coon may take some time to get it right – you need to stick to your guns and not settle for anything less than perfection.
Teaching more complex behavior
Handshakes, high fives, and sitting are usually the first tricks to teach Maine Coons. Complex maneuvers such as:
Take out
Jumping on a chair (or even through a hoop)
Rolling over or playing dead
The sky is the limit as Maine Coons can learn most tricks you can imagine. You should be careful and limit your training time to around 15 minutes. You don't want to stress or bore your cat, so if you haven't learned the trick in that time, it's better to try again tomorrow.
Leave a Comment:
To notify a previous commenter, mention their user name: @peter or @peter-smith if there are spaces.
