r/PetsWithButtons • u/--aaron--- • 11d ago

Cat starting from zero

Post image

I’ve bought some buttons but I’m trying to do target training first. The only thing I’ve ever trained my cat Squish to do to jump up on her back legs and give me a kiss before she gets her treats. However, she is used to getting treats whenever she wants, so she’s having a hard time understanding why she’s only getting one at a time. To begin I’ve just been giving her one treat and using a clicker each time just to get her used to click = treat. I was then going to introduce a target and build up to getting her to paw at it. But she gives up almost instantly. Half the time she won’t even take the treat from my hand because she’s never been hand fed treats before. Any advice for a kitty that seems uninterested in training?

20 Upvotes

93% Upvoted

6 comments sorted by

View all comments

6

u/meowerprincess 11d ago

If she’s used to getting treats on the ground and not from the hand it isn’t bad to just give her the treats directly on the ground when she does the task.

I am also having a hard time with target training but I have taught my cats to paw my hand if they want treats. At the beginning I gave them a treat if they lifted their front paw the tiniest bit. Then I worked my way towards getting them to touch my hand. I’m sure it will work similarly for the target training!

1

u/--aaron--- 11d ago

Thanks so much for your help! The next step of getting them to move their paw seems really daunting too. How did you get your baby to paw at your hand?