On Training Cats

I love training my cats. They enjoy our training time also. If I come home from work and we don't start the training right away they'll follow me around and meow like crazy! If I really don't have time or don't feel well, we'll just perform a couple of tricks, I'll say "All done!", and that gets them off my case.

Before I got cats there were lots of people saying that it's impossible to train cats. "It's not in their nature" they'd say. Well, I don't know, I'm pretty sure eating tuna is in their nature. They very eagerly try to do what I ask (even when I'm trying to teach them a new command) in exchange for a bite of stinky fish.

Here I ask Tigger to perform the "Up" command (without the hand gesture!) and she obliges

I feel like it has definitely bonded us. They like the attention, I like that they do what I ask. We've learned many commands, some useful, some not (I'm yet to find a real use for "Twirl"). The "Come" command is pretty easy to teach and is totally indispensable. The only thing we're having trouble with is walking on a leash. They both learned to "walk, walk" beside my leg and "sit" when I stop. We can walk all day like that, but the leash totally throws them off. Doing the commands in a harness - no big. As soon as I attach the leash they get really flustered.

Have any of you ever tried to train a cat? Were you successful? I've heard of leash-walking success stories, and I really wanted us to be one, but my cats aren't really down with it.