Why is training cats more difficult than dogs? 0 12

Some people believe that cats cannot be trained at all — they are too independent for that. However, these pets can be taught to follow commands and even jump through hoops — such tricks are demonstrated by cats in some circuses. Nevertheless, training cats does take significantly more time than training dogs. Is the reason that cats are inherently more free-spirited?

A key aspect of animal training is their motivation to perform certain actions. The best incentive is food, as animals in the wild are willing to exert maximum effort for sustenance. Food is a necessary element for survival, so even domestic pets that do not experience a shortage of food are still willing to perform tricks to get more food and store it in their bodies “for later.”

In the wild, dogs and cats obtain food in different ways, and this is the reason for their differing learning speeds. These animals have very different hunting techniques. Dogs can chase prey for several kilometers until they are exhausted. Therefore, the tricks that a person makes a dog perform to obtain food do not seem particularly difficult to the dog — it is used to hunting, overcoming many obstacles and exerting a lot of effort.

Cats hunt in a completely different way. They try to conserve their energy as much as possible to avoid wasting it. This is why domestic cats sleep so much — they do not want to expend energy that may be needed at any moment to escape from predators or chase prey. Cats typically hunt small animals, such as mice or birds, which do not provide a large amount of energy. Therefore, pets try not to expend more energy on hunting than the food will give them — they often wait in hiding and then pounce on their prey with a quick movement.

Thus, when you try to train a cat, its motivation lasts only for a short time — it simply does not see the point in continuing to hunt, which will yield so little food but require a lot of energy.