How to Teach Your Cat to Come When Called

How to Teach Your Cat to Come When Called

Hey, that's my food.

You need to make sure that your cat will come to you when you call him/her for several reasons. You may not want to leave him outside if you need to leave the house for a while. You may want him to come indoors at night.  You may have seen dogs or other cats about and wish to protect him from unecessary confrontations, especially if he is young.

It is quite easy to train a cat to come when called and the simplest way is to use his feeding routine as the training ground. It's not important to try to teach him his name as a cat's name is only significant to its owners, the cat really isn't bothered! Owners like to give their cat a name but a cat will answer to anything as long as it is spoken in the same tone of voice. It is the basic sound of the call which matters.

But back to using food for training.  At feeding time, make a loud and specific noise, like rattling a spoon or knife on the side of the can of cat food. If he eats mainly dry food shake the box of cat biscuits as loudly as you can.  He will soon learn to associate these sounds with  feeding time and will come at once.

At the same time repeat his name over and over again, loudly enough for him to hear it as you rattle the cat food can or shake the biscuit box. He will learn to link the sound of his name, together with the other noises, with being fed and will come very quickly.

cats eating

Soon you will find that he comes running up to you just when you call his name, without the other feeding noises being present. Of course, rewarding him with a little treat will help reinforce this good behaviour.

  If it's not feeding time but he has still come when you called offer him something nice, whether it is a food treat, petting and words of praise or some playtime together.  A simple home-made toy, such as a scrap of paper tied to a string, can provide great fun, especially for kittens.  Cats respond as much to affectionate attention as to food and when this is used to encourage desirable behaviour it produces good results.

Some cats can be a bit slow to pick up the cues an owner gives them.  If your cat doesn't come for food as soon as he hears the signals, feed him a smaller amount.  He will respond much more readily if he is really hungry, so call his name loudly while you rattle that spoon in the can or shake that biscuit box!

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