When you get involved with training an animal, you begin to recognize that there is more to it then giving a verbal command and expecting an immediate response. Typically, those verbal commands are only going to work when you are within earshot of the animal and there are going to be times when you want to have the animal listen to what you want them to do, even when you aren’t saying thing. That is when you want your pet to understand a form of sign language.
Many people are familiar with the sign commands that are given to dogs, such as raising your hand straight over your head to have them sit or waving your hand in front of their face to have them wait. It may come as a surprise to you that it is not only possible to teach a dog this type of sign language, it is also possible to teach cats a similar form of sign language as well.
It is important to understand that, when I talk about teaching your cat sign language, I’m not talking about teaching them how to communicate with you through sign. I’m talking about teaching the cats specific signs that they will understand, such as those associated with commands, such as sit, come or stay.
Of course, it is also necessary for you to teach your cat those verbal commands if you expect them to understand the associated signs as well. Rather than teaching them the verbal commands and then adding the signs in later, you can do so simultaneously. The cats will be able to distinguish the two from each other and will end up responding, regardless of whether you are using a verbal command or a sign.
As far as the amount of time that you spend training at cat, this is going to be different than how much time you would spend training the dog. You could spend hours with a dog but cats have a limited attention span when it comes to doing what you want them to do. Limit each training session to approximately five minutes and maybe do them twice a day, rather than doing them only once per day.
If there is one thing that you will need when teaching your cat sign language, it’s persistence. Your cat is not going to understand right away but with patience on your part, you would be surprised what they will learn to do.