If the Bribe is Right: Tips on Cat Training and Bribery

Cat and owner relationship is a complicated thing.  To give a statement on how it will go is more complicated. But for someone who knows how to use bribery to his advantage, he can sum it up in a statement:  Cats love rewards the same way that cat owners love obedient pets.

Using the "bribe" method is not as easy as just giving rewards to pets.  It cannot be contested that bribery has a lot of things to offer to trainers. But certain principles must be employed.  A systematic program must be adopted to achieve maximum effectiveness.

Here are some thoughts to consider in training cats using the "bribe" method.

1.   Cats are rewards seeking, punishment fearing creatures.

Cats will only do things that they find enjoyable and satisfying to do. If trainers want them to do something that they find pleasing, they will be more than willing to do so if the "bribe is right," so to speak.

2.  Cats associate their actions with consequences.

Cats learn through experiences. They behave based on what they recall.  Let us take these two cases to further explain this concept:

-  Trainer A uses force whenever he sees his cat defecating in the wrong places.  He shouts at the cat, telling it to defecate in the assigned area.  He then presses its butt on the litter box.  He has done this routine a lot of times, but his cat never learned.        

-  Trainer B rubbed his cat's belly when it misbehaved.  The cat did stop misbehaving in that instance. However, Trainer B observed that his cat misbehaves more often than before.                     

Because cats associate their actions to the consequences, the trainers in both situations did not achieve their desired result . This failure can be associated with the use of wrong tactics to motivate the cats.

Employing the "bribe" method will be more effective in this situation.  Just remember that cats seek rewards.

3.  Systematic training will do the trick.

Trainers must design their training programs.  The program depends on their cats' attitude. Things to be included in the program are the specific tasks that the trainers want their cats to do and the corresponding rewards.  This method will deliver the results that you want only if you stick to the program that you did. Consistency is a key factor at this stage.

As for the trainers, the only bribe that this article has to offer is that after this program, you will have more obedient cats.