Training & Behavior

I bought the clicker for the dog, because the dog is the one with the attention span and the will to please and the habit of caring what I think. The cat, Pixie, was supposed to watch from the sofa and judge us, which is her primary hobby. Within four days she'd claimed the clicker as her own project, and I'm still a little sore about it, because I hadn't planned to train a cat at all and she didn't ask permission.

How it started was an accident. I was clicking and treating the dog for a sit in the living room, and Pixie, who misses nothing, trotted over and parked herself directly in front of me, tail up, looking at the treat like she'd been invited. I clicked once for her just to see, and she sat. Not a flop, a proper sit, like she'd been doing it for years and was offended I'd never noticed. The dog stood behind her looking confused and slightly betrayed.

Cats learn the clicker faster than people expect, because they're pragmatic, and the click means food with a reliability dogs sometimes doubt. Pixie picked up spin in two sessions, targeting my hand in three, and a high-five that she performs with the air of a performer who knows the audience is hers. The dog can do all of these too, but he does them with effort, whereas she does them with the confidence of someone who's realised the humans will pay for literally anything.

The trick was timing, the same as with any animal. Click the exact moment the behaviour happens, not a second after, because a cat has already moved on and is wondering why you're making that noise. I kept sessions to ninety seconds, because a cat who's had enough will simply walk away and there's no arguing her back, and short sessions meant she always left wanting one more, which is how you keep a cat interested in a thing.

The dog took it as competition, which improved him without me doing a thing. He started offering behaviours faster, sitting the second he saw the clicker, because Pixie was clearly racking up treats and he is not a dog who enjoys being out-earned in his own kitchen. I'd accidentally created a training rivalry, and both animals got sharper for it, which is not the outcome I expected from buying one plastic noisemaker.

She still beats him to the mark most days, and I've made my peace with it. A cat who chooses to work with you, even for snacks, is a small wonder, and Pixie chose it on her own terms. The dog got the clicker I bought, and the cat got the better deal, which feels about right for how these two divide the house between them.

Not every cat will take to this, and Pixie's enthusiasm is partly her, partly the fact that she was food-motivated and unbothered by noise, which is the exact profile that makes clicker work easy. A skittish cat might need weeks of just the click and a tossed treat from across the room before she'll approach, and that's fine, because the clicker meets the cat where she is, not where the dog happens to be on any given afternoon.

I keep the sessions short on purpose, because a cat who's had enough simply leaves, and a training plan that relies on the animal not being allowed to leave is a plan built on a misunderstanding of cats. Ninety seconds, end on a win, let her walk away wanting more, and she'll be waiting by the clicker next time, which is the most flattering thing a cat has ever done for me, and I tell her so.

The dog, for his part, has accepted his second-place finish with the grace of a golden retriever, which is to say none at all, and he still tries to muscle in on her sessions, which means I click them separately now or there's a scrum on the living room floor. Two animals, one clicker, and the cat who was never meant to be trained turned out to be the better student, which is either funny or humbling depending on the day and my mood.

I never set out to train a cat, and that's probably why it worked, because I had no expectations for her and no script to defend, so I followed what she offered instead of what the book said a cat should do. Pixie trained herself, in a sense, and I just held the clicker and tried to keep up, which is the most honest description of good animal training I've found, and the one I wish someone had handed me before the dog and all his obedience drills.

Pixie never read the drills, and that, more than anything, is precisely why she won.