Richard and
Mary Torrens
and Cats
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Richard and
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Over the years I have owned many cats - almost all of which we have been able to take for walks. There seems to be something much more rewarding, in my mind, about walking a cat rather than walking a dog, but it is not always quite such an easy thing to to with a cat. One of the reasons we like walking the cat is that you meet far more people: dogs are far too common. A cat with you, on or off the lead, is a far better conversation piece than is a dog! Also a dog on a walk tends to dominate you. With a cat, if you want to stop to photograph a flower, that's fine by the cat, but a dog is likely to come and chivvy you up! Also a cat on a walk will generally tend to stay quite close to you. Dogs usually do not!
So how do you choose a kitten that will enjoy coming for walks with you? How do you train a cat to walk? Good questions, but I am afraid I can give no definitive answers. However I hope that I can give you some understanding of the various drives and fears of the feline mind so you understand better the pros and cons! In my experience, almost all young cats will quickly learn that walking is fun! It is likely that you will soon find them coming to you and asking you for something: their food bowl is full, they have water, they are active, don't want affection. What else can they be asking than that you come for a walk? As a final proof, once you have walked them they quickly settle. But it's not always easy for a human to know what a cat wants, so a process of elimination is necessary and that sometimes leads to only one answer!
In all animals (including mankind) learned behaviour (nurture) operates on and develops) the animal's own inherent genetic tendencies (nature). The interaction is so complex that scientists to this day do not properly understand it, nor does it seem possible to say, even with the benefit of hindsight, exactly what proportion of the animal's behaviour was due to nature and what due to nurture! So, when buying a kitten, there seems to be no way of being sure how it will develop. But there may, if you can read them, be some pointers!
Of one thing you can be sure however - unless you are very unlucky with your choice of cat, or are bad at training it, your cat will greatly enjoy walks with you and the common experience will develop your cat's character greatly as well as increasing the bond between you. But of course, you didn't chose the kitten because it was pretty, did you? Surely you chose the kitten because it said "you're a nice human - I want to make friends with you".
So do cats have an evolved predisposition to walk? Cats threw in their lot with humans so long ago that we do not know where they evolved, so we know little about their 'environment of evolutionary adaptedness'. However I find that most cats' behaviour is not inconsistent with that of a pack animal where the pack would go on fairly long expeditions to a new hunting ground. Perhaps quite similar to that of a pride of lions. As proof of this, when walking my two cats I have on occasion met a party of people. The cats show a distinct tendency to want to follow the larger pack! The cats are also more at ease when with the whole family (we have three children) rather than with just myself, or even with myself and my wife! Whether there is anything special about the cats I have experienced, I doubt: on a farm, or in a country surrounding, it seems to be quite common for the cats to follow a human leader, acting as a pack! And as I talk To people I get more and more reports of 'yes, my cat does tend to fOllow me up the road'!
All psychological characteristics, be they in human, cat, or other animal, are a balance between two conflicting 'drives' - this seems to come about as a result of the electro-chemical operation of neurons in the brain, where an excitation potential is balanced by an inhibition. Thus curiosity is balance by a 'fear' of the unknown. Exactly where the end behaviour sits on this wide balance depends on the nature and nurture of the individual animal. Probably the easiest way to demonstrate this particular balance is with a herd of cows. When they are at a distance, wave an article of clothing in the air, or do some other action which is likely to be seen by them and with which they will not be familiar. The herd's curiosity will cause then to come to you to investigate. But as they get closer to you, their fear potential will rise, as their curiosity diminishes, they will end up standing in a circle around you - the circle's diameter being the point where their curiosity balances their fear. Make a sudden movement, and they will back off as their fear potential rises. Do something to enhance their curiosity, and they will approach - though this is not so marked, as the potentials involved are clearly not proportional to the distance from you, and any approach will usually be small.
In cats, as in humans, there appear to be three things which can arouse fear:
Thus as humans, we can cope with strange places easier if in the company of familiar friends. Meeting a stranger in a strange place is more stressful than would be meeting that same stranger in the familiarity of our own homes. And what do airlines do - their passengers are, for the most part, amongst strangers in a strange situation. So the airlines keep us plied with food so we can engage in the very familiar (and therefore comforting) action of eating. Seems to me that cats are no different to humans in their feelings about strange people/places/situations - though they do show it differently! So a cat who is bonded to and trusts its human owners is going to be much more adventurous than is one without such trust!
Cats are hunters. Although territorial, they enjoy exploring. I also suspect strongly that the cats ancestors were to some extent pack animal, perhaps living in a pride as do female lions. Certainly almost all cats will bond to a human family and will learn to enjoy going places with the family. Almost every cat I have known has had no trouble settling down on a long journey with the family! A cat in a cat on a long journey is the best pacifier of children I have known. They also, as a result, de-stress the adults!
Cats seem to be very sensitive to humans, in a similar way to dogs. If the human is on edge, the cat will catch the tension just as will a dog. So if you take your cat in the car. expecting them to misbehave, they are likely to catch this tension and they will then misbehave! Any animal trainer will tell you that, to train an animal, you must be relaxed and confident at all times.
Trained correctly, almost all cats will walk and enjoy doing it!
Cats have a high curiosity. But they are also intrinsically territorial - so they have a fear of strange places, which will balance their curiosity. Ameliorating the fear is their bonding to and trust in their owner. A cat that has a trusting and loving relationship with their owner is easier able to take the stresses of strange places and situations in their stride.
Cats are however strongly creatures of instinct: almost all of them are semi-nocturnal, and do not like open places. So a cat is more at home in a wood, or on well-hedged path, than in an open field. So - get any cat near a dense thicket and they are going to want to disappear into the undergrowth! But it can be very trying if your cat is on a long lead and the lead gets tangled in bushes - or up a tree. You can absolutely guarantee that the cat will never come out the same way it went in!
In 1973 we had a Siamese cat, called Zanna. When we bought her, we also had a dog (called Limbo). Now cats and dogs, if they get on together at all, do so extremely well. The Siamese and the dog were the best of friends, sitting and playing together, as the photos show.
In fact, so good was this cat-dog relationship that once, on holiday, we left Limbo outside Woolworths, with Zanna tied to him. When we came out, there they were with a crowd of about 10 people gathered round admiring them. Zanna also so trusted Limbo that, when she had kittens, Limbo helped wash and clean the new-born kittens.
These kittens were born at a rather awkward moment: came the summer holidays: what to do? The kittens were too young, and we could hardly dump them all in a cattery. So off we went in the trailer tent. Self, wire, 3 young daughters with cat, dog and kittens in the back of the car! Imagine what a stir they caused at the camp site! I well remember the oldest daughter taking Zanna, parking her on her back, on her knees. Zanna was quite comfortable positioned thus. Then one by one our daughter 'plugged in' the kittens to Zanna's teats!
These kittens were weaned on holiday, on Welsh mussels we had picked!
With such a strong cat-dog bond, it is small wonder that Zanna was happy to go almost anywhere Limbo went - though she did draw the line when Limbo went into a river! Much of the time both cat and dog would run happily together off the lead.
Until recently, I had thought that this cat-dog bond was the main reason Zanna was so easy to take places. But as experience has grown, I am less certain. Looking at photos collected over the years, they show most of our cats following us on walks (both on and off a lead) - not only our Siamese cats, but also other cats we had - ones with no known Siamese blood! Most cats have a tendency to follow their owners but, if following of their own free will, they usually tend to stop when they reach the edge of their territory. If you are lucky enough to live in a suitable place, it may not take much encouragement to get your cat to follow you further and if it's coming with more cats, used to walking, no problem! However, if your cat stops at the edge of its territory, it is because it is at this point that the desire to follow balances out the 'fear' of being in a strange place (i.e. outside their own familiar territory).
You can however use this tendency to follow to train a cat to walk with you! Clearly, not all cats will do this and it will be more or less successful depending on the cat's temperament, but I would bet that a high proportion of cats can be trained!
You will need:
We find the 'Flexi' leads (by Trixie) to be excellent. They have a low tension which is quite constant over the lead's whole extension, so they are very good even for young kittens.
We bought a stripey pet carrier - no longer available from ouur source, so see Your kitten is likely to have had a car journey when you got it. Was it distressed, curious, excited? Excitement and distress are so related that they can be difficult to tell apart. A vocal cat will make the same noise for both! Probably you had your new kitten in a carrier - maybe it did not like being confined. So park the car, leave the doors open, let the cat explore inside the car. If the cat is happy, shut the doors, start the engine. If you are in the car, and the cat is reassured by your presence, the engine noise should be no problem. Next, let the cat have some freedom to walk around the car when it is going. Once the cat's used to the car, take it to a wood for a picnic. You will have to get it used to the harness and lead first of course. Let the cat explore on the lead at full length if it wants to. Most cats find new country places very interesting, so very rewarding!
Be aware also that a cat's eyes are evolved for seeing motion. If a cat is not used to it, seeing the world rush by outside the car at 70 mph can be quite frightening. However if you take the cat somewhere nice, doing short trips initially, it will soon get to enjoy car rides. Most cats I have known have liked to take some time on the parcel shelf, looking out of the window! Long journeys with the family can be a distinct pleasure to a cat: rarely do they get captive laps so easy to sit on!
Clearly, if you want to get your cat to walk, first you will need to get it used to the car. Yes, some cats find cars simply too frightening, but lots do not. In my experience, I can only recall one cat who finds the car distressing, but we have always introduced the cats to the car at a young age.
Once the cat is used to the car, the harness, and investigating new places with you, now comes the harrowing bit (harrowing for you, not the cat!). For the easiest way to train a cat to walk on a lead it to first get it to follow you, off the lead!
If you take your cat to a new place, and let it explore - it will wander off and gradually explore the new place, but staying near enough to you for its own comfort. You may not know where moggie is, but as long as you don't move, the cat will knowing where you are, and won't go too far away.
So take the cat out enough and you will get to know the sort of places that interest it, and the sort of places that scare it silly, and the sort of places where it is not sure whether to be interested, or scared! Remember that a field walk, with a well defined path, may look open to you, but from a cat's perspective, it will be quite well covered.
To get you cat to walk with you, you need a place where it is not distressed, but not inclined to dive too far into the bushes to explore either. Somewhere where there are well defined paths and no people or dogs (depending on how you and your cat react to them!) or other distractions to scare the cat.
So your cat is on the lead, not following you, but investigating. Now take it off the lead, and walk away from it, calling it to follow. At some distance from you, the cat will realise that you are gone, and will start shouting for you. Probably this distance will be shorter than it was when the lead was present - the lead you have taken off made the car feel 'connected' to you. Off the lead, it will probably be less secure.
Once the cat is at its 'distress distance' - it will almost certainly follow you. However be aware that cats have long distance eye sight that is not as good as a human's - at its distress distance, it probably won't recognise you and you need to reassure it and call it with voice! You may find a rattle or dog training clicker or some mechanical device more effective: I have just trained a cat who, although she clearly responded to my voice, did not seem to realise from which direction it came, and who tended therefore to back-track over ground she knew, to where she last saw me. So you need a place sufficiently open, but not too open for the cat, and with well defined paths, where you can se her unless you choose to deliberately hide.
In UK, DEFRA have a series of environmental walks (now listed on Natural England www site) , many round farmland: I used one of these very successfully.
So training a cat to walk is not too difficult, depending on the cat, but you need to understand your cat! What places do they like too much, so won't follow you? What places scare them into hiding? What placed excite them just enough, with just enough fear factor so they follow you. Think like your cat!
A black Siamese. Got her about November 1990. A lovely cat but very highly-strung and full of claws. She would take a flying leap and land like a velcro-cat on your back. Very painful!
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| Cleo on a (long) lead | Cleo trying to scare a cow |
Clearly, Cleo enjoyed walking. I have many other pictures of her walking with us, both on the lead and of it. She did not live long - victim of a traffic accident not a year later. We were catless for a couple of years afterwards!
Fluffy was an ordinary tortoiseshell moggie we picked up from a rescue centre: she must have been about 8 weeks old. The other kittens ignored us, Fluffy snuggled into my wife's arms as if to say 'you're nice, take me home'. So we did. Fluffy would follow us, off the lead. But she had a tendency, when we got to where she thought we were going, to vanish into the bushes. But I hadn't used the above method to fully train her to come to voice. I think, looking back, if I had, she would have enjoyed walking with us, and my wife would not have been so nervous about loosing her! However - we had unruly children, who were more than a handful. Walking the cats stopped for long enough for us both to forget how much we had done! Fluffy too was killed on the road.
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| On the old railway near home | The family in the woods near Duckpool (Bude, Cornwall) |
Fluffy had kittens: Blackie is her daughter. Blackie never was quite as intelligent as Fluffy and somehow was never happy in the car. Then there were three children, all wanting to go different ways at different speeds. So we never took her on many walks. But I strongly suspect that she, too, would have responded to the above method and, enjoying the results of car rides, would have got used to the car!
Looking for another cat, we were offered a half Bengal so we read up on Bengals and realised that Candy was almost certainly part Bengal. They seemed to be the cat for us and we decided to go the whole hog and get a pure Bengal. She is much stronger willed that have been the other cats but enjoys the countryside and walks just a much, if not more so. However, she is sufficiently headstrong that controlling her on an outing proved initially difficult. As long as she was in control, and I was letting her do her own thing, all was well. But pick her up or put her in the bag - if she did not want it, I had a wildcat! So I decided to put my theory to the test.
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Xanna's first time out, her first tree! Immediate action!
16th June 2006 |
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"Oooh - there's a stream that looks interesting!"
16th June 2006 |
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"Are there any fish in here?"
16th June 2006 |
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"or in here?" Clearly Xanna enjoys it on the lead, as long as I am following her!
16th June 2006 |
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but Xanna shows no inclination to follow - that cord is 20 metres long. The hedge is far more interesting that I am!
3rd July 2006 |
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"Thank goodness - daddy's not deserted me - but I'd better catch him fast!". I had let her off the lead and walked away from her, calling to her. I soon found her 'distress distance. After that no problem!
3rd July 2006 |
After letting her off the lead, on the first walk (about 1 mile long), she lost me and had to call for me about 4 times. On the second walk (same place, with my wife), when we went rather faster than the first time, the only time she has to call for us was when she needed a toilet stop! I anticipate few problems walking her in future!
Now, 2 weeks after first letting Xanna off the lead, we have taken her (with the new Siamese 'Misty' for more walks. At the sight of the pet carrier and lead, she clearly gets excited and in the car she is up at a window keenly watching where we are going! Bengals do seem to be able to anticipate walks better than most other cats, but their enjoyment of a walk is no more than other cats!
There is more to come on this subject and many more photos I could add. In the meanwhile, use the contact button if you find this interesting, helpful. Or If you follow the hints and get a happy cat as a result!
The above is based entirely on my own experience. Maybe I pick different cats to you. Maybe your cat will not behave as I say. Don't blame me if your cat panics and runs under a bus or over a cliff! Why were you walking the cat so close to danger anyway?