Anyone who's kept a house cat knows this is a bad take. Cats are in charge of the relationship. When they don't want anything, they ignore you. When they want something done, they harass you until you do it. They do not respond to negative reinforcement. If you try to discipline a cat it will not improve its behavior, it will just stop trusting you. They don't fulfill any particularly important need. They just nap in your house and sometimes they might sit in your lap. And you have to wave a string around for them now and then. Anyone who buys a cat with notions of being in charge and exerting control is going to become very frustrated and will probably give the cat away very quickly.
Well they don't respond like dogs at all, so that is the experience for most people, but if you do get them as kittens you can usually, depending on the type of cat, get them to actually do stuff and be patient with you.
Gotta hold them a lot as kittens and touch them all over so they don't freak out and maul you when they slightly want to go somewhere else.
You can also give them treats for very specific things, and they will form habits. We got a 2 year old cat to sleep with us mostly every night, just by finding a treat it really likes and crinkling the package in bed, and feeding it there, a bunch of times, then spacing it out more and more, and now it's like once every 1-2 weeks.
Our other cat has some patience but is more of a grumpy one, but that might be due to the way it grew up. We had a landlord who charged a ton for cats, and literally right after we got it we lost a job, and had to hide that cat, including scaring it away from the window, and leaving it with relatives when the landlord did an inspection or showing, which that cat hated and was stressed out by.
Oh no, you must all think I hate cats or something. I have a cat! She's gentle and affectionate, and I adore her. I just don't feel I have much control over her. You're right about the process of "training" a cat. It's all about making them feel safe and comfortable with doing what you want them to do. Correcting bad behaviors might involve distracting or ignoring them. If you want a cat to behave well, you have to treat it with respect. I don't know where anyone could get the idea that people keep cats to engage in a domineering relationship.
Now dogs on the other hand... lots of people treat dogs that way.
Anyone who's kept a house cat knows this is a bad take. Cats are in charge of the relationship. When they don't want anything, they ignore you. When they want something done, they harass you until you do it. They do not respond to negative reinforcement. If you try to discipline a cat it will not improve its behavior, it will just stop trusting you. They don't fulfill any particularly important need. They just nap in your house and sometimes they might sit in your lap. And you have to wave a string around for them now and then. Anyone who buys a cat with notions of being in charge and exerting control is going to become very frustrated and will probably give the cat away very quickly.
Well they don't respond like dogs at all, so that is the experience for most people, but if you do get them as kittens you can usually, depending on the type of cat, get them to actually do stuff and be patient with you.
Gotta hold them a lot as kittens and touch them all over so they don't freak out and maul you when they slightly want to go somewhere else.
You can also give them treats for very specific things, and they will form habits. We got a 2 year old cat to sleep with us mostly every night, just by finding a treat it really likes and crinkling the package in bed, and feeding it there, a bunch of times, then spacing it out more and more, and now it's like once every 1-2 weeks.
Our other cat has some patience but is more of a grumpy one, but that might be due to the way it grew up. We had a landlord who charged a ton for cats, and literally right after we got it we lost a job, and had to hide that cat, including scaring it away from the window, and leaving it with relatives when the landlord did an inspection or showing, which that cat hated and was stressed out by.
Oh no, you must all think I hate cats or something. I have a cat! She's gentle and affectionate, and I adore her. I just don't feel I have much control over her. You're right about the process of "training" a cat. It's all about making them feel safe and comfortable with doing what you want them to do. Correcting bad behaviors might involve distracting or ignoring them. If you want a cat to behave well, you have to treat it with respect. I don't know where anyone could get the idea that people keep cats to engage in a domineering relationship.
Now dogs on the other hand... lots of people treat dogs that way.