The happy and stable relationship between cats and cat lovers depends much on cats’ health and the care cat lovers give their cats. The cats’ anomaly-free behaviours depend on the attention cat lovers pay to their cats. Cats’ health and anomaly-free behaviours are closely linked to cats’ daily behavioural habits, which, to many cat lovers’ surprise, can be trained.

Actually, there are a number of benefits of training cats’ obedience once they become indoor domestic cats. First, it builds a strong bond between cats and cat lovers. Second, it keeps the cats’ mind active and stimulated. Third, it teaches cats good social behavioural skills in the process of interactive play. Fourth, anxious and nervous cats are given reassurance by repetition and routines of training.

In this section, we will have a look at how we can train our cats to be obedient in a few major aspects of cats’ lives, namely toileting, and eating and drinking. We will also look at how we can train the cats to establish normal habits, as well as avoiding any destructive behaviours.

Toileting

The main idea of toilet training for cats is that we train them to use the toilet as we do to replace the use of the litter box. In some occasions (such as solving litter box avoidance or little space for litter box in the house), it would be more ideal and practical to have cats eliminate at the toilet instead of the cat litter box. However, cats are naturally not used to eliminating using toilets, which is a human invention.

For this reason, we need to train them. However, it takes time and involves a series of stages of small changes for cats to adjust before they are used to it completely and make it their own natural habit. We are going to explain how to do it below.

Training is a step-by-step and gradual process of imitation, which involves following of actions and examples. This is important especially for toileting, as we will see why below. Therefore, it would be best if we have our own habits set (or adjusted) before we expect our cats to fulfil our “requirements” or “expectations”. In other words, when we train our cats, we might be training ourselves as well.

Lid Up, Seat Down – The first habit we need to build and keep is: Lid Up, Seat Down. As the words say, we need to have the lid turning up all the time, especially if we have the habit of turning it down for various reasons (including hygiene or purely personal preference). This is the first pre-requisite for cats to be able to see the opening of the toilet before they can jump on it and eliminate.

It can be the case that cats will eliminate in other available openings, such as a bathtub or shower-booth, if they do not see the opened toilet or cannot lid up the toilet. This is not what we want to see.

This is the joint-effort of the whole household, so it would be necessary to leave a written note of “Always keep lid up” or something similar at a noticeable spot (such as the back of the washroom door) to remind every family member or guest to keep this habit all the time. Apart from the toilet lid, it is equally important to keep the washroom door opened all the time for the same reason, if we have the habit otherwise.

Relocated and Modified Litter Box – Another thing we need to do is to place the litter box close to the toilet, in case the litter box is formerly placed elsewhere. If possible, the most ideal location is next to the toilet obviously because the proximity between the litter box and the toilet helps us to train them more effectively. Once this setting is done, let the cats know where the box is (if it is a new location), and let them be used to the habit for a day to a week, depending on their learning speed.

Once the cats are used to the location of the litter box, we raise the litter box gradually (by about an inch each time) by putting something under the litter box. It can be a stack of newspapers, a phone book, a cardboard box or other solid thing. If necessary, fix the position of the box by taping the box with the stack to avoid the box from collapsing and for cats’ safety and sense of security. Again, when we find that the cats are used to this raised level, we raise it by one inch further. Repeat this level rise until the litter box is around the level of the top of the toilet seat.

Some tips may be helpful here: the cats may step into the box at the beginning of the process, and jump up into it when they are used to the new height of the box. As it goes on, they may even jump up onto the toilet seat first before they step into the box. If this happens, we can be happy because the cats start to get the habit.

Now that the cats are ready for the height of eliminating, we move on and modify the shape of the eliminating tool, shaping the litter box environment to the toilet bowl environment. To do this, remove the supporting materials under the litter box and put it directly above the toilet seat. Let the cats eliminate on top of the toilet bowl and get used to the environment.

Then, we prepare to remove the litter box by replacing it with a litter bowl that resembles the top of the toilet bowl. To do this, measure the inside diameter of the top of toilet bowl with the seat lifted. Then prepare a metal mixing bowl of that diameter. Do not consider plastic bowl because it cannot support the cats’ weight and will collapse.

Once the cats are ready to eliminate on top of the toilet bowl, replace the litter box with the metal bowl that covers the toilet bowl. Then, lower the seat and transfer the litter from the litter box to the metal bowl and fill about two inches in height. This may take around a week before the cats become used to this habit. Of course, we need to remove the metal bowl when we use the toilet, and put it on again when the cats use it.

Final stage: the cats eliminate on top of the toilet bowl without the metal bowl. At this stage, observe the number of feet the cats get up on the toilet seat (as opposed to down in the metal box); the more feet the better because we can teach them to have proper squatting posture on the bowl (their front legs in the middle and hind legs on the outside). This would take some time for us to adjust their posture until they are used to it and eliminate naturally and comfortably.

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