– Customer review on 03/11/2008

Clicker training in itself is a brilliant thing to teach a cat (or any pet) and I found this book to be a useful reference tool when doing clicker training with my cat.

To be fair, I had done a lot of prior reading up about the topic online, and had actually started to do clicker training prior to purchasing the book. It is a GREAT book for beginners, but there were places where I would have liked the author to go into greater detail about the finer points of clicker training. For example, there is no guide as to what to do if you click at the wrong time (certainly something most beginners will do several times over, often in the one session) - should you still treat, or pretend it didn't happen?

One good thing worthy of noting (or buying the book) is of the first technique you should train your cat to do; targeting. Definitely don't be tempted to just jump in and train your cat until you've read up about "the default behaviour" and target training.

This book has also given me a couple of ideas of things I can train my cat to do, however it is likely I could have found these on the internet, or with a bit of imagination, come up with them myself. I did love the anecdotes and humourous stories of the author's own experience of clicker training her cats.

Overall, it's a brilliant compilation of all the basics, and a few fun things thrown in for good measure. Definitely not a mistake buying. And a great way to improve your relationship with your feline.

– Customer review on 18/07/2007

After a a few weeks of settling in, I thought I’d give some clicker training a go with the new kitten Lucy, Destroyer of (Laptop) Mice.

In a word, astounding.

I’m only peripherally familiar with operand conditioning, but I bought Karen Pryor’s "Clicker Training for Cats" book from Fishpond. I started on Sunday with loading the click with chicken liver treats. After four or five clicks she had cottoned on. Ten clicks later she was targeting a Biro with her nose and I could lead her around the room with it. Five more clicks and she was giving me high fives in the air with her paws. This all took less than five minutes!

Now it’s Wednesday and she’s quite reliably giving me high fives, coming when called, sitting and staying on her spot and getting down from the table, all on command. For some obscure reason teaching her to switch the light off on command and to play the piano are high on the list.

Cats are just as trainable as dogs, but you have to do it in much shorter bursts as they tire of it quicker. If you want to click train your cat, this book is the business.