You plan and plan but sometimes things change...

This past few weeks have been very hard for me and my cats. Me and my wife decided to part way and thank god she left me Sammi and Isla for now. She is planning on taking them soon and I'm just scared she won't care for them in a manner that will keep them healthy for a long life.
I have been spending a lot of time researching how to better communicate with my cats, how to feed them properly, how to take care of their coat and keep them busy in the winter season... I know that to make my cats lead a better and happier life, I need to spend time to learn what's best for them and what is not.
My worry is that my ex disagrees with me. Unfortunately she believes that cats don't need anything but enough dry food to last the day and a clean litter box. Of course she loves them and plays with them once in a while, but if you are a true cat lover you know that's not enough.
I truly tried explaining to her the benefits to a protein rich diet and an active cat, rather than filling your pet up on carbohydrates (dry food) and letting them babysit an apartment, basically couch sitting all day. I don't know if she just doesn't believe me (and anyone else for that matter who cares enough about their cats to read about what's good for them) or she just genuinely does not care if my precious cats live 5 more years or 20 more years...
I'm sorry this post is a bit sad and projects my frustration but this is a part of life and if anyone has any advice for me, I'll be happy to entertain it. I don't wish on anyone to have to give up their cats in such a way. I love Sammi and Isla and no matter where they are or what happends I'll do what ever is in my power to see that they are taken care of!

The SIT command is setting in

It's hard clicker training two cats. I try to keep them separated to teach a new trick but it's very hard, they both usually get hungry together. But this week I've seen real progress with both of them. Isla has caught up to Sammi in her understanding of the 'UP' command, and Sammi started getting bored of it.
So yesterday I started working on the 'SIT' command. It's much harder than I thought, and different than target training. Thankfully, my girlfriend who was a dog trainer in the Israeli Army came back home and gave me some solid tips. We separated the cats, and instead of me hovering the target in front and above the cat - I showed the treat, than I crouched next to the cat (side by side) and let them see the treat above their head. As soon as their bottom hit the ground, click!
Of course it took more than a session of clicking and training for them to understand what's happening, but it confused them much less when I was crouched beside them and not in front. A nice little tip, maybe it'll help you. Until next time, Happy cat training. Click!

Take it Easy

I decided to try and take it easy today on the clicker training... But
Isla really howled for her new favorite food which isn't even cat food, it's microwaved fish (I was eating last dinner), well... It's better than wet food because it's all meat and less fat.
Anyways, I'll give you all the details soon at Sammi and Isla's 'favorite treats and foods' area (in working progress...) on our website .
So Isla kept asking for it, I had to give to her. I was shocked to see how amazingly she remembered the 'UP' command she only did once the other day. She murmured a bit, trying to be lazy and just get her fish, but then a paw was coming up to the target with her whole body stretch, wow! oh yea, and this was in front of more people eating in the kitchen. she knew exactly how to follow my command on cue, 3 times in a row !!.
To be honest I had doubts about the system working on her. At first it seemed like she was scared of the clicker until I slowly just brought it to her with treats. But my real hope was that maybe she'll catch up when she observes Sammi training, and... YES. All my doubts flew out the window now... Isla is catching up fast and reacting like I've never seen before.

How I started training my cats

At first it was very hard to keep the cats apart. I took the hungriest cat and prepared:

• A shallow bowl.
• Clicker.
• Training wand.
• Another bowl with small chunks of fish.
  
• Dispensable spoon.
  

I used the spoon to break out small pieces of food, and letting my cat sniff the goods :)
Now I show Sammi the training wand; no....no... he wants the food !
So I dip the edge of the wand in some of his food, I put it about an inch from his nose...
As his nose makes it's way to the edge of my wand, click! and than lure him with the real
food (still in the spoon) to the shallow bowl where I treat to it.
I kept the wand at close range, every time he touched nose - click! treat... and again.
I got 8 clicks with Sammi this first session, so I'm pretty happy about that.
Then Isla came in the room, and gave me and my wand a nasty look. But with time, she'll
hopefully observe the training with Sammi, and of course - she gets her treats, so she won't flip out.

How Clicker Cat Training helped fix aggresive behavior problems

After I have experienced Clicker training my cats for myself, the change is felt more than expected. the overall relationship dynamics between both cats and me are gradually becoming apparent.

Before I started clicker training interaction with my cats, Sammi would start howling none stop. We tried ignoring him, hissing and everything else, but our biggest problem was - he would then go out and vent his anger on poor little Isla who only wanted to rest.
Fortunately in the past few weeks, while I've been extensively changing their diet to benefit our cat clicker training, he's attitude is starting to change for the better.
Slowly, it seems our relationship is taking a turn in an unknown but SWEET direction (I never thought I'd be writing this ever about a cat either), I can't explain it.
For your sake, I am planning on covering a detailed log of my training sessions with both cats, and hope to finish soon a 'clicker training log' we could all use to track how are cat training is going.
I have all my first sessions on paper, and will soon put them up on this blog, of course I'll grab the best videos I made also, so you can see for yourself how my cats are responding to these training sessions.

Training Log - 6th Day

6th day of training, finally Isla reacted to the 'UP' command after refusal to react for the past week. Today I tried a new treat that I found out Isla LOVES (microwavable fish), which is better anyways because it's straight meat with no fat and preserves...
I don't know if it is the new treat or the fact that she's been watching Sammi do the 'UP' command for a few days now. But in any case, a very big step forward for her.
Sammi, is a taking very big steps too. I can securely say he knows and remembers the 'UP' command. Now I want to work on 'SIT' and make him distinguish between the two...
That's my next step.