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Training Tuesday: A Resource For Cat Communication

Humans who want to succeed in teaching animals desired behaviors need to understand what animals are saying to us and to other animals. This means understanding both the range of behaviors that are typical for a species and also the personality of the particular individual.

ck-bleu-2-smlThose who want to understand dogs can find a lot of books and videos.  This isn’t necessarily a good thing because books and videos about dogs range in quality from really super helpful to downright dangerous, and people don’t necessarily know who to believe.

CK-Bleu-3-smlKnowledgeable professionals are starting to publish more resources for cat people. One of the most useful I’ve looked at so far on reading cats’ language of gesture is What Is My Cat Saying: Feline Communication 101 by Carol Byrnes and Jacqueline Munera. This CD includes a thorough PowerPoint presentation with lots of photos and videos of cats in action, communicating with each other and with their humans. You can buy it at Dogwise.com. Although Dogwise publishes and sells products about dogs, they do have a few other titles directed at understanding and living well with cats.

Let’s read some cat to cat communication. Why did Cheshire decide to hang around with Bleu?

What Is My Cat Saying will help meet the challenge. Everyone who comments on this post by April 2 at midnight CDT will be entered in a drawing for a copy of the CD! Include an email for us to contact you if you win the drawing.

4 thoughts on “Training Tuesday: A Resource For Cat Communication

  1. I was trying new ring tones and maggie chomped on me. I got the meaning of that! However, interpreting other cat behaviors need more help!

  2. This is a skill I am always attempting to learn more about as I am a worrying mom and especially worry about my fur kids if they might not be feeling well or are in pain and I am not understanding if they are trying to tell me so. It has gotten so tiresome to hear people say over the years that ‘dogs communicate with us, whereas cats are aloof and have no desire to.’ Most of the time these people are dog people and their little knowledge of cats comes from stereotypes and old wives tales, which I try to remind myself in the moment but it is difficult not to easily get annoyed or angry. Being a cat lover/person my entire life I forget at times that not everyone recognizes the worth or understands the way of the feline. Even as a cat lady I do not profess to know everything about cats, but I do know they have their own way of communicating and although maybe not as obviously demonstrative as dogs, they do desire to interact with we humans, they just do so in a different way.
    Thank you for the chance to win this fabulous CD- it looks like a wonderful share of knowledge as well as a great resource. We’ve been enjoying your posts about training and working with your fur babies, I think it is not only a good skill for them to learn but is excellent for their self esteem too. I have been working with Clove to respond to my call and come in response to her name. I’m hoping this will help with her anxiety when it comes to getting ready for a trip to the vet or administering her monthly topical flea repellent. Paws crossed for both of our fur babes!

    1. You’re the winner of the giveaway! We did a random number generator and you get the CD!

      Thanks to everyone who commented. We have decided to have more training tool giveaways in the future, so your turn to win will come!

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