Many cat owners are probably not aware that cat pet training can actually work. However there are certain limits to what cats can be trained to do.

If you want your cat to fetch you your morning paper, fetch a stick that you have thrown or rollover and play dead, then don't buy a cat, get yourself a dog.

Training your cat is a million miles away from training a dog. A cat by its very nature is a creature of independence, but cats, like many other animals are reward orientated, they work on a "what's in it for me" attitude. Throw a stick for a cat to fetch and it will look at you and think "what do I want the stick for? If it's important to you, well you fetch it".

Don't use punishment as a method for training your cat, it will associate "punishment" with you, and it will start to avoid you. The best way to train a cat is through rewarding it. This is about giving your cat a reward when it does something that you want it to, not when it does something that you don't want it to.

First of all you shouldn't try to punish your cat when it misbehaves in any way, a better method would be to ignore it. Although it is not always obvious, cats do need and want praise from you. Cats are clever creatures and need interesting things to do to stop them becoming bored. When your cat misbehaves and you don’t supply any attention or stimulus, it will register this in its brain, and your cats problems with behaviour can increase.

Cat pet training can work if the training is based on reward, and not punishment. You give the cat this every time you see it doing something right. Make sure you give your cat some praise after it uses the litter tray. When it uses it's scratching post instead of your couch, reward it with attention and some treats. The cat will learn that it will get what it wants when it does things that please you, and will do those things more often.

Try to give as much attention to your cat as possible, begin this in the early days when it is still a kitten so that it gets used to this behavior. Your cat will soon learn that it gets treats and praise by doing certain things, and gets nothing by doing other things.

Cat pet training does work, it’s just a question of doing the right things, and knowing how your cat’s mind works, realise this and cat training becomes easier.