What makes a relationship with a cat like me truly great? Trust! By observing cats and being mindful with them, people can learn to understand their cats and themselves better. Using that knowledge, they forge stronger bonds with their pets.

I think one of the greatest 
things about being with a cat

is that you can actually get them to trust you.

There's this wild animal living in your home
and they actually trust you

to feed them, take care of them, and keep them safe.

Trust needs to be established, and it can be 
damaged. We need to be careful with our pets.

With Bobby, sometimes things have happened. 
Sometimes I've done things that make him feel unsafe.

And you got to rebuild that trust 
after those things happen.

In the following segment, John will explain
how we can do that and more.

Thanks snugglebuns!

Why are you ever soft!

What kind of actions can a guardian take
to increase a cat's trust?

Well, it starts out with the initial 
meeting it has to be done properly.

You have to introduce yourself to the cat
so the cat will trust you,

which means putting your finger out so they can sniff it
and then you see what they do.

They need to check you out.
You need to work at the cat's pace.

So once you've made the initial introduction
and the cat seems to be drawn to you,

you know... does this kind of thing, rubs up against you,
you know you're okay.

The key thing is to let the cat know
when the cat wants to be petted by doing just that.

You don't want to, you know... grab them, pick them up and,
you know... start petting them all over the place and...

Some cats like that, but a lot of cats don't.
You have to figure out what the cat's boundaries are.

Yeah.
And work within those boundaries.

So, if you start petting a cat the way they don't like,
the trust is not going to happen.

What about if you've been with a cat for a little while
and you feel like they still don't trust you?

Well, at that point you still let them choose when you have the interactions and play.

Like, get them really working. Like, throw a ball around, interactive play, get that going. 

Play is bonding in itself, so that will help.

Some cats just won't be able to trust you all the way,
because of something they've experienced

in their lifetime or something that went through the genetic line.

And what kind of things damage your trust with your pet?

Petting them when they're so if they're eating and you
start petting them, or they're looking out the window at a bird,  

you start petting them... interacting with them 
when they're busy, they don't like that.

Or walking around the corner and they're just 
they're hiding there, just having a nice sleep,

and you startle them, that will right throw 
it off a bit.

Incorrect play, like if you start with the toy
and then you swing the toy into the cat,

the cat is not going to like that and over time
that can cause some trust issues.

How do you keep yourself
from stepping on your cat's feet or tail?

Well, it's a very good question because, I mean,
I still have that problem.

It's focus.
Yeah.

It's staying focused all the time in your house, which is good for everything anyway. You stay focused in one area of life,

you tend to focus in other areas of your life and, you know...
I kind of like to know mentally,

"Where's my cat right now?"
Yeah.

If I know he's wandering around here and, okay, I got to keep a, you know... a closer eye on what he might be doing, right?

Yeah.
So that's it.

[Ian]
See I got into the habit, when I was a kid, to just imagine the cat was always around me, regardless of whether they were or  

whether they weren't, and the other thing I did was I got into the habit of not picking my feet very high up off the floor.
That also helped.

You'd feel them before you actually stepped on them.
Right, yeah.

Another thing you can do with the trust is
when you pet them, and you rub their

cheeks like this, and under here and the top of the head,
because that releases the friendly pheromone.

And if you do that on a regular basis then 
the cat will associate the feelings from picking  

...up the pheromones from your presence there.
Right, right. So doing that on a regular basis,

if you already have... if you're already with them and you're trying to increase the trust, that would be a good way.

Sit... sit... sit down... sit down, 
bum down. [Clicker noise]

On the clicker training, again, train them to do things because they like... cats like to learn, they like to work for things.

Yeah.
You know this whole falsehood that you can't train a cat.

Cats love to be trained but you got to pay them.

[Music]

Can my cat catch a mouse, even if he's been declawed?


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#cats #Trust #catlover