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This is what my Australian cattle dog taught Jasmine, my foster. My dog occasionally runs up the tree when he's in the middle of his zoomies. Jasmine saw that and thought it looked fun. She's lookin up, trying to figure out how my dog managed to get higher. My dog was about 5' higher than that, but he ran up, then straight down. Why can't they ever teach each other good things?

Marlingardener wrote:A tree climbing cattle dog? I bet the squirrels love that!
About one dog teaching another--they only teach them the interesting tricks, not the dull ones like "sit, stay." Look at it from the dog's point of view--would you rather learn how to open the back door, or to heel?

Actually, we have a squirrel that nests next door, and just about every morning it's waiting in the yard for Cerbie to chase it, and it runs the same path every time. It's their ritual, it's so funny.
From the dog's point of view: they know what earns them the good treats. I'm a fun teacher. They do something awesome; they get steak. Or the super fun tug toys that only come out when excellent behavior occurs. They work with me, they get rewarded. They do what they want, they don't get to partake in the rewards.

My Daisy Dog likes to climb around in my big old apple tree. She chases the squirrels down right into Angus' mouth.

OK. I've been holding back for quite a while, but...my orange-and-white, long-haired, part-Maine-Coon Cat Copper has decided that he is part dog. He demonstrated this by offering behaviors he learned through observing my two Bernese Mtn. Dogs.

Copper has lived here since July 2008, when I brought him home as a medical fosterling from the humane society and then adopted him. Totally sweet (and scary smart!) kitty, an incredible cuddle bug, etc.

He evidently watched carefully, over some months, as Vergil and Vesta would Sit or Down while I was making dinner and get little bits of what I was cooking: veggies, rice, whatever. He watched carefully as I made doggie breakfast (kibble + cheese, b/c Vesta was low weight) and made the dogs Sit for their bowls.

Came the day that Copper decided that it paid to be a Dog. I was ready to feed the dogs their dinner (usually partly home-cooked food and partly $$ canned dog food, but sometimes all home-cooked) and called, "Dogs, Come!" to the thunder of two Bernese Mtn. Dogs running up the stairs into the kitchen.

AND the sight of Copper running from the front of the house into the kitchen. He had long played with Vergil, as a cat will tease a dog ("Ha, ha, I can bat at your tail and you can't do anything about it!"), and lain down on the floor next to him very buddy-like, but this was a new behavior. I was confronted with THREE quadrupeds offering me competition-quality Sits.

How to reward Copper for his voluntary Come *and* his Sit? Ah. The canned food du jour had big chunks of chicken in it, so I fished one out and gave it to him, saying, "Good Copper! What a good Sit!" and so on, ad nauseam.

Since then, Copper has learned what the "other dogs" know: to beg for food, one must offer a perfect Sit, stay quiet, and not bat at me (well, for him, he may touch me gently with one paw). If done right, small tidbits of meat or cheese will come from above. For the "other dogs," the tidbits usually are tossed into their bowls.

For Copper, because I wanted to shape an entirely new behavior intentionally, I held the reward in my fingers and waited for him to try and take it with his teeth. I wiggled the chicken a little and he tried to bite down. He got the chicken! I let him eat it. He can now gently and securely take cheese, chicken, or meat bits from my fingers less than half an inch away from those fingers, when in the beginning he had no idea what I wanted.

Now he's quite good at the Sit/Take It game. My sister visited in early August (the same day that Vergil went down with general paralysis....) and I demo'd Copper's Sit/Take It sequence. Copper tried to bat the cheese out of my hand before doing his Sit. I motioned and instructed him to SIT, and he backed down and did his Sit, Taking the cheese very politely. DSis was stunned to see a cat, any cat, back down from wanting to take food.

*This* is why I call him a "scary smart" cat. He acts like a cat or a dog, depending on what's more advantageous at the time. And he hasn't made a mistake yet....

Cynthia

That's awesome Cynthia! One of my cats knows how to sit, and can also catch things in her mouth like a dog. She even greets me at the door when I get home, right in the middle of the 3 wiggling dogs. It's so funny what they can learn from watching.

Cerbiesmom, my lab used to dig holes about 30 feet apart . She'd dig four of them in a perfect square. Then, for hours she would run from hole to hole. She would hit feet first and make dirt fly. Then she would bark at the dirt before running off to the next base.

We figured she was Shoeless Joe Jackson reborn.

I think you should take your tree climber to a doggie shrink and get her some doggie tranquilizers. It's disconcerting to see a tree climbing dog. Hilarious but disconcerting.

Charlie MV wrote:Cerbiesmom, my lab used to dig holes about 30 feet apart . She'd dig four of them in a perfect square. Then, for hours she would run from hole to hole. She would hit feet first and make dirt fly. Then she would bark at the dirt before running off to the next base.

We figured she was Shoeless Joe Jackson reborn.

I think you should take your tree climber to a doggie shrink and get her some doggie tranquilizers. It's disconcerting to see a tree climbing dog. Hilarious but disconcerting.

Trust me, seeing 2 of them in a tree is more disconcerting. She's still a pup herself, she's getting better. If she were my personal dog, I'd consider enrolling her in a class for the mental stimulation, but she's a foster, and I'd rather do a class with one of mine.

That's hilarious about the holes. I got a good mental image of that. I hope you've taken some pics of that.

We got a manx female kitten, with a bunch of extra toes ( polydactyl) about a month ago, she was only 6 weeks old. But was a rescue, still don't think they should have taken her off the mom that early though. It didn't seem to bother her though!--Our grandson's friend named her Sassy, I think crazy cat is more fitting, she roars through everything! Attacks any plastic bags she can find, our 2 dogs, one is a 9 yr old female Whippet ( also a rescue) she has had a couple of litters of puppies years ago, so she lets Sassy attack her feet, tail legs, ears, what ever. Then they lay together by the front door window soaking up the sun. The Pom on the other hand, just doesn't quite know what to do with her. She bats her tail, when she's sitting on the recliner, when hubby is watching T.V. BUT the funniest thing I have seen her do yet, it get in a box that was in the kitchen, on the floor, everytime she popped up the flaps would fall over her so you couldn't see her. Well the Pom came around the corner into the kitchen, and she popped up out of that box on purpose. Scared the heck out of the Pom. I don't think I ever seen such a funny look on her face. She was baffled that this THING popped out of the box. Of course Sassy thought it was funny ( so did I, I had to laugh, couldn't help it) This is going to be one very different cat as she grows!!! Everything that she can attack she does. So she's getting another toe nail trim tonight. They grow fast and she knows she has them! Animals are so hilarious, I wouldn't be without them. To me a house without pets ( unless there is a real good reason) isn't a home! I get so much fun out of watching all this stuff everyday!--Sounds like everybody else does with their pets too.

Green Mantis wrote: We got a manx female kitten, with a bunch of extra toes ( polydactyl) about a month ago, she was only 6 weeks old. But was a rescue, still don't think they should have taken her off the mom that early though.

Sometimes the kittens of feral cats are taken whenever they can be trapped or caught separate from the mother. The kittens are still young enough to be socialized to humans and other animals (your dogs, for example), so will be able to have homes and not have to live outdoors on scraps and luck.

Getting the kittens before eight weeks seems to be the key to socializing the kittens of feral cat mothers.

Your kitty sounds like a doozy! But I've never lived with a Manx or even part-Manx, so I don't know their personalities at all. Feisty kitty!

Cynthia

Our cat's name is sassy also We got her because she was stuck in a tree, go figure dogs climb them and get out but our cat couldn't LOL. She was about 6 weeks old when DH helped her down, she then began to follow him everywhere like a puppy. As it was getting cold I convinced him to let her stay in the house and she has been with us since. I went out of town for a week and while the kids and I were gone he taught her to play fetch. She loves those little bouncy balls and will chase, retrieve and bring it back for hours if ya let her. Because she's all black he calls her his little black lab.

Regular claw trimming from kitten-hood is the KEY!
My two know when I sit on the floor with a certain old kitchen towel on my lap, it's time for a trim.

One will even come over and crouch on the towel on my lap without being told, even though she's sensitive about being flipped on her back and need an occasional shushing once trimming starts (I do the Dog Whisperer "Shush" with them -- I figure it sounds enough like cat hiss for them to get the idea... and they do! ) She'll alternate between looking worried and purring while her claws are trimmed. KiKi's my lap cat though. She'll also insist I sit up straight while I'm on the computer so she can jump on my lap and curl up.

The other one needs to be brought over for the claw trim -- although it's not like she's hiding from me or anything. Even though she doesn't look anything like the breed, I swear she must have some Rag Doll in her because she goes absolutely limp when being held. She's been like that since she was a kitten, and she has been my kids' "security" kitty -- rather like a blanky or a stuffed toy . When they're crying, they like to hold her and hug her. When one DD is hurt and crying, the other DD would run off saying "I'll go get Moona!" She'll come RUNNING back, Moona dangling in her arms, and shove her towards her crying sister saying "It's OK, Here's Moona!" while the other blindly reaches out and clutches her close -- Moona just taking it. They tell me that Moona actually purrs while being held. Sometimes, DD's won't even come to me for a hug as long as they have the kitty.

My previous cat played fetch. We used to play with the plastic strap that you pull off milk jugs to open the lid. He also loved 1/2 printer paper scrunched up and rolled between the hands into a ball to soften little.

My current cat, Niro (a polydactyl Russian Blue), thinks she's people. She was a rescue, and grew up without any other cats or animals around, and so she's patterned on us. For example, when she figures it's dinner time, she'll get up on one of the dining room chairs and put her hands to either side of the place setting (although her food happens in a special kitty area beside the table) and look towards the kitchen expectantly. She only does this at dinner, too - the other meals are something to be asked for in the kitchen, since we as her people generally eat on the run or over the sink for the first two meals of the day.

When I got a fishtank, it was hilarious - she's polydactyl in a way that gives her almost opposable thumbs, which means that if there's anything we want to keep her out of, we have to use those kidsafe locks or similar. She was quite interested in fish initially as a sort of TV program, but after about a month she'd learned by watching me that the lid opened just so, and one day I caught her lifting the lid and sticking in an arm to go fishing (just as I do when it's tank cleaning time) - and she'd already eaten three tetras! I resorted to taping the lid down with masking tape, and after about a week she'd figured that one out too - she even had it figured how to pat the tape down after she'd gone fishing, so that it looked like everything was kosher. I gave up on fish after that....

I also blame her fighting style on us. Both my dad and I do various forms of martial arts, which she finds quite fascinating (or at least, which she watches us practice - we're one of her favourite "shows") and we thought nothing of it until a dog came into the yard. Rather than the classic cat behaviour of open-handed claw swipes, she stood up on her back feet, grabbed the dog's ear with one hand, and punched it in the nose! I felt sorry for the dog, but at the same time, I couldn't stop laughing. It's almost exactly what I'd do to a burglar.