We've tried leashes with our cats once or twice. They usually want to bat at the leash, or else bite it.
I actually had a neighbor growing up who would take his cat for walks on a leash. Every day, you'd see this old guy go by walking his cat: it was a sleek black cat, much like the one in the video, but this one walked along next to the owner exactly like a small dog. I didn't realize at the time just how weird this was.
I always assumed that's what the old guy did, but now that I've owned cats, including one very young one (though she wasn't a kitten when we got her; she was just barely full grown) I can't imagine that working. A kitten is not going to walk on a leash. It's not going to lie down to be dragged, either, it's going to try to bat at the leash constantly, or bite it, just like our cats did only more so. With occasional pathetic confused mewing when you set it on its feet.
Sure. And it can work. I can see why the video is funny, but these people went about it in exactly the wrong way--once you start dragging the cat, I can't imagine having much success convincing it that the leash is a *good* thing.
The one cat I taught to walk on a leash was started young, and on the first few encounters with the harness (which is the real problem), I put it on him and left him alone for a while. Take it off, repeat the next day. After a few times, the cat decides that the harness has not, in fact, paralyzed his legs.
OK, some of them do. The other cat I had at the time let me know that she was never going to cooperate with that harness, and she didn't really want to go outside *anyway*...
My indoor cats quite liked the "being outside" part of being on a leash. Part of why we gave up on the project, actually, was that it brought their attention to the excitement that is the great outdoors, and they started assiduously trying to escape whenever we'd open a door.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
winterfish
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 03:55 am (UTC)We've tried leashes with our cats once or twice. They usually want to bat at the leash, or else bite it.
I actually had a neighbor growing up who would take his cat for walks on a leash. Every day, you'd see this old guy go by walking his cat: it was a sleek black cat, much like the one in the video, but this one walked along next to the owner exactly like a small dog. I didn't realize at the time just how weird this was.
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 04:15 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 05:13 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 01:26 pm (UTC)The one cat I taught to walk on a leash was started young, and on the first few encounters with the harness (which is the real problem), I put it on him and left him alone for a while. Take it off, repeat the next day. After a few times, the cat decides that the harness has not, in fact, paralyzed his legs.
OK, some of them do. The other cat I had at the time let me know that she was never going to cooperate with that harness, and she didn't really want to go outside *anyway*...
no subject
Date: 2010-03-21 05:55 pm (UTC)