Training a cat to be afraid of cars

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Gee - 27 Apr 2004 15:20 GMT

Hi guys,

Well I am a senior poster on usenet and I know this post may cause some
arguments but pls understand that I have no option but to resort to this.

My QT got run over 5 yrs ago. My cats are indoor since and I have written
many posts and have many arguments in cat newsgroups as to why cats should
be indoor cats. So that is to clear what I am about.

However

I rescued a cat (Sparky) from someone few months ago and my neighbors
adopted him. For one reason or the other he has been staying with me and is
due to go there any day now. My neighbors are wonderful people who adore
their cats, and have helped and took in many cats over the last 30 years.
Their current 4 cats are outdoor and have a cat flap. For Sparkie to be
indoor only will be impossible. We tried, keeping the cat flap locked, but
Barney(the biggest one) headbutted it so much not being used to locked cat
flap, that he eventually broke it. So that's not gonna work.

I can;t keep Sparkie, so the only other option is for me to train him how to
NOT go on the road, or run like hell when he sees the car. I wondered if
anybody has done similar training. I know that Guide Dogs get training like
this but cannot remember how it's done. Please if you have any ideas of how
to train him, or any web links let me know.

And please refrain from hate/argumentative posts, I wish I could keep him,
or keep him indoors, but it's simply impossible. So I just wanna do my best
for the little one. He is about a year old and a sweetheart.

Thanks
Gee

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Kristine Kochanski - 28 Apr 2004 13:56 GMT

>Hi guys,
>And please refrain from hate/argumentative posts, I wish I could keep him,
>or keep him indoors, but it's simply impossible. So I just wanna do my best
>for the little one. He is about a year old and a sweetheart.

I've been having a think about this and I'm afraid I can't come up
with an answer, sorry, lol! If you try to train them to be afraid of
cars I guess you could run the risk of making it a nervous wreck. And
I suspect if there was an easy way to train them, millions of people
would be doing it and there would be no more cat fatalities. Some cats
are more streetwise than others, you just have to hope your little guy
is one of the lucky ones.

There's a family on my road with 3 cats, every one of them loves to
sit on the road and seek out warm engines to sit on/under (much to the
neighbours' annoyance when their bonnet is covered in scratches and
pawprints!!) One of the cats was run over and lost its tail, but it
survived. And now, where does it like to sit? On the road, and under
cars... It didn't learn its lesson, what can you do?

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Tracy - 28 Apr 2004 20:47 GMT

The best you can do is spend supervised time with it outdoors -
following it around to the extent possible and scolding and clapping
when the cat does something that you don't want it to do. This can
work with a cat that is tightly bonded with you as mine really doesn't
want me to be angry with her more than she wants just about anything
else. The cat will at least absorb that you don't want it to go near
the road - which might be an inhibiting factor. And once again, if you
keep the cat inside at night, it's much less likely to get hit.
Drivers can see a cat during the day and they can't at night and
people are less likely to be exhausted or intoxicated when they're
behind the wheel. It's not bulletproof, but it will help tilt the odds
in favor of the cat.

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