How did you go about the actual training? Have you actually yourself passed
her through the door, while soothing her, to food on the other side? It's
been a while since my two got used to the cat door, which they did as
kittens, so I'm hazy remembering how I did it. But I do know that the first
step was, as you have done holding the door open and allowing them to go
through the space. But once they are comfortable with that idea, they then
have to get comfortable with the feel of the cat door against their head as
they push it open.

There are a few ways to do this and from the sounds of your post, you seem
to have two people in the house, so that should make it easier. One of you
go to one side of the door with the cat, the other to the other side of the
door with a treat that she really loves - cheese, or whatever it is that she
thinks is a very special food. The one of you with the treat, pull the cat
door slightly open towards you (away from the cat) and put  the treat just
under the gap to the door, so she can sniff it, and perhaps even touch it
with her paw, but will need to force the door open with her head to actually
get it (don't help her do that). If that happens a few times, she will then
be comfortable with the feeling of the flap against her head, and will
hopefully start copying the other cat and using the door as it's intended.

You'd be able to help that along by, once she's comfortable with the feel of
the cat door against her head, feeding her on the opposite side of the door,
so she actually has to start going through it to get the food.

Personally I would remove the cat door completely.   While it might a
nice idea for the cat, I have yet to get an answer about the problem
if a cat can come in what is to prevent a small child from doing it
to? And since some of those small children carry guns and
have no problem using them I'd be hesitant to have a cat door
in my house.

Recently around here a family came home and found their house
trashed including some birds, fish, dogs, cats tortured and
killed.

Steve, Denmark,

We have 9 cats, and I've noticed that no matter which activity, the
cats all go about it best when they think it's their own idea.  I
wouldn't worry about it too much, if the other cat wants out bad
enough, it will figure out a way to get through that cat door, whether
by pulling the flap towards itself, or pushing (proper) to get
through.  Out of our 9, there are a couple that aren't too crazy about
the whole cat door scenario, but when we're sitting out back on the
patio, eventually, here they all  come.

Our Manx, Bobby Pants comes through like this:

    First, you see him sitting there on the inside, face smashed up
    against the plastic flap.  Then, you see this gargantuan paw
    stick out as far as it can, toes fully spread apart, through the
    bottom of the flap.  Then, the enormous paw feels all around
    outside of the flap on the step.  Then finally he figures the
    coast is clear, and comes barreling through.  Makes us laugh at
    him every time.

A couple of our cats occasionally like to sit on one side of the cat
door, (inside or out - doesn't seem to matter) and spank any one else
that decides to come through.  That's very entertaining also, but
puzzling.  Why DO they do things like that?

-bonbon

I've had problems with some cats refusing to use one style of cat
flap: the one with a magnetic latch at the bottom of a flexible flap.
Removing the magnet from the frame solved the problem - my guess is
that the cats didn't want to have to push hard, then when the flap
started moving, surge forward because of the loss of resistance to
forward motion.  It would be like a human having to push hard to get a
door to open, then have it break loose and swing open so the human
would stumble through.  I don't like the feeling so I can understand
that cats might not like it either.

--
T.E.D. (tdavis@gearbox.maem.umr.edu)

She sure can. She just wants you to give her some attention.

sh.t, my cat even figured out how to open the telephone line with the
telephone answering machine and have the operator say «Please hang up
immediately and try your call again». Even I didn't know how to do this!

Primatologists have found out that monkeys and gorillas are
intelligent, that they can speak with the blinds' language and combine
words to create new ones, new ideas.

Cats and dogs don't have fingers and cats wouldn't want to learn a
language anyhow because they understand it could be used to give them
orders but, believe me, their heads are full of silly plans and
elaborate calculations.

So please, stop that «my little cutie doesn't understand» nonsense,
will you? Otherwise, pretty soon, your cat will be running the
household. I don't understand how people with enough interest for cats
to write on alt.cat didn't bring you to your senses yet.

GP

Hi,

well, our story now has a happy ending, our fraidy cat Betsy now has
learned to go through the cat door on her own.

We removed the magnet, making the door a bit easier and less noisy to
open, and then we spent one weekend coaxing her with food and treats
through the door. This seemed to have registered with her, such that she
began to act very curious rather than frightened of the closed door. It
took a few more days of quiet and cautious persuading, but a few days
later she started to use the door herself.

I don't think in her case it would have helped to just ignore the
situation, with the idea that, if she gets desperate enough, she will
figure it out. We tried this for a while. I think she was really afraid of
the door, and needed the gentle coaxing from us, and the food and treats
to be able to forget her fear. And it definitely would not have helped to
have been more aggressive with her and push her through the door against
her wishes.

We think it is really great that our two cats now can come and go as they
wish. They love our yard and the outdoors, and we are lucky to live in an
area which is relatively safe for them. If only we can figure out how to
get them not to bring their "trophies" in the house with them (that is,
the occasional bird they are lucky enough to catch).

Steve, Denmark