Angilie begins her training!

[Princesses Bee & Angilie]

Hi all!

I'm new here and just started using the LK with my baby, purebred Chocolate Point Siamese, ANGILIE.

I am keeping a record on livejournal on the process, so here is my account so far, copy and pasted:

Angilie is one year and three months now and I first purchased a LK when I first got her.

When I first got her, I purchased a LITTER KWITTER.

However due to a couple of issues - both of which were mine (lazy and inconsistent, and paranoid fear of her drowning in the toilet) I abandoned it after only reaching stage one.

Now that she is older and stronger, a bit less silly and too big to drown in the toilet, and I am well and truly sick of changing litter (especially as she is REALLY fussy about the cleanliness!) it is time to get going!

The first stage she has mastered without difficulty. In fact, with remarkable ease. I moved the tray onto the toilet, showed it to her and she has been using it ever since, the only difficulty coming if it isn't as clean as she likes.

However I have the sneaking suspicion she may be smarter than me.

I decided to give it more incentive by giving her a little treat everytime I caught her successfully using the tray on the toilet bowl, accompanied by lots of praise and repeitions of the word 'toilet'.

It took only three repeats of this before she knew exactly what was coming and began to meow excitedly when I opened the drawer where the treats were.
At first I was concerned I wasn't catching her every time, but ultimately that is better, I think, as then she won't think a treat is PART of using the toilet process.
However, I haven't been able to catch her in the act for about a week now, which I was finding stressful as I was worried without continuous positive reinforcement the next stage would be more difficult.
However, this morning I caught her on the toilet and said oh good girl, good girl, reached for the drawer and she looked up at me and licked her lips!!! She knew!!! So no worries about the gaps there.

Ok so, established: Angilie is super smart.

How smart?

Well, because I've been trying to catch her in the act all the time, I bolt to the bathroom everytime I hear her scratching in the litter. I believe she has put one and one together because it happens not infrequently that I hear the scratch scratch, race up the stairs, only to find her sitting outside the bathroom, waiting for me!!!

And... I think there may have been a couple of times she was FAKING IT on the toilet too!

Hrmmmm!

Anyway, they recommend you spend at least two weeks on each stage and so this weekend we'll move to stage two. Can we do it?

YES WE CAN!

Anyone else have issues with faking kitties to get attention/treats and solutions? :D

[KatnGiz]

I definately hear you about fake litter scratching! Giz hasn't done it for a little while, but there was one stage where she would be meowing at me trying to get some attention, and because I was busy I would ignore her. So she would go to the toilet and start scratching, so I would drop what I was doing so I could be ready with treats and to clean up after her, and she would hear me coming, hop off the toilet and proceed to where I keep the treats!

So I reckon, if she was smart enough to figure that out, then why has she given me such a hard time with training!

[alikat]

My digger, Paqi, faked using the toilet several times in order to get treats while on the Amber stage. She would dig, I would run to the bathroom...sometimes she'd even do a fake squat for several seconds, then look up at the cupboard where I keep the treats.

I also discovered, on a few occasions, Paqi taking credit for my other kitten using the toilet. I trained Dijkstra early on to not worry about burying her mess; after going, she would hop down from the toilet -- no scratching means I wasn't necessarily aware that she'd gone. A few moments later, I would hear scratching and go investigate. Paqi would stand proudly over the wet litter and beg for the treat. Offering praise, pats, and treats, I proceeded to clean up...only to have Paqi hop up a few moments later and ACTUALLY use the facilities!!

[Cougar Cat]

I have the opposite problem - we have a very affectionate cat who loves attention but when it comes to toileting he seems to like his privacy. if you looked at him when he's getting ready to go to the toilet in the garden - he stops what he's doing and goes to a more secluded spot. We started the kwitter yesterday on the floor in the bathroom and he's been spot on so far. However when I praise him and give him a treat - he sprints away from the toilet and waits near his food bowl where he will accept a treat but seems to be freaked out by getting attention just after he does his private boy's business. Praising him it has stopped the frantic digging that normally accompanies every wee, he's in such a rush to disassociate himself from it. Anyone got a similar cat? should I praise him and freak him out or just give no praise and give him a treat when he is away from the bathroom?

[alikat]

When I started litter kwitter training, Paqi would do that - run away as soon as she was done if I was offering a treat. I found that the key was to find the right treat, one that she was absolutely CRAZY about. (Tuna flakes!)

It was only after I pinpointed the correct treat that Paqi would hang around after she'd done her business. :rolleyes: