Retrieving is not just for dogs...

As a child I had a maine coon which died from an inheritable heart disease. She was a lovely kitten (she died when she was just a year old) and she had the odd but fun habit of retrieving toys when I threw them for her to play with. I never tried to teach her this, she just did. After this (13 years ago) I never had a cat who did the same thing; until now. I have a blind cat who retrieves any toy that makes a noise when I throw it for him to fetch. We even made some video footage if it so I could proof and show it to my family and friends. It's so bizarre, funny and sweet. All at the same time. I wouldn't believe it if I hadn't seen it myself. He seems to enjoy it and he returns it to my on my bed (doesn't matter where I am, it's a standard location for him to retrieve it as it was the first place he ever did retrieve it). Anyhow, I am still proud of him

Anyone else have a cat that retrieves?

 

Hi Yolanda, I don't have a cat retriever but I am trying to teach my kittens! My friend who is a great cat lover is I believe a real life "cat whisperer". All of her cats retrieve and she teaches them with a ball of silver foil and they bat it back to her across the floor. She does have a real knack of training cats and they seem to listen to her every word. My cats often take things from me and don't bring them back so they do the opposite of retrieving. The kittens somehow got into the fridge ( I must have not closed it properly) and very cleverly stole a carton of milk and made holes in the carton and drank the whole lot - some sore tummies today!

 

I've played with a few cats that retrieve items, but mine never have. I've been training mine to spin around when I give them a treat and so far it has caught on. I want to get a clicker and do more intensive training because it seems like they enjoy it too.

 

That's a great trick! I don't know many cats that retrieve, most seem to prefer the fun of the chase! My step-dad had a cat about 20 years ago who thought it was a dog - whenever he went out for a walk with the dogs the cat would come along too. I don't think he ever managed to teach it to fetch though!

 

I never tried training my cats but I can imagine it can be a lot of fun for both the cat owner and the cat (or should I say cat butler? lol... seems like they own me some times ).

 

One of our cats, called Smudge, used to be a retriever when she was a kitten. She loved running after toys and things and bringing them back, but she seems to have grown out of it now.