Tabby training: OSU study shows benefits of cat training

From KLCC Studios, this is Oregon on the Record.

I'm Michael Dunn. I've been a dog and cat owner for most of my life. If you added up all the time I spent training dogs, it would be countless hours. And if you added up all the time I spent training cats, probably about eight seconds. I, like most people, believe that cats can't be trained, or at least can't be trained like dogs. Well, it turns out a lot of us are wrong. Today on the show, you'll meet an OSU professor and expert on animal and human interaction and learn about her study, which illustrates not only that cats can be trained, but that such training is a true benefit to our feline friends. And perhaps even more importantly, her study showed that when children with disabilities are involved in that training, they derive incredible benefits as well. That's next on Oregon on the Record. Monique Udell, a professor at Oregon State University who studies human-animal interactions. Professor Udell, thanks so much for coming on and talking to us.

Thanks for having me. Yeah.

You led a very interesting study about the interaction between cats and kids. Tell us, high level, 30,000-foot view, what'd you find?

Well, what we found is that cats can make really capable partners when we're working with cats, whether it be cats that live in our households or we're working towards common goals. What we found in this study is that when we teach children how to care for their cats, understand their cat's body language, and engage in basic training, that their cats can really rise to the occasion and they can engage in these joint activities with them. Not only are they enthusiastic in training, but they can teach their cats to go on walks with them and engage in other behaviors that are not only good for the cat and the relationship, but also can help with things that are good for the child. So teaching them responsibility and caretaking, increasing physical activity. And so we've discovered that along with animals like dogs and horses, cats can be therapeutic partners and they can be really great partners in general in our lives and form really close bonds.

So I'm a cat owner, and probably like a lot of cat owners listening, I'm a little bit amazed. I didn't think cats were really trainable. And I know that that's probably mythology, but talk a little bit more about that. We often find that cats tend – sort of the stereotype is they're aloof. They're not like dogs, anxious to please, but it sounds like that is just what I said, a myth.

Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the interesting things is that because we have this idea, because of this myth that sort of circulates in our culture that cats maybe aren't as interested in social interaction or aren't as capable at training, we tend to create what we call a self-fulfilling prophecy, right? Like if we don't give cats the opportunity to be social, we're not really initiating as much social engagement with them. we're not taking them to training classes or trying to train them at home, then of course we're not going to see as much social behavior. We're not going to see their full training potential because we're not engaging in that partnership in that