Cats may have some small mistakes or bad habits in their daily life, which require persistent training by the owner later to make the cat well-behaved. Cats are famously sensitive and timid animals, so training cats must start from understanding them. As the saying goes, "know yourself and your enemy, and you will never lose a battle." Understanding cats is very useful for training them.

　　1. Establish Trust, No Hitting or Scolding

　　Cats may indeed like to have their own little secrets. As long as they do no harm, owners don’t need to pay attention (this does not include bringing back dead animals from outside and hiding them in corners of the house, quietly scratching a corner of the owner's favorite coat, or fishing out small fish from a tank when the owner is not home...). Just as we have our own privacy to protect, cats also dislike and are unwilling to explain everything to their owners. Besides, from a technical perspective, it is difficult to operate, so don’t expect apps like “Cat Talk” to become your translator. Many users have said that their loving words, after being “translated” and delivered, scared their cats.

　　As an owner, what you need to master and be proficient at is maintaining effective communication with your cat, providing the help it needs, letting it feel your love, and giving kind reminders and corrections when it makes mistakes. All communication must be friendly, including scolding. The key is to keep it moderate. For example, you only need to let it know you don’t like something it is doing, you should stop and scold it immediately when it happens, and keep it brief without resorting to violence. One of the differences between cats and dogs is that the phrase “spare the rod and spoil the child” may apply to some dogs, but for cats, once physically punished, they will lose trust in humans due to fear, which can change their personality. For self-protection, they may also react more aggressively.

　　When we ourselves make a mistake unknowingly, we hope to be understood and treated kindly, let alone sensitive cats? Becoming someone they can trust and depend on is the first step we need to do. Only by building trust can communication and training become possible.

　　2. Combine Rewards and Punishments, Standardize Training Language

　　So, should you treat cats kindly or even give snacks to show understanding when they do something wrong? Absolutely not. Kind treatment means no violence or corporal punishment, but it doesn’t mean praising or rewarding mistakes. Don’t overcorrect, as spoiling a cat is not good either, unless you want your cat to be your big boss and obey everything you say. Otherwise, when your cat does something wrong, please scold and correct it promptly.

　　Cats and humans do not share the same language system or behavior norms. They have no concept of what is allowed or not. For example, scratching your beloved expensive leather sofa may just be a game or a midday exploration for them. If you catch them in the act, please stop and scold promptly. But if you only find the “mischief” afterward, please suppress your anger, pretend nothing happened, and quietly clean up. Because cats have already forgotten what they did. If you scold at that moment, it will seem unreasonable to them: “My owner loves to lose temper for no reason.” Always catch them in the act; never scold when not caught in the “crime.” If you can’t catch them in the act, consider it a small exercise in patience for yourself.

　　Choose easy-to-recognize and memorable words for scolding, such as “No,” or “Don’t.” Family members should unify the words used to scold cats. Don’t have you say “Don’t,” your sister says “No way,” your mother says “Look at what you have done!” and your father says “Stop”... This will confuse the cat: “What’s going on? What does this family want to say?” Choose one or two words and raise your voice slightly. Your cat will quickly understand your meaning and stop the wrong behavior.

　　When training, pay attention to combining rewards and punishments, and focus mainly on rewards. Rewards can be several words of praise or treats; generally, focus more on the former and use treats as supplements. Keep reward words within two or three to avoid confusing the cat, such as “Good,” or “Great,” said softly and approvingly. Cats are as sensitive to praise as they are to punishment. Praise immediately whenever it does something right, so a fixed habit will form over time. Also, praise as much as possible and scold less. The duration of this process varies depending on the cat’s personality, but as long as you have a determined heart filled with love, training a “model five-star family cat” is not a dream.

　　3. Both Cat Behavior and Owner Affect Training

　　Come home and don’t see your cat for a while? After searching, you find it has hidden in the wardrobe or under the bed and stubbornly refuses to come out, even meowing unhappily when it sees you? What is your first reaction? Rush to check if your cat did something wrong? Did it break a vase or scratch the sofa?

　　Stop. If it were a dog, hiding and whining when you come home would warrant checking if it made a mistake. But for cats, this may not apply. Cats hiding or showing displeasure when they see you could mean the problem lies with you. Don’t rush to defend yourself. This “problem” may seem trivial to humans but is very serious for sensitive cats. For example, if you invite friends over, the noise and unfamiliar smells may make the cat uncomfortable and cause it to hide. Or if you just got a hair perm, and the cat runs scared when it sees you, the reason might not be your hairstyle but the smell of chemicals used that makes the cat uncomfortable, causing it to run to avoid the smell. Although dogs do most drug detection and search work, cats’ sense of smell is no less sensitive. They detect strange, pungent, and disliked odors quickly and respond immediately: hiding, running away, or protesting. When you notice abnormal cat behavior, after excluding physical causes, you need to find the cause of the abnormal behavior. Simple scolding or correction is meaningless because “he who unties the bell must be the one who tied it.”

　　4. Understand Cat Language

　　Cats purr when happy or satisfied, and the purr sounds vary greatly among cats. We easily distinguish purring from harsh hissing. The harsh hissing is emitted when cats or dogs resist intruders.

　　Cats meow mainly to attract attention. Short and high-pitched meows mean the cat is looking for its owner inside the house. Long, loud meows mean the cat wants to open a door or wants food. If a cat is confined to a travel basket or its tail is stepped on, it will make an angry loud cry. When a cat sits on a windowsill watching birds outside, it will emit a sound between a meow and a purr, like a clicking tongue.

　　A cat’s body language is expressed through its posture. Usually, you can use your intuition to judge the cat’s feelings and needs. The most identifiable posture is when a cat is satisfied: it relaxes completely and narrows its eyes. A relaxed cat stretches its limbs and repeatedly moves its paws. At this time, you can gently scratch it, and it will lie on its back, inviting you to continue petting. Sometimes a cat will knead and purr when satisfied. This is because when it was nursing, it needed to knead to stimulate milk flow.

　　Many times, we do not understand the cat’s world. It is not only about food, play, and items. Cats are very emotional animals that often need companionship and care from their owners. Maybe those bad behaviors are just attempts to get your attention.