Quina Baterna

The Cat Mom’s Guide To Leash Training Your Furbaby

You can’t imagine how many times someone has stopped my persian cat, Grumpers, and I on a walk and ask inquisitively how we managed to train her to walk with a leash.

The downside of leash training your cat is that they feel entitled to it and make your life difficult when you forget to do it. I created a monster. 🙈 . #cats #catstagram #catsph #catsofinstagram #catsofig #pets #catphotography #catlover

3 Likes, 0 Comments – Quina (@quinabaterna) on Instagram: “The downside of leash training your cat is that they feel entitled to it and make your life…”

Why We Started Walking Our Cat

We started walking Grumpers because we live in a tiny apartment and couldn’t commit to have more than one cat. She is a strictly indoor cat because we live in the Philippines where the weather can be unbearably hot for animals with her kind of fur.

She was exhibiting signs of loneliness and distress that we learned to address by allowing her to experience adventure outside our home in a safe environment. Leash training was the compromise we made so that we can bring her out with us without worrying that she would get hurt, catnapped or lost.

Unlike dogs, there are few resources available for people who want to walk their cats in the Philippines. With this, I want to share this guide for people like us who have cats that they would like to walk but don’t know how to get started.

Some things to know before you read the rest of this guide:

• Everything in this guide was from personal observation as to what worked for my particular Persian cat, Grumpers. Following this will not guarantee that your cat will respond to the same training techniques the same way but I hope some of the techniques will still be useful!

• In general, listening to your cat’s personality means also accepting if they’re not into walking at all. Cats in particular have their own minds and cannot really be forced. Similar to having kids, you can’t choose your cat’s personality and if it doesn’t really make them happy, you shouldn’t be forcing them to do it. You can mitigate either by adopting breeds that are known to be high energy and playful or by adopting local cats from the shelter that exhibit signs of activeness from the get go.

• You have to go through the process gradually, respecting their boundaries and positively reinforcing until they’re ready. The rate of leash training for cats is not the same for dogs. They need at least hours and at most days, before an area feels safe enough for them to confidently walk around.

• Make sure they are healthy. You’ll encounter many other animals (and fecal matter) when you’re walking your cat so make sure that their shots are updated and that they’re in good health before you bring them out to avoid contracting diseases.

• A lot of the examples are of places in Metro Manila, but I’ll try my best to describe things so you can search for similar areas near you!

What Should You Have With You When You Walk Your Cat

• A plastic bag to scoop their poop (if you are walking them indoors). Though it’s not as common because most cats will just hold it in until they find a good place to do so, it’s always good to be prepared for possible accidents.
• Water and somewhere they can drink it from. Now, one can argue that cats get most of the water needs from wet cat food, but when you’re walking a furry cat (like my Persian, Grumpers), they might pass areas without shade and feel very warm. Because I live in a tropical country, I’ve personally witnessed some dog-level panting that we’ve alleviated through ice water.
• Treats. Treats. Treats! In the early days of leash training your cat, you’ll need these little motivational snacks to give them positive reinforcement if they’re behaving accordingly such as not eating trash, chewing on brooms or outdoor furniture and so on.
• A good harness and leash. As a cat owner, you need to be mindful that being leashed is not as intuitive for cats as it is for dogs and they’re more fussy about the experience of having a one. I recommend these harness designs because I think they are the perfect size, weight and material for cats.

A good harness is three things: not too disruptive with their natural movement, not too heavy and breathable (especially for the thick furred types of cats). It may take some trial and error before you find the right one but it’s well worth it. A bad harness is an equivalent of walking around the whole day in ill fitting shoes. No matter how pretty they are on your feet, you’re going to turn into a little b*tch by the end of the day because of the inconvenience.

Unless they’re exceptionally trained, never walk your cat with a regular collar. They are prone to choking if the leash gets stuck and they jump. Harnesses are also useful to pull them out safely when you have to remove them from somewhere.

• A bag they can retreat into when they’re tired. While it’s fun to assume that your furbaby will instantly take a liking to walking with you, that’s almost never the case. Part of starting the leash training is getting them comfortable and familiar with the environment and sometimes that entails not using the leash at all. Having a bag that they can rest inside of in between walks is a good way to comfort them and will make them over all less afraid to go out knowing they can retreat anytime they want. I personally recommend mesh carriers because of the breathability and it has been quite comfortable for my cat!

Grumpers is the most behaved after a long walk and she spends about an hour cleaning herself and the rest of the day napping after. It’s great because I get to work when she’s pre-occupied!

Before You Walk Your Cat

• Harness training starts at home. I repeat. Harness training starts at home. They have to be comfortable with it in a familiar place or they’re going to be x1000 more uncomfortable in it in an unfamiliar place. Many owners have their own techniques for calming their cats down in stressful situations. Mine is that I either relax her by petting and gently putting the harness on in between pets.

• You must always associate wearing it with fun. Don’t make them wear it when they’re going to a stressful place like the vet. When they don’t fuss when you’re putting it on for the first time, give them a treat.

• Make sure they’ve eaten, peed and pooped already. Unlike dogs who can basically poop and pee everywhere, cats are the kind of creatures that mostly only like to do their dirty business in the comfort of their own home. In fact, even in their own homes they can be little shits  when you don’t clean up their litter box to their standard. While you don’t have to worry about them making a mess everywhere, it will make their personalities a little more manageable when they are not holding anything in.

Here’s a photo of our cat when she didn’t get to pee:

When you need to pee but there is no litter box 🐱😱 . . #cats #cat #catsofinstagram #catsofworld #kitty #persiancat #catlovers #catstagram #catlover

27 Likes, 1 Comments – Quina (@quinabaterna) on Instagram: “When you need to pee but there is no litter box 🐱😱 . . #cats #cat #catsofinstagram #catsofworld…”

When You Should Walk Your Cat

• Dusk & Dawn. Cats are often asleep for 12 – 16 hours a day, which means you have a 8 – 12 hour window when they’ll be willing to walk with you. While they’re often believed to be crepuscular animals, which mean they are active primarily at dusk and dawn, I’ve learned that this is not set in stone. For fluffy cats in tropical climates like mine, dusk and dawn are still good times because it’s when the weather is more forgivable, with the right amount of lighting for your own personal safety and less stressful in general for both you and your cat.

• Follow their personal body clock. Many domesticated cats who form bonds with their owners tend to adjust their sleep schedule to be asleep when you are asleep and awake when you are awake.

Below is a photo of Grumpers walking at night. Because my partner and I work until very late, she has been conditioned to be awake very early in the morning when we leave and when we arrive home. She enjoys walks the most at these hours!

With this in mind, there is no one perfect time to walk every individual cat and it’s highly reliant on your own cat’s sleep cycle, which you’ll have to navigate through your own observations.

Where Should You Walk Your Cat

Getting your cat comfortable anywhere they don’t live will take some patience and time. One thing that I’ve learned is that once they get comfortable with particular elements such as grass, temperature and noises associated with different places (like coffee shops or parks), it gets easier to introduce them to similar environments.

Indoors 

People ask me how I ended up with a cat dog who goes on long walks and naps in coffee shops while I work, but I realized like people, animals also have very distinct personalities that you can somewhat mold through time. When Grumpers first came to us, she was an anxious, fearful kitten that didn’t eat for two weeks and hissed when we tried to touch her. Seeing her grow up well-behaved, letting children and strangers pet her, vocal with her own mind and adventurous makes me hopeful that being patient and loving her unconditionally through her difficult moments will encourage her to be better.

28 Likes, 1 Comments – Quina (@quinabaterna) on Instagram: “People ask me how I ended up with a cat dog who goes on long walks and naps in coffee shops while I…”

Before you bring your cat out to indoor pet-friendly places is that you need to manage their destructiveness and likelihood to damage property. If you know that your cat has a tendency to scratch certain surfaces such as canvas or in my case, yoga matt-like surfaces (I know, weird right?), avoid places with these kind of furniture.

• Closed Malls. In Metro Manila, several malls allow pets inside their vicinities with varying restrictions depending on their tenants. Often, places like Eastwood City and UP Town Center require vaccination records and issue pet IDs to furbabies that visit often. This wouldn’t be my first option to walk your pet though as the stimulation might be too much for cats that aren’t used to being around other people. A gateway training before malls with similar flooring and noise levels would be cafes and restaurants.

• Cafes & Restaurants. Many standalone food areas allow pets on their verandas, but there are some places that allow them inside as well. Make sure to check if their furniture is cat-friendly, which means wooden chairs that they can’t scratch or polyester surfaces where their fur wont stick. From my experience it also involved often asking personally as even if they are listed online as pet-friendly, they often require that your pets are in their carriers while you dine so you won’t be able to walk your cat there.

Pet friendly cafes are also a good way to socialise other pets who are used to being with their pet parents. Here is Grumpers with Tsuk-Tsuk, an excitable yorkie who woke her up from her nap at Habitual Coffee in Salcedo Village, Makati.

Remember that indoor pet friendly places are a privilege and you should always be mindful of other customers, not inconveniencing staff with clean up and not damaging their furniture!

Outdoors

Leash training is a different battle for indoor cats, especially those who did not have previous experience outdoors before being adopted because it entails gently letting them encounter different elements like different noise levels from vehicles and terrain such as grass, soil, concrete and so on in small increments first to avoid overwhelming their senses. Former strays that have been adopted will have less issues when they hear cars honking for the first time because they somewhat know they aren’t going to die.

Also, if your cat has a the bad habit of eating plants, be sure to check what they’re chewing! Some plants can be poisonous and should be avoided during your walk.

• Your backyard. Getting your cat familiar with elements of the outdoor in a place that’s closer to home will make it easier to adjust them to the textures of their environment. Since I live in a high rise condominium, I count the restaurants near our place to be our backyard and some of Grumpers favourite places to walk are the gardens in front of them.

• Your village. A safe area with majority human foot traffic where there are less speeding vehicles. Most villages in Manila will have open parks but try to find areas where there are corners they can walk against like chairs or shrubs to make them feel safer.

• An area with few territorial cats. Territorial local cats that might feel threatened by your furbaby. While this can be avoided by simply carrying your cat and dropping them in a different area once you sense aggression as they often wont make an effort to follow you, it’s best to just assume most cats except for your own don’t want to be friends.

• Strip malls. While Ayala Triangle and BHS communities have various volunteers that spay and neuter their cats which make them less aggressive and territorial in nature, there are a few that come and go who are not. It’s no reason not to go there but just be mindful! I’ve noticed that Eastwood Citywalk maintain a very small local cat population in comparison.

Here is Grumpers when I dropped her leash to a snap a quick photo. Curious, confident little girl!

Is It Worth Leash Training Your Cat

Many people will scoff at cat owners like me who leash train thinking that if you wanted something with a leash you should just get a dog. While admittedly I was a dog person for a long time before having a cat, I never really thought that it was an exclusive experience.

While it was an initially stressful experience for her, we have successfully acclimatised her to a lot of places to the point where she is actually excited to be outside and smell the grass. She has clearly found joy in not being able left at home every day and exploring the world with us by her side.

Cats, like any other animal, don’t conform to a one size, fit all mold. They have personalities, preferences and experiences that shape who they are. As a furparent, one of my great joys is giving my cat a multitude of experiences which add to the richness of their life.