Looking for fun tricks to teach your cat? Or easy tricks to teach your cat – ones that they will actually be able to do, with a little time, practice and commitment? Then you’ve come to the right place! Here’s 25 tricks to teach your cat, filling you with inspiration!
Remember: it might feel like an impossible task – training your cat, at times! But teaching your cat tricks is actually great for their health. (So always keep that in mind!)
See, many tricks help build muscle tone and stamina, increase flexibility, improve balance and concentration, as well as a boost in your cat’s confidence in him or herself and in you.
Teaching your cat tricks is also a great bonding experience. It builds on your relationship, improves trust and brings your cat closer to you… All whilst helping to beat boredom! So what are you waiting for?!
Have a read of this list and see which one you’ll start training them for.
Disclaimer: An Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. There may be affiliate links within the post.
25 Fun (& Fairly Easy!) Tricks To Teach Your Cat
In no particular order now then, here’s our top 25 favourite tricks to teach your cat – as a starting point. Try different ones, master different ones and then move onto the next ones! So we’ve got…
1) Speak!
I want to start with the cutest, simplest trick to teach cats, which is to get them to “speak.”
Ours does it all the time, naturally (he’s very vocal, as you’ll soon see!), but we can also get him to meow, by simply holding up a treat or a toy.
To train your cat to do the same – simply hold up a treat or a toy (something that you know they’ll want) and only give it them / throw it for them, once they’ve meowed to ask for it!
This is a great way to make play more engaging for them…
On that note: here’s 20 Fun & Different Games To Play With Your Cat
2) Sit
When it comes to tricks to teach your cat, we’ve got to go with “sit” next, right?! As it’s actually pretty handy!
The best way to do this, is to teach them to sit before they get to have their food.
Simply say “sit” and use a hand signal to gesture for them to sit down. You then reward them by placing their food on the ground, once they’ve done this, and give them a pat to say “well done!”
3) Sit & Stay
Once you have mastered the sit command, you may like to teach your cat how to sit and stay.
With this, simply get them to sit, then hold your hand in the stop sign, say “stay”, and if they don’t do anything and remain seated – you reward with a treat.
The more you do this and the better they become, the more you can challenge them by moving around and still getting them to stay! It’s almost like a fun, little cat challenge between the two of you!
4) Lie Down
Lie down is another great trick to teach your cat – especially as cats naturally like to sit and lie down! This can be done as a stand alone trick or with…
5) Roll Over
Here’s how to teach a cat to lie down and roll over, courtesy of CatPusic Academy. I love this video as it actually makes it look easy and manageable to do (which it is!) –
6) Walk With You
Another cool trick you can teach your cat, is to walk with you! Now, if you have a Maine Coon – you’ll know this isn’t really like a trick at all, as they follow you around (literally everywhere you go!) already!
But if you can teach a cat to walk with you in a more controlled manor, by calling them and using hand gestures – that’s super cool.
It also then makes things easier when it comes to teaching your cat to walk on a leash and being able to take your cat on a walk. So it’s certainly one for your cat-tricks-wish-list! 😉
7) Spin
Another fun and simple trick to teach your cat, is to spin around. The easiest way to do this is to simply lure them around in a circle, following a treat, then let them have it once they’ve gone all the way around.
It’s fast and effective, but becomes “neater” the more you practice it.
8) Jump Into Your Arms
Imagine being able to train your cat to run and JUMP into your arms! Epic or what?!
Now the process to do this, will – of course – take a little longer. You’re essentially building it up and up, but starting by breaking it down from scratch. So:
1) Begin by crouching down and use clicker training and treats to get your cat to jump onto your lap.
NOTE: For any of these more advanced tricks to teach cats, I highly recommend purchasing a clicker training kit, as it’s pretty-much essential for successful training!
2) Once they’re happy with this, get your cat used to having your arms around them. (After all, they’ll need to jump INTO your arms in order to be held.) So you train them to jump up, and then hold them (without them wriggling) and reward once they’re happy with that!
3) From there – you want to sit on the edge of your bed – so you’re higher up than crouching down – and repeat the same training of them jumping onto your lap and then being held.
4) Once they’re able to do that, you still stay on the bed, and do the same again, but then lie down and use treats to have them move up, across your chest, which then gets them used to this area.
5) You can then start to tie it altogether, so that they climb straight from the floor and up onto your chest at an angle. (Still using the bed at this point.)
6) The final step is to remove the bed, go back onto leaning against the wall, but gradually get higher and higher, until they manage the vehicle jump, straight into your arms!
BONUS: You can use a similar method to have them learn how to jump onto your shoulder as a cool trick to teach your cat too! This is equally as cool!
Jumping Tricks To Teach Cats
When it comes to jumping, there’s actually a lot of tricks to teach cats. For instance, on a similar note and with similar methods building it up and up, you can teach your cat to…
9) Jump Through a Hoop
This can be a physical hoop (like a hoola hoop or a hoop from a pet agility training set.) Or a circular hoop shape you make with your arms or legs – depending on what you have to work with!
10) Jump Over an Object
The object options are limitless when it comes to this trick to teach your cat!
For instance you could go for practical objects – like teaching your cat to jump over a fence! Or funny objects, like teaching your cat how to jump over a giant teddy bear! It can be anything or everything!
You could even turn it into a challenge like we did. Here, check out our toilet roll jumping challenge. This took 0 training, we simply used toys to get our kitten jumping over to the other side!
11) Jump On an Object
So with this one, you may like to start by training them to jump on simple things like beds, chairs, window sills, etc.
Then from there, you can step it up a notch with more interesting and exciting places; or again, turn it into a jumping challenge – raising it higher and higher for them.
To do this, use treats and / or your clicker trainer to tap where you want them to jump, then reward. (Simple!)
12) Jump Over a Leg or an Arm
If you’re looking for tricks to teach your cat that also incorporate you in them, then you might like to use the same techniques to get your cat jumping over your body parts… Specifically, your leg or your arm!
BONUS: Spin & Jump
Before we end the jumping tricks to teach cats, I want to mention the – rather impressive – spin & jump you can get your cat or kitten doing, and with this – you can even just encourage it by using toys. Here, watch this:
Tricks To Teach Your Cat
So what else have we got when it comes to tricks to teach your cat? Well, as we reach the half-way mark, let’s keep ploughing through! See, you could try teaching your cat to…
13) Walk Under an Object
This could be something simple like a chair or a table. Remember – simply use treats or clicker training, to guide them on where you want them to go!
14) High Five!
Ahhh, now for one of my favourite tricks to teach cats, which is the – absolute classic – high five (or low five, whatever you want to go for!) The great news is – teaching a cat to high five is actually far easier than you think!
All you need is a cup and a treat.
- Place a treat inside a cup and hold it up. The only way they can then get it out, is by using their paw to dig it out.
- Once they’re familiar with doing this, remove the cup and instead, hold the treat in your hand. If they try to get it with their mouth, cave your hand into more of a cup shape, until they get familiar with retrieving the cup out of your hand, with their paw in the same way.
- Every time they get the treat out of your hand, with their paw, say “high five!” or something similar, so they start to associate the word with the action.
- Start moving your hand vertically, into the position you’d usually high five in, with the treat carefully wedged in between.
- Eventually you’ll be able to remove the treat, say the phrase, and have your cat tap your hand (in order to then receive the treat as a reward!)
Clever, or what? For this trick, I recommend using freeze dried cat treats as they’re healthier and easier to fit into your hand.
15) Fist Bump
Using a similar training method as teaching your cat to high five, you can also then teach your cat to fist bump. It works in the same way, it’s just the shape and positioning of your hand which will differ, but how cool does this then look?!
16) Figure of Eight
Love dancing? Then teach your cat to – practically – dance with you, by teaching them to do a figure of eight, either around your legs or around an object.
The easiest way to do this is with… you guessed it… your clicker trainer, or even – prior to that – by getting them chasing toys and rewarding when they successfully move through the figure of eight from that.
We started to teach our cat to do this, using a fluffy cat teasing wand, as it’s long (so you don’t need to crouch over) but enticing for cats to follow!
It’s just a case of slowing them down so they do so in a more controlled way… And that’s where your trusty treats come in!
17) Walk Through a Tunnel
Cat tunnels are one of the best cat toys, and are actually toys cats can play with by themselves (which is always an added bonus – especially if you tend to be out at work every day and want to keep your cat entertained!)
However, they’re also handy when looking at tricks to teach your cat, as you can incorporate them in the trick, by getting them to walk through them… on demand! How about that?!
Again, use the same methods for the tricks to teach cats, above… and you’ll have this one mastered in no time!
18) Come When Name Is Called
Another nice, fun trick – that actually comes in insanely handy – is to teach your cat to come when his / her name is called.
Now this may seem like an IMPOSSIBLE trick, as cats generally do what they want, and come and go when they please, right? But, stick with it, as it’s well worth it.
See, it’s likely you’ve already trained your cat to come when called… However, instead of coming when you call her name, your furry friend probably comes to the sound of a crinkling treat bag or the sound of a lid popping off her canned food!
So you basically want to use this association and gradually replace it, with – instead – their name. Adventure Cats explain the training process for this with the help of veterinary behaviorist E’Lise Christensen. Genius huh?
19) Run For a Hug / Teach Your Cat To Hug
Got yourself a snuggly fur baby? Does your cat love cuddles, and idolise you? Then this is one of the most fitting and heartwarming tricks to teach your cat.
See, you can either:
- Train your cat, so that when you shout their name and open your arms, they come running over. (I used to do this with my dear family cat.) It’s super sweet.
- Or, (the more advanced version) is to teach your cat to literally hug you!
The latter takes some work, but here’s a tutorial for how to do it:
20) Come For a Kiss
On a similar note, another – totally soppy but very sweet – trick to teach cats, is to come for a kiss.
This trick I actually got the inspiration for, as I see my partner do it with his family cats at home all the time. Essentially, he calls their name and pouts out to them, and they come over and nudge their face into his!
You have to have a pretty strong bond and connection with your cat in order for it to work, but – again – it is possible by using the same training methods as above. (And of course, also helps if your cat is particularly affectionate!)
21) Perch
Now, throwing in a more advanced trick to teach your cat, you can always set the mission of getting them to perch… I.E. Stand on their two back paws, with their front too in the air.
The easiest way to do this, is to teach them how to DOUBLE high five. Here’s an advanced training guide for this one.
There’s no denying – it takes time, but it’s super impressive and can then build into the unsupported perch, which makes your cat look like a little meerkat (so cute!)
22) Fetch
Next up – it’s fetch. And it’s back to our little Maine Coon Cody for this one, as this is one of the best tricks Cody – kind of – taught himself, but which always melts hearts!
See, cats can naturally do this, if they enjoy playing with you. However, the mythology to teach a cat to fetch is as followed:
- Grab your cat’s favorite ty and roll it a few feet away from them. As soon as your cat picks up the toy in their mouth, click and reward them with a treat.
- Do this four or five times until your cat understands you want them to pick up the toy.
- Whenever your cat picks up the toy in their mouth, call them over to you. Click and treat.
- Each time your cat picks up the toy, call your cat back to you until they’re reliably bringing the toy to you on command.
- The next time you toss the toy, say the word “fetch.” Your cat should go get the toy and bring it back. Use treats as rewards. They’ll also continue to do it, simply because they’re having fun!
23) Catch
Teaching your cat to catch a toy works in exactly the same way as fetching, but instead of throwing it away from them – throw it directly towards them so that they can better catch it.
We recommend starting this by throwing dry cat food biscuits. It’s what we did with our Maine Coon Cody, and it has actually turned into a game he wants to play daily.
Cody will try to catch the biscuits in his paws, but it’s a great way to exercise your cat during eating and playing. (It’s certainly one way to keep them entertained whilst tiring them out anyway!)
24) Guess The Hand!
Another fun trick to teach your cat is to guess which hand the treat is in… This was at one point TRENDING, as it’s surprisingly easy to do. Cats are smart little things, you see…
25) 3 Cups Cat Trick
If your cat masters finding the treat in your hand trick, you may then like to progress onto the 3 Cups cat trick, hide a treat in a cup, move them around and your cat taps the one they think it’s in.
Eventually you’ll change the treat to a ball, making it an insanely cool cat-and-owner party trick! But of course, it’s likely to take a little time to build up to this!
That’s All For This One!
So there we have it – 25 fun tricks to teach your cat!
Whichever you go for – wishing you the best of luck.
Have fun, stick with it and BROWSE our blog for more cat bonding and enrichment ideas!
