• Question: why are cats so difficult to work with

    Asked by Fern to Carrie, Ellen, Rupert on 16 Mar 2017. This question was also asked by Ella.
    • Photo: Ellen Williams

      Ellen Williams answered on 16 Mar 2017:

      Haha! Because cats are a law unto themselves… they do what they like, when they like!

      In all seriousness it depends on the cat – big cats are quite successfully trained in zoos (I went to a seminar recently where we were told all about a Amur leopard which was trained to have it’s heart listened to while it was awake) and domestic cats can be trained to do lots of different things too. I think on the whole they can be trained as long as they are happy to be trained!

    • Photo: Carrie Ijichi

      Carrie Ijichi answered on 17 Mar 2017:

      I only know about domestic cats so Ellen’s comments on other species is super interesting. House cats aren’t really domesticated with way other species like dogs and horses are. This makes them much less reliant on us and more independent. So, we’ve been breeding dogs to look to us for instructions and be very focused on how we feel but we haven’t done that with cats so they don’ care!

      I want to be a cat – they’ve got it all sussed.

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