Would You Teach Your Cat To Walk on a Leash?

I taught my cat to walk on a leash. Everyone was surprised. He was my baby before we had babies...lol. I still miss him. Sampson weighed over 20lbs so I had to get a small dog harness for him because the cat one wouldn't fit. He needed the exercise.

I think that if you want your kitten to go outside is good even with a leash. I live in a small town and my cat can go out anytime when i open my window and i also take her to the country where my parents live, she likes it in there so much. I guess that maybe taking your cat for a walk with a leash is better in a big city because when she goes alone you can never be shure if she is coming back. I have heard such terrible stories that have happened in our own town that sometimes get scared when she goes out and make shure that there are no big festivals or concerts when i let her out.

I taught my cat to wear a harness and leash. Notice I said "wear" and not "walk on." The harness was great for taking him out a letting him sniff around. I would go to the park and read a book and he would sniff the grass and lay out in the sun; but it isn't like we went for walks around the block or anything. I suppose if you had a cat that liked to follow you around anyway, you could convince it to walk with you on the lead, but it is probably better to just meander where the cat wants to go and have the harness to keep her from running off. Start by just putting the harness on her and giving her treats and letting her wear it around the apartment. Once she is used to the harness, then start introducing her to the great outdoors.

Both my cats are indoor/outdoor cats and are used to going out by themselves. One of them though, injured himself and had to wear one of those cone collars and stay indoors to protect the wound. By the end of day two indoors he was going up the walls, so I attached a harness to the collar and took him for a walk around the garden on a leash, just so he could sniff his territory. He was much more relaxed when we went back inside! So afterwards we did that everyday for 10 minutes or so until his wound healed.

I've tried to teach our cats the joy of leashes. They almost turned themselves inside out trying to get out of the collar/harness! They don't even tolerate a flea collar! Maybe when we get in a house, we will build an enclosure where they can run around. I can treat them for fleas and they can claw and eat grass and do all the things kitties love to do...:)

The first thing that I'd do is put the leash on her for a short period. Don't let her play with it though. Everytime she tries to play with it, distract her with something else. The next thing is to hold the leash out of her sight essentially and follow her around. This gets her used to walking with her without playing. Extend the period of time. Hopefully she'd get used to it indoors and not fight having it on outdoors. You'll have to let us know how it goes. I think it's intriguing.

If I had a cat, I probably would. :) I wouldn't let the cat outside without a leash though, too dangerous out here. But it would be fun to let them explore on leash as long as they weren't bothered by it.

My cats go on the leash. Because they are inside cats, I take them out on the leash to play in the grass and sniff around the plants and have fun. They really enjoy it and I know that they wont run away because I have them.