How I Trained My Cat To Fetch

I often get asked, "How can I train my cat to fetch?" This video shows you all the steps I used to teach my cat to fetch. It wasn't easy (not recommended for beginners!), but my cat, Jones, is always up for a challenging assignment.

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▶ Meet Your Teachers: I'm Julie Posluns. My goal is to help people enrich their cat's life with clicker training. I am an Associate Certified Applied Animal Behaviourist (ACAAB). I love to break complex behaviours into tiny achievable steps and show cat lovers how fun and rewarding it is to train their cats. My assistant teacher in the video is a black cat named Jones.

▶ Share Your Training

[rockrobful]

I lucked out. My Norman started fetching and bringing the ball back right away without training. He puts it in my hand most of the time. Sometimes I wake up in the morning and the ball is in my hand.

[helenemoranville]

I am going to do that with my husband! Each time he put his dirty clothes in the laundry basket I will click and give him a treat!

[JinjaOwO]

My cat loves to play fetch, but he doesn't bring it to my hand, he rather just places it in front of me. I am sure he will love this trick, thank you so much!! <3

[michelj.gaudet]

Personally, my absolute FAVE moment is when I see a cat I am 'training' stop, sit, think a moment, then give that "I'm done with this" look and walks away, usually followed by ME saying, "Okay, buddy... later!", followed by some sort of acknowledgment "Meow" back over the shoulder.

I truly feel sorry for people who just do not GET the intelligence of cats.

[stalecurry]

He chases the ball but expects me to go to it and throw it again 😂

[NadiraJamal]

Penny is a pro at half-fetch. I throw the toy, she chases it, picks it up (sometimes giving it the death shake), then drops it in front of herself and looks up with pride and a tail twitch.

[Snowflake]

My cat is already very playful and she always picks up the ball in her when I throw it to her but never brings it back! Thanks sooo much for this video, it helped a lot to get her to learn the trick 😍Keep up the good work! 😉

[hennahannnah]

This is *just* the video I’ve been wishing for! My cat does tricks for treats twice a day without fail. She likes to run after a thrown mouse or other small toy, but is not sure what to do with it when she gets there. Fetching would seem to be good to prolong play, but I didn’t know how to train her for it. I only knew it was complex. Thanks for these steps to getting us started!

[SixSlender]

My cat used to play fetch all the time without much training at all. Now he won't bring them back to me. This is a great video to refresh his skills. Thank you!
My cat looks just like Jones, we named him Toothless (from how to train your dragon)

[IMHGfk]

Just want to say: Very well done, cat!

[lauraholland]

My 6 month old kitten plays fetch with me she did it on her own. I told our dogs to pay attention they might learn something. Our Stormy is smart.

[BroManDudeGuyPhD]

Our 8 week old kitten brought me one of her toys, and I tossed it across the room. She played bunny kicking it and brought it back near me after about 30 seconds.
After a few days of (pretty clueless) training, I can now throw it down the hallway and she will run and get it. Has trouble tracking it sometimes, but, I’m amazed she just started doing this!

[lynnevolga]

Thanks! I'm gonna give it a try. I appreciate seeing how you have taken Jones so far with an activity that isn't a natural for him. Figuring out the step-by-step strategy is the challenge at this stage of my beginner cat training days. We train several times a day, and he loves it. I'm pretty sure it's all about the food, but he purrs his way through. Sometimes he'll tell me that he thinks it's time for a training session by just starting to do tricks on his own. So cute! Thanks again!

[thickdickwad]

You have a great personality and pleasant calm demeanor for training cats 🐈!

[TobyRoxy-Thetwoburntnuggets]

Just saying I defo recommend you the cat training school clicker and pointer, bought it on Amazon and it is amazing one of my cats mastered the high five ( highly recommended)

[sidebooba]

My cat will carry toys around in her mouth and she will run after a toy if I throw it. So I have ordered a clicker to see if I can build on the skills she already has built in. Thanks for the video!

[joannryan]

My cat, Paul, must be a natural. He taught me to play fetch with him.
No reward systems for either of us needed.

[aliceattran]

oo thank you! can’t wait to try this with my cat!! she’s a weird one and only fetches effortlessly when i’m brushing my teeth. she would bring her toy to me on her own terms
while i’m brushing my teeth and wait for me to throw it. once i do, she’ll run after it and drops back right in front of me. when i’ve tried to do this other times of day/when i’m not brushing my teeth, she will just chase after the toy but doesn’t bring it back. lol so i’ll have to give this a go and report back

[hallaloth]

This is the one I just haven't been sure how to teach Ajani. He loves his clicker training (or at least the treats he gets for doing his clicker training) and I had no clue how to break this down for him. He picks up on things I come up with so quickly sometimes. . .getting him master a specific target spot is the hardest thing.

[nuriy_elhasibuanalie]

My late Patsy learnt it by himself, I throw him the ball away and surprisingly he returned it to me, honestly it was naturally happening without training.... I miss him so much !..