Just because you don’t have a dog doesn’t mean you can’t walk your pet!
Walking Your Cat
- Select a body harness that pulls from the chest, rather than the throat. Your cat has less chance of wriggling out of a properly fitted harness! Select a lightweight leash.
- Give your cat a chance to get used to the harness and leash. Leave them out where he can inspect them for a few days.
- Prepare your cat’s favorite meal. Bribery never hurts! Place the harness on your cat, and then let him enjoy his meal immediately. Lavish praise never hurts, either. After his meal, let him walk around a bit.
- Once your cat is used to the harness, attach the leash. Let him walk around dragging the leash, so he can get used to it. Make sure to supervise his leashed stroll; the dragging leash can easily get caught on things around the house.
- Once your cat is used to the harness and dragging leash, pick up the lead and walk around the house with him. Let him get used to you following him around.
- Once your cat is used to leash-walking indoors, you can introduce him to the great outdoors! You may want to start with just walking around the yard to get used to everything, but soon you and your cat can stroll around the neighborhood with ease!
Keep in mind that a cat is not a dog. Duh. On the leash, he will wander, rather than walk in a straight line. Pulling or jerking the lead (like you might with a dog) could ruin the whole experience for him. Be patient. Be gentle.
Believe it or not, rabbits can be trained to walk on a leash using basically the same methods. Let your bun get used to the harness and leash before you ever try to parade him around the neighborhood. And watch carefully to make sure he doesn’t get tangled up! Again, be patient and gentle.
Our family rabbit, Bun-Bun, was quite good at walking on a leash… until we had a tangling incident. It is the one and only time I ever heard a rabbit scream, as he frantically hopped in circles, trying to get free. It scared us all enough that we never brought out the leash again!