You’ve bought a harness, and you’re amped to get kitty out and walking! While it’s tempting to just throw it on them and go, you’re both much more likely to have a good time if you follow these steps:
- Start slowly: a harness in the middle of the floor with treats. Get your cat EXCITED to see their harness.
- Next, slowly work up to getting them to wear it WITHOUT the leash. A dragging leash can be very confronting to a cat who isn’t used to it, so make sure to leave the leash until they’re comfortable wearing their harness on its own. (Don’t worry about getting it snuggly fitted until you’re ready for step 4.)
- Then, start clipping the leash on and ‘walking’ (following) kitty around the house. Make sure that each of these steps are accompanied by copious treats and praise.
- Once kitty is comfortable walking around the house on their leash, it’s time to change the venue! Depending on where you live, this may mean going into the backyard or an apartment common area. The things to avoid at this point are BUSY and LOUD. You don’t want kitty’s first steps outside of their comfort zone to be any scarier than they have to be.
Some cats aren’t going to need all of these steps (mine have all gone straight to wearing the harness and walking on leash), but many are going to need the more gradual introduction. Remember, it’s about providing enrichment for kitty, so make sure that they’re comfortable and having fun with the process. There’s no reason to rush, especially since you don’t want kitty to have negative, stressful associations with their harness.
If you play your cards right, you’ll eventually have a cat who comes running when they hear you get the harness and leash out!
OTHER OPTIONS:
Have you tried and tried, but your cat doesn’t seem interested in becoming a leash walker? There are still many options to get your favourite feline outdoors!
- A number of brands make fantastic pop-up enclosures. ABO Gear’s Happy Habitats and tubes can even be zipped together to create larger enclosures, and since they’re fully encased in mesh, kitty can’t get out (unless they destroy it!).
- If you own a house or have an especially permissive landlord, catios are a great way to add on demand access to the outdoors for your cat. Even a very simple catio can provide hours of enrichment every day. Check out this video on how to make one from cheap IKEA shelves (though note that the material that they are referring to as ‘chicken wire’ is actually hardware cloth.)
- Pet strollers are a really great way to get cats out and about, provided you have lots of smoothly paved sidewalks or walking trails. They also give you something to hang onto if you tend to be a bit unsteady. My newest go to is to put one of the kids’ backpacks on the seat of my rollator and push them that way. I still have a seat when I need it, but other than that it basically works the same as a stroller.
Camp Like Noodle 