training a cat to go for walks on a leash?

I trained my cat to walk on a lead and harness, however it's not like walking a dog, I go wherever she goes not the other way around, we just stay in the back garden and just walk around that sniffing all the plants and eating grass (her, not me!).
I definitely think you'd need a very special kitty if they are to walk around on the footpaths alongside people and cars following you, he's young so it may be possible, I don't know an awful lot about bengals, would they be very owner orientated cats a bit like siamese?

I find the XS rogz dog harness works better than a cat harness, it's hard to explain but most cat harness's have 2 loops one bigger than the other connected by 1 straight piece that sits on the back where the lead clips on to like this one: http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/cats/cat_carriers_travel/harnesses/185477
The top loop sits very high up on the cat's neck where a collar would sit, so when the cat pulls (or spooks and darts away) it digs straight into the throat choking the cat (and cats have been choked to death by people trying to walk cats with just a collar). The dog harness has 2 straight pieces connecting the 2 loops http://www.zooplus.ie/shop/dogs/dog_collars_dog_leads/harnesses/harnesses/184285
So the top loop sits further down on the chest so when the cat pulls the weight is put on the chest and not the throat.
The XS rogz harness fits my average sized adult cat when the straps are expanded to their biggest, it should fit a 6 month old kitten with a bit of adjusting.

I started by just putting the harness on her and playing with her until she ignores it. I then just attached the lead and let it drag behind her before picking it up and following her around the house. If you wanted to try and train him to follow you then find a toy or treat which he really loves and get him to follow you around the house by loosely holding the lead and coaxing him with the toy/treats. Never just pull on the lead to get them to follow, cats think different to most dogs where a dog would probably follow a cat would dig all 4 paws in, become a dead weight or flop over onto their sides and play dead, you have to make them think that by following you it's in their best interest (ie. by following the owner I get loads of chicken/liver/cheese etc.), make them think they are the ones who chose to follow you!

There are other options too which allows them to have safe outside time, you could build an enclosure or cat proof your garden as being discussed in this thread already: http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=2056136298

Good luck, and yes you will probably get people pointing and staring and whispering about the person with the mini leopard! Ignore them though, as long as the cats happy and safe thats the main thing!


Forgot to mention don't ever dangle the harness or lead to play with the cat or else you'l end up with a cat that spends the whole walk trying to pull the harness off to play with it or jumping up to catch the lead.

Teaching them to walk on the leash isn't too difficult - the first time put on the harness the cat may freak out, or just lie down and refuse to move. However they'll adjust, and an opportunity to visit the outside world can often be a worthwhile reward/distraction.

It isn't like walking a dog. You go where the cat goes. Step, step, stepstepstep, sit. Sniff things. Find some long grass. Roll over. They also tend to stop dead, and then try and dart for something and can get freaked out if you don't move quickly enough and your weight on the other end of the harness brings them up short.

Additionally they can get startled or panicked quite easily - while your dog might try to back out of the collar or sit down or run around in circles, your cat will do all that AND go UP - up a tree, up a lamppost, up a fence, up YOU, up the person next to you, claws out, so on.

I read a story recently that had me in hysterics about an over-zealous leash walker who took her two cats to the vet - this was posted by a cat owner on another forum who'd taken her two cats in their crate to the vet. As she was in the waiting room she saw a woman walk in with two cats on leashes - they had been on leash and harness in the car, instead of crates, and she leash and harness walked them into the vet's waiting room instead of having them in crates. Well the carpark is behind the vet and you walk down a side alley and into the front door, which is on the corner of a busy intersection. So in she came through the door of the vet's waiting room, and the already-panicked cats just went bananas at the strange sights and sounds in the vets and the other animals in the waiting room. One went up the reception counter and landed on top of a drug cabinet at near ceiling height, the other climbed the owner until it was perched on her head, the two cats yowling and screeching and the owner screaming in pain at the claws the panicked cat had used to propel itself up her body and cling to her scalp.

And then the cherry: the cat on her head shat itself.

QED: cats aren't dogs. You can teach them to leash walk, but if they get a fright then their world has six directions - left, right, forwards, backwards, up and down. (Picture your cat in a storm drain or under a parked van or somewhere you'll have to wriggle into to persuade them to come out. Doesn't happen with a dog.)