Sit? Stay? Really? Surprising lessons from Kitten Kindergarten

The first lesson of Kitten Kindergarten is that there is such a thing as Kitten Kindergarten.

“When I told people at work I was coming here, no one could believe it even existed,” said Brian Skarin of Normal Heights, co-owner of 10-week-old Jonesy. “But once I started sending them pictures, everyone started saying, ‘When are you going back to Kitten Kindergarten?”

A new offering from the San Diego Humane Society, Kitten Kindergarten aims to turn squirrelly kittens into productive members of pet society. Or at least members of pet society who do not attack their owners’ toes in the middle of the night.

You can lead your kittens to knowledge, but can you teach them anything? Ever? I stopped in on the last day of the August session to see what happens when you let the the cat curriculum out of the bag.

Kittens 101

The San Diego Humane Society’s three-week Kitten Kindergarten training classes are designed to expose kittens to new environments, get them used to humans and other cats and prepare them for trips to the vet and other potentially stressful adventures.

The classes are good for the kittens because trained and socialized animals are less likely to run away or develop behavioral issues that could result in owners relinquishing them to a shelter. The classes are good for humans because educated owners are less likely to reach the frayed end of their feline rope.

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Kristine Mann holds Melody, one of her two kittens, so that Melody can be photographed wearing a graduation cap after Melody and other kittens completed the San Diego Humane Society’s Kitten Kindergarten program.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Milo pauses while chasing cat toys through a tube during the San Diego Humane Society’s Kitten Kindergarten program.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Angela Jimenez gives her kitten Nami a treat while pinching a section of skin behind her neck as a way to train Nami to be relaxed while getting a shot at the vets.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Milo, right, meets Clair for the first time.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Kristine Mann plays with her cat Clair.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Milo reaches through his pen to play.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Brian and Danielle Skarin train their kitten Jonsey to use a syringe so that she will easily take medications.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Jonsey looks out from her pen   (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Milo is lured on to a veterinarians examination tray with treats.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Angela Jimenez plays with her kitten Nami.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Angela Jimenez coaxes her kitten Nami on to small stool.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Angela Jimenez kisses her kitten Nami.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Milo looks out from his carrier after arriving for the San Diego Humane Society’s Kitten Kindergarten program.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Kittens play while doing an agility exercise.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Teacher of the kitten kindergarten Allison Beaulieu holds up small mortarboard graduation caps as a way to celebrate that the kittens and their owners have finished the course.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

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Diane Martinez holds her kitten Milo for a graduation picture.  (Hayne Palmour IV / San Diego Union-Tribune)

“We run a free behavior hot line, and a lot of the questions are about cats. “‘How do I stop my cat from biting my ankles? How can I make them use the litter box? What do I do about door dashing?’ “ said community training coordinator Shauna Romero.

“The problem with cats is that they have a hard time with change, so we decided to try out a class that focuses kittens during their critical socialization period, which is when they are most open to new changes in their environment.”

To be eligible, kittens must be no more than 13 weeks old by the first class. They will need to have at least one set of vaccinations a least seven days prior to the start of class. Owners must have proof of vaccinations, deworming and a negative feline leukemia virus test.

Classes are held at the Humane Society’s San Diego Campus at 5500 Gaines Street in Linda Vista.They are offered about every three weeks during kitten season, which usually runs from March through December. The fee is $60, with animals adopted from the San Diego Humane Society receiving a 20 percent discount. If your cat is too old, you can audit the class for a reduced rate.

The next session starts on Sept. 12. Go to sdhumane.org or call (619) 243-3463 for more information.

The treat is on

The second lesson of Kitten Kindergarten is that it is not a joke. Cats respond to food, and therefore, cats can be trained.

“People think you can’t teach cats anything, but that’s not true at all,” said Allison Beaulieu, an animal trainer with the Humane Society and the Kitten Kindergarten head human honcho.

“Anything that has a brain and a brain stem can be trained and taught.”

If you put treats in your cat’s carrier, they will eventually learn to think of the carrier as a happy place. If you get your cat to associate the sound of a cat-training clicker with the rewarding of a treat, you can teach them to sit. With time, Beaulieu says, you can also teach them to stay. Emphasis on time.

Every behavior Beaulieu teaches in class — getting a cat to willingly enter its carrier, wear a harness or let a human look in their ears — is broken down into tiny steps. Each step is followed by a reward, and the step-reward-step-reward cycle is repeated until the cat does what you want so that you will give it the treat they want.

So who is training who, anyway?

“I’ve learned a ton, but it’s a ton of work,” said Kristine Mann of San Carlos, as she hunkered down in her fenced-in pod with her tortoiseshell kittens, Melody and Claire. “Within just a week, Melody was responding to the clicker. That was surprising. Claire is not motivated by food, so I just have to figure out what does motivate her.”

Kitten steps

What motivates a human to attend Kitten Kindergarten? In Diane Martinez’s case, it was hissing and hope.

The hissing came from Milo, the smart but surly black kitten she adopted from the Humane Society earlier this summer. Martinez was hoping his smart side would eventually win out.

“He was a stray, so we had some behavior issues,” Martinez said of Milo, who arrived for his last day of class wearing a pumpkin costume.

“He was very aggressive. He would attack ankles and things like that. So I thought I would try this and see if it worked. He is way calmer now, and if I can get his attention, he can do things.”

For Brian Skarin and his wife, Danielle, Kitten Kindergarten was all about socializing Jonesy, a mostly black live-wire who was rescued from an Ocean Beach alley. Jonesy can handle the couple’s 60-pound dog, but she hates other cats. They’re working on that.

“We just had to learn what to do and what not to do and what is normal behavior for a cat,” Danielle said, as Jonesy hissed at Milo through the bars of her enclosure.

“When she comes here, she’s super-nervous, but if we bring out the clicker at home, she’ll pay attention for 10 minutes. It gets her out of hunting-mode at night, and she actually sleeps afterwards.”

Cool (commencement) cats

There are no final exams in Kitten Kindergarten, but there were plenty of unofficial A’s to go around.

Nami, a super-shy tortoiseshell kitten owned by Angela Jimenez, ventured out of her enclosure to check out the kitten obstacle course. Claire came very close to following Mann’s clicker cue to hop on a stool.

Milo and Jonesy both made their way through the obstacle course tunnel, and Milo upped the kitty ante by proving he could sit on cue.

Most of the cats were not willing to wear their mortarboards, preferring to chew the corners or bat at the tassels instead. But Beaulieu played “Pomp and Circumstance” on her laptop anyway, as volunteers circulated around the room taking class pictures.

At Kitten Kindergarten, the learning curve may be steep, but graduation is adorable.

“I can show him off now,” Martinez said of Milo, who will walk around Martinez’s Santee townhouse complex on a harness and leash. “I would definitely bring him back for more classes. I did not think he would be this good.”

Twitter: @karla_peterson

karla.peterson@sduniontribune.com