Trainer: Motivation key to cat training

HOUSTON, July 27 (UPI) -- A 23-year-old woman in Houston says she has trained cats to respond to simple commands by learning what motivates felines.

Kitten Kindergarten teacher Dulce Garcia says she has been able to train her own cat to certain commands and is confident any cat be trained simply by finding the right reward, the Houston Chronicle reported Sunday.

"Cats don't have the best attention spans," Garcia said. "But you can train any cat. You just have to find out what motivates them."

Garcia's class is offered through the Houston branch of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and she says its main focus is in socializing the animals.

She told the Chronicle that just like human beings, cats must be approached at an early age for education efforts take hold.

"It's important to start when they're smaller because that's when they'll learn more," Garcia said.