Oliverscatventures
Car training
Most cats associate car rides with vet visits. From the start we took Oliver on car rides which ended at a fun adventure, so he never made negative associations with the car. First we put him in his backpack and zipped him up. He didn’t like that at all, so we took him out and secured him to a special cat seat belt. But then we noticed he wanted to look out the window, so we bought him the Kurgo booster seat which he immediately loved.
To get him used tot he car seat we followed the same steps as we did with the backpack and bike carrier. We let the car seat be in the living room for two weeks and he immediately made it his own. For Oliver it was an easy training since he already knew the car and was used to take rides.
If your cat isn’t keen on car rides, you can take the following steps. It all comes down by making positive associations. Start with taking your cat in the car and give lots of rewards, leave the engine off and keep it short. Do this a couple of times. If your cat doesn’t show any signs of stress you can turn the engine on, but don’t go for a ride yet. Again, give lots of rewards.
The next step would be a short ride which ends at home. It would be great if your cat is already used to a car seat by this point. Then slowly prolong the drives and end at home or at a fun adventure.