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OliveOilMom
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10 Feb 2012, 12:06 pm

I've never heard of training a cat to do anything. I didn't think you could train them.

As for service animals vs emotional support animals, I'd think the service animal would have to perform actual tasks for the person rather than simply being there for them, like an ESA. If I have that wrong, let me know please.

In light of my assumption above, I'd like to ask MagicMeercat what the lizard does as a service animal. I'm not being argumentative, I'm curious. When I think of service animals, I think of guide dogs, sensing an oncoming seizure, etc. When I think of ESA's I think of the animal being with you so that you don't feel alone and you feel more confident and calmer.

To Callista, I've read a bit about Amanda Baggs online and from what I gather she's "been" lots of things in the past and used to be very functional. I've read that the thing about not communicating is new, etc. What's your take on that? It's hinted online that she was faking it for some reason (Munchausen's was implied in one article) and it's said that she used to be schizophrenic and not autistic in any way. I think I've also read that she's "had" several other things. Just curious as to your thoughts on that, I haven't looked anything up about her in a long time.


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10 Feb 2012, 12:42 pm

I would say that a dog would make a better service animal.


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10 Feb 2012, 12:54 pm

OliveOilMom wrote:
I've never heard of training a cat to do anything. I didn't think you could train them...


All of my cats are well trained, we even go for walks, sometimes on leash sometimes not. You just have to try. They understand "no", and I think this is very important, "danger".



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10 Feb 2012, 1:53 pm

OliveOilMom wrote:
I've never heard of training a cat to do anything. I didn't think you could train them.


Not every cat can be trained but some can be. Clicker training does work on cats. My cat is still solidly a cat but is also trained in some manners. She comes when she's called (and I mean by her name, not by food). She knows 'stop'/'no'. She's currently being trained to be comfortable on a leash - yesterday she wore a harness all day and was fine with that, she just isn't fine with the leash being attached to the harness yet.


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As for service animals vs emotional support animals, I'd think the service animal would have to perform actual tasks for the person rather than simply being there for them, like an ESA. If I have that wrong, let me know please.


Your assumption here is correct, however, cats can fulfill the requirement of performing actual tasks, depending on the person's disability. My cat is currently an ESA, but could meet the requirements for a service animal. Her task would be alerting me to migraines before they hit me so that I can get somewhere safe before it hits and get painkillers into my system. My cat also recognizes my emotional state better than I do, but that still falls into the ESA category.

Quote:
In light of my assumption above, I'd like to ask MagicMeercat what the lizard does as a service animal. I'm not being argumentative, I'm curious. When I think of service animals, I think of guide dogs, sensing an oncoming seizure, etc. When I think of ESA's I think of the animal being with you so that you don't feel alone and you feel more confident and calmer.


I've also been really curious about this and have just not asked because of not wanting to be argumentative.



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10 Feb 2012, 1:56 pm

Tuttle wrote:
OliveOilMom wrote:
I've never heard of training a cat to do anything. I didn't think you could train them.


Not every cat can be trained but some can be. Clicker training does work on cats. My cat is still solidly a cat but is also trained in some manners. She comes when she's called (and I mean by her name, not by food). She knows 'stop'/'no'. She's currently being trained to be comfortable on a leash - yesterday she wore a harness all day and was fine with that, she just isn't fine with the leash being attached to the harness yet...

Oh, good kitty!



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10 Feb 2012, 7:37 pm

1000Knives wrote:
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Well, I don't really know anything about Aspergers and service animals, so I'll leave that out. I've had cats all my life, but this is my first time having my own cat I picked out myself.

I'd recommend a Maine Coon. My cat is a Maine Coon, and she's the coolest. Maine Coons are very much like dogs, actually. They're from the Siberian/Norwegian forest cat lineage, and what happened was, obviously it's cold there, so they were inside much of the time, or on ships. Anyway, because of that, interactions with humans are bred into them, it seems. My Maine Coon is unlike any other cat I've had, in that I can call her, and she'll come to me a lot of the time, but everytime I call her, she at least acknowledges I called her. I've not given her too much specific training, but the ability to call and sorta "talk" with her is more than I've had with other cats. My cat, right, there's the whole book, "All Cats Have Asperers" but my cat seems to have cat Aspergers. She likes human contact, and just cannot stand being around other cats at all. When we first got her, she stayed at the opposite corner of the house of my 3 other cats, and would attack any other cat within like 5 feet of her. But she's just completely different in personality to any other cat I've owned ever.

Maine coons, basically, they're very doglike. They can be trained to fetch, roll over, etc. Here's a video of one being taken for a walk on a leash. They're my favorite cats.

Dogs would probably be a better service animal, as they're bred specifically for that sort of thing. Dogs are bred for being good at tasks humans give them, and cats never got bred for doing tasks really. The Siberian/Norwegian/Maine Coons, though, they're about the closest you're gonna get. As far as training them, I find them a bit easier than dogs, as first off, if you don't want them somewhere, you just pick them up and physically move them. Main thing for training them, you can't like, boss them around, you gotta be like, loving and stuff, but at the same time firm. But you can't like, play mind games as easy with a cat as you can to train a dog. Cats are more like a human, basically, in training. Even my cat, she knows her name, I can call her, and she acknowledges it's me, but 50% of the time she feels she has better stuff to do than see me. They're obviously not animals you can boss around, but you can make them cooperate with you. Oh, one other thing, my cat is too smart to actually play string with humans. She'll not hit the string when you're dangling it, then when you get bored and throw the string down, she'll play with it by herself for like 5 minutes. Also, routines, cats have routines like a lot of Aspergers people that seem weird. Like my cat only allows me to hold her by me throwing her over my shoulder almost. She will not tolerate being held in any other way, even though most other cats hate being held that way, she probably just got used to it from me, so you can't hold her any other way and have her be happy.

So yeah, Maine Coon or similar breed of cat. Watch the video of the cat on a leash for a walk outside, and see if you're cool with that. Oh, and Maine Coons, especially the males, tend to be huge. Mine's normal cat size, though, just with a slightly longer body than an average cat. Oh, starting young is helpful. My cat is like 7-10 years old, and when we first got her, she was in a cage for like 2 years, and when she got to my house, she hid everywhere and didn't want contact with anyone, but I guess I helped her break out of her shell or whatever, she loves people now, especially me, but still is not a huge fan of cats. She's learned to not fight other cats anymore for getting within a few feet of her, but still she just likes being left alone.


I agree, Maine Coons are wonderful. I had one for 13 years (a female), and my 18 year old son now has a male Maine Coon who is, I swear, the biggest domestic cat I've ever seen. They are also less "flappable" than other cats, in my experience, so if you're training one, it will be less likely to go off on a tangent and more likely to tolerate your efforts! My two cats now, I think, would be wonderful emotional support animals, but I can't imagine trying to train them to do more.

~Kate


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10 Feb 2012, 8:40 pm

Meow101 wrote:
I agree, Maine Coons are wonderful. I had one for 13 years (a female), and my 18 year old son now has a male Maine Coon who is, I swear, the biggest domestic cat I've ever seen. They are also less "flappable" than other cats, in my experience, so if you're training one, it will be less likely to go off on a tangent and more likely to tolerate your efforts! My two cats now, I think, would be wonderful emotional support animals, but I can't imagine trying to train them to do more.

~Kate


We had a Maine Coon who had his own plastic wading pool, they often like water. He was a very good boy.



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11 Feb 2012, 12:49 am

shrox wrote:
Meow101 wrote:
I agree, Maine Coons are wonderful. I had one for 13 years (a female), and my 18 year old son now has a male Maine Coon who is, I swear, the biggest domestic cat I've ever seen. They are also less "flappable" than other cats, in my experience, so if you're training one, it will be less likely to go off on a tangent and more likely to tolerate your efforts! My two cats now, I think, would be wonderful emotional support animals, but I can't imagine trying to train them to do more.

~Kate


We had a Maine Coon who had his own plastic wading pool, they often like water. He was a very good boy.


My kitty doesn't care if I pet her with my hands wet, and has lied down in her water bowl without noticing she's done so before. However, she's not swam, that I know of.

She's a quite good kitty though. And I've set it up so next week she gets to go meet people and see how she reacts to meeting people outside of her home environment. (She'll be going up to the college campus with me to meet people)



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11 Feb 2012, 2:31 am

1000Knives wrote:
I'd recommend a Maine Coon..

Everything you say I agree with. My Maine Coone, Lyra is about two years old and as many times I tell people she is a full grown cat they still call her a kitten because she is small and playful.
She always acknowledges me when I call her and I've got a video clip somewhere where I call her from about 10 metres away and she runs right up to me.
She is extremely friendly with my house mates too.
I might see how she does on a harness. My sister says she obeys me and thinks I trained her that way. I didn't. I think she's really mischievous but she can sit on windowsills and balconies and never even try to jump down, even when the roof is quite low under the windowsill.
And yeah, do we ever have the longest conversations.

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She does that a lot too.

She is my unofficial at home service animal.


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15 Feb 2012, 9:42 pm

I ended up with a Tonkinese cat as an emotional support animal. He was almost one year old when I got him, so he had a rough adjustment period where he just hid. Once he decided to trust me, it was unconditional love. Now he doesn't want to get out of my lap.

I still have the option of also getting a service dog, which I plan to do in the future.

Thanks everyone, I enjoyed reading about the cats! I once had a cat that was a Main Coone mix, and he was extra loving. I still miss him.



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15 Feb 2012, 9:44 pm

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Kitty kitty kitty!



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16 Feb 2012, 7:41 pm

I think cats are too independent to be service animals.



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16 Feb 2012, 7:53 pm

Silver_Meteor wrote:
I think cats are too independent to be service animals.


Depends on the individual cat. Not all dogs can be service animals.



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16 Feb 2012, 7:59 pm

OliveOilMom wrote:
To Callista, I've read a bit about Amanda Baggs online and from what I gather she's "been" lots of things in the past and used to be very functional. I've read that the thing about not communicating is new, etc. What's your take on that? It's hinted online that she was faking it for some reason (Munchausen's was implied in one article) and it's said that she used to be schizophrenic and not autistic in any way. I think I've also read that she's "had" several other things. Just curious as to your thoughts on that, I haven't looked anything up about her in a long time.

She may have regressed. During my regression we talked about how things got harder for us so I do know she hasn't always been as severe. She's been on a lot of medications that may have made her worse.
Find me one autistic who hasn't got several other things going on. I've got a buttload of other disorders going on.

Anyway, I don't want to get into a big argument. She also posts here under Anubend so mind who you call a fake. I think it's against forum rules or something.

Lesson three with my cat was remarkably surprising. She is getting so used to the lead. She has always followed me around too. At times she is stubborn and will just sit there but if I leave her alone for 15-30 seconds she will move again. The other cat was following her around so she got very agitated. But after the lesson she stayed with me instead of running away which she did in lesson 2. I suppose continuing training after a big dingo chases her up the stairs and out of window was not the best choice.

I think I need more a sensory support animal than a service one.


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16 Feb 2012, 10:07 pm

shrox wrote:
Silver_Meteor wrote:
I think cats are too independent to be service animals.


Depends on the individual cat. Not all dogs can be service animals.


This. My cat is incredibly not independent. She literally will stay in bed with me all day if I'm sick rather than let me be alone. She'll go have time to play alone only if my boyfriend's with me. If I'm alone, especially if I'm in bed she'll be there with me. At the moment she's lying next to my computer.

pensieve wrote:
Lesson three with my cat was remarkably surprising. She is getting so used to the lead. She has always followed me around too. At times she is stubborn and will just sit there but if I leave her alone for 15-30 seconds she will move again. The other cat was following her around so she got very agitated. But after the lesson she stayed with me instead of running away which she did in lesson 2. I suppose continuing training after a big dingo chases her up the stairs and out of window was not the best choice.


Yay! Letting her get used to the lead sounds like its going well.

My kitty successfully walked on her leash rather than flopping when I put the leash on her, for the first time earlier this week. Before then, she was okay with the harness, but if I put the leash on her, forget about getting her to do anything other than flop. However, this try she'd gotten used to the leash, and she was entirely fine walking around inside. However, as soon as she went outside to the parking lot she started freaking out. She's working on going up and meeting people up campus, they want to meet her.

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I think I need more a sensory support animal than a service one.


Sensory support is such a nice thing to get from animals. That was one of the explicit reasons for kitty for me (along with her helping recognize my emotions and helping prevent meltdowns because cats just innately help with meltdowns for me). The identifying migraines in me is a really nice side benefit though. (And one I'd totally make her a service cat for if service cats were still allowed)



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16 Feb 2012, 11:34 pm

pensieve wrote:
OliveOilMom wrote:
To Callista, I've read a bit about Amanda Baggs online and from what I gather she's "been" lots of things in the past and used to be very functional. I've read that the thing about not communicating is new, etc. What's your take on that? It's hinted online that she was faking it for some reason (Munchausen's was implied in one article) and it's said that she used to be schizophrenic and not autistic in any way. I think I've also read that she's "had" several other things. Just curious as to your thoughts on that, I haven't looked anything up about her in a long time.

She may have regressed. During my regression we talked about how things got harder for us so I do know she hasn't always been as severe. She's been on a lot of medications that may have made her worse.
Find me one autistic who hasn't got several other things going on. I've got a buttload of other disorders going on.

Anyway, I don't want to get into a big argument. She also posts here under Anubend so mind who you call a fake. I think it's against forum rules or something.



I didn't call anybody a fake. I asked what someone else's take on it was because I had seen one video online and the interview with Sanjay Gupta, and had read some things. I was asking what others thought about it, not calling her a fake. I'm sure forum rules and mods can distinguish between a question with a reference to something that I've read and an accusation.


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