Petting without Treats
Petting without Treats Requires Patience
It's a gradual process and takes longer than progressing through the petting sequence, so be patient, try not to get frustrated (which the cat will feel and will hinder progress), and stick to it.
The cat is ready when the cat consistently is oblivious to you petting with palm as long as there are treats. (Up until this point never pet without treats.)
When you start this stage, you need to lighten up the petting. You still use palm of hand, but pet lightly (don't apply pressure), and pet veeeery slowly again. Let the cat lick the churu or baby food while you pet at least 4 - 6 times. Then cover the treat with your fingers, then pet. At first you can only get in one pet before the cat dances away. But over time you can get in two pets before needing to give the treat again, then three pets, then four pets etc! Try to offer the treat again before the cat walks away from you.
As you repeat this daily, you will be able to withhold the treat longer and longer in between letting the cat lick the treat. First it's a fraction of a second. Then one second. Then two seconds...etc.
Don’t give up. Even I have doubted with some cats (you’ll see one of them below in the videos) if they will be able to get pet without treats, but just keep at it and it always works!
As the cat progresses, make sure to push the envelope and withhold the treat longer. I find that people who think their cat is stuck at this step aren’t withholding the treat long enough in the middle to advanced stages!
Eventually, you can pet the cat without any treats at all!
This step takes the longest because we are working on getting the cat to truly enjoy getting petted and not just tolerate it to get treats.
Petting without Treats Tutorial
Keep the covered treat right in front of the cat’s face and make sure you are constantly petting with the other hand when you withhold the treat. Start really slow and with feather touch. Essentially you are repeating the whole Petting Sequence but adding in withholding treats.
Petting without Treats Example
In these videos, Raisin is in the advanced stage of "petting without treats". Initially, pet more slowly and lightly than what you see in this video. I’m also not as careful with covering and keeping the treat right in front of Raisin’s face because he is already in the advanced stage. In the beginning you need to be more deliberate.
It may be interesting for you to watch a good portion of a session with Raisin in the first video. This was slightly less than ⅔ of a churu stick. Raisin is pretty far along the "petting without treats" work. This video shows how progress at the advanced stages (petting without treats, lap work etc.) may seem to take forever, but don't give up, don't feel frustrated...just give the cat time. Also remember that each cat is unique.
With Sesame and Raisin it felt like forever for them to start getting used to petting while I withheld treats for brief periods. They were running away after 2 pets without treats for what felt like 2 weeks (I don't keep track of the actual number of days so that I won't have any expectations) and the thought "will they EVER get used to petting without treats?" flitted through my mind more than once during those days. I never think that nor question if it will work, but with these boys I seriously wondered. But I made myself push those thoughts away, because when we feel frustrated or think it's not going to work...the cat feels that energy and won't progress.
I also adjusted so that for a while I only did this with baby food so that they became more comfortable with my hand. The churu stick is convenient, but you lose the benefit of the cat directly associating yummy food with your hand (which helps a lot to prepare the cat for petting).
You see here that Raisin is progressing amazingly well! Sesame was even further along than Raisin at that time. So don't feel frustrated, sad or defeated if things seem to be taking a while. There is progress but often we don't notice the little progress that they make each day, until one day you realize "oh wow, I can get so many pets in now in between licks of Churu/baby food!"
Advanced Stage:
Sneaking in a pet at the end of the session
Once you can pet the cat many times while withholding the treat, you want to introduce petting without a treat in your hand at the end of each session. Hide the empty treat stick or lick mat under your leg or behind you then reach out to let the cat sniff your finger just as you’ve been doing with the Approach Sequence (in parallel to this step), then using the back of your fingers touch the cheek of the cat. With each session, at the end you progress from touching the check of the cat to making one pet, then two pets etc.
This is different than the session itself because the cat doesn’t see a treat and so won’t hang around thinking that he will get a treat at some point. Expect the cat to shy away at first, but as you continue the Petting without Treats sessions and adding this at the end of the session the cat will start hanging around longer. At this point, you can also start to include getting in one, two then more pets on the cheek during your Approach Sequence work.
How the cat is with petting when he is finishing up the “Petting without Treats” step
Here is Raisin finishing up the “Petting without Treats” step. I didn't give treats and instead used the toy to get him to approach me while I pet him. This wasn’t a session but was me testing out how he is with petting in between his sessions.
At this point, you can get the cat used to petting with treats in different locations and throughout the day (vs just during a session), which will transition to petting no treats in different locations throughout the day.
But what about when they get adopted?
I was talking to another guide today about a cat who was socialized in a haphazard way (not using SSL) and how the cat was struggling to re-socialize once he arrived at his adopter’s home. One of the reasons why graduates of SSL do so well at their forever home with the proper Post Adoption support is that their adopters go through the methodical steps that are already familiar to the cat, so the cat bounces back quickly.
I thought you might want to see how Raisin ended up at his forever home just a few weeks after he arrived. I made sure he was fully comfortable with and enjoyed petting before I posted him for adoption (so he was significantly further along than the “just finished Petting without Treats” video above). Remember, I was starting to doubt if Raisin and his brother Sesame would ever get used to petting without treats. They went to separate homes and both did amazing. I’m showing Raisin because he was the more shy of the two. I’ve found over and over again that the ones who are more shy or scared end up becoming the most loving cats.
Raisin’s mom was a first time adopter, but she was loving and patient and willing to follow all of my instructions. I’ve actually adopted out SSL graduates to many first time adopters. In fact, I feel like the first time adopters are more open minded to following my instructions than long-time cat owners. So don’t rule out the first time adopters thinking that the SSL graduates aren’t “easy cats”, most SSL graduates are actually super easy! I talk about matching SSL socialized cats and adopters in the Adoption section.