BUFFALO, N.Y. (WIVB) — A group of kittens is now more attractive to adopters after some rigorous training with students at Canisius College.
The college includes an Animal Behavior, Ecology and Conservation program, where students are tasked with training five foster kittens in the animal learning lab.
“It definitely makes them more attractive adoption candidates to be able to do a lot of cute tricks and to have really positive relationships with humans that they get through this training,” Maura Tyrrell said, the experiential learning coordinator at the school.
Over the course of the semester, the kittens are taught agility: they jump over flower pots, go through tunnels and then right into their cat carrier. They can even give high fives!
The students teach the animals using treats, toys and clickers. All five kittens will be adopted by the end of the class, including Mini Cooper, who is going home with a student.
“So Mini Cooper used to be very distracted,” Cain Canino said, a student in the program. “She was not very good at focusing, but through training, she’s become really great at focusing, awesome in sections, she’s basically doing everything we’re asking her to do right away. It’s really incredible, especially because at the start of the class, she was such a baby, so it’s really fun to see a kitten who has a very short attention span be able to do these things.”
The students are proving even the most difficult animals can be trained with a little love and pawwww-sative reinforcement.
Kelsey Anderson is an award-winning anchor and reporter who has been part of the News 4 team since 2018. See more of her work here.