Cat Speak: How To Learn It, Speak It, And Use It To Have A Happy, Healthy, Well-Mannered Cat [Hardcover]

Bash Dibra (Author), Elizabeth Randolph (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 27, 2001

Cats are intelligent and reasonable animals, capable of enormous affection and loyalty and willing to cooperate with their owners-if asked to do so in a polite manner. With dogs, one commands; with cats, one suggests. Knowing which "suggestions" to make, and how to make them, is the key.

In CatSpeak, Bash Dibra shows cat owners how to do the previously unthinkable: train their cats! Understanding feline body language, facial expressions, vocal signals, and the instinctive behaviors that make up CatSpeak, the unique language of cats, is vital to the endeavor. So are the three P's: patience, persistence, and praise. The author takes the reader step-by-step in forming a new, mutually satisfying human-feline relationship.

With easy-to-follow instructions and complete, up-to-the-minute information, CatSpeak provides everything you need to know to have a happy, healthy, well-mannered cat.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Those seeking to teach their cats not to scratch furniture, chew on houseplants or indulge in other unacceptable behavior can learn how in Cat Speak: How to Learn It, Speak It, and Use It to Have a Happy, Healthy, Well-Mannered Cat. Animal behaviorist and trainer Bash Dibra (Dog Training by Bash) explains how to understand feline body language, facial expressions, vocal signals and other instinctive behaviors. Using the three Ps patience, persistence, praise and the three Cs compassion, care, concern Dibra offers a simple manual on how to get the most out of animal-feline relationships.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Dibra developed his talent for communicating with animals early in life under tragic circumstances: he interacted with guard dogs in the prison camp in Yugoslavia where his family was held after escaping from Albania. Since 1991, he has collaborated with Randolph, another talented dog trainer and author, offering commonsense information to the average pet owner. Having addressed dog owners in DogSpeak (LJ 9/15/99), they here teach cat owners how to communicate with their pets using easy-to-follow techniques. By learning to interpret a pet's body language, facial expressions, and vocal signals, owners can teach it an amazing repertoire of behaviors. Cats have a reputation for being independent and untrainable, a myth Dibra puts to rest by showing owners how to build a relationship with their felines based on understanding and trust, with a healthy dollop of patience, persistence, and praise. Recommended for all public libraries. Edell M. Schaefer, Brookfield P.L., WI
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 237 pages
• Publisher: Putnam (September 27, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0399147411
• ISBN-13: 978-0399147418
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.8 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,821,738 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 32 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars The author needs to check his facts, December 22, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Cat Speak: How To Learn It, Speak It, And Use It To Have A Happy, Healthy, Well-Mannered Cat (Hardcover)

I haven't finished the book, so I might revise my review later, but so far (about halfway through the book) I haven't learned anything new. In addition, I've found several bits of information that are either outdated or completely wrong. There is no bibliography in the book, which leads me to believe there was no research beyond the author's observations. In my opinion, a much better book on cat behavior is "Think Like a Cat" by Pam Johnson-Bennett

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Useful for people in certain situations., August 26, 2004

By 

Karen K. Hart (Austin, MN United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Catspeak:: How to Communicate with Cats by Learning Their Secret Language (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is probably extremely helpful for people in a few categories. It would be quite helpful to someone who wants to train a cat for show business or for cat shows; it would also be extremely helpful to someone who has never been around cats, someone who has been around cats but doesn't really understand them, someone who wants to learn basics about different cat breeds, or someone who is going to be living with a cat for the first time.
I had lived with cats before by the time I read this book, and I found most of the provided information to be fairly obvious. Feline body language, for instance, is one topic covered by the text. There were some bits that were interesting and/or surprising to me, though. For example, there is a short section on chattering. My present cat does sometimes chatter, but previous cats I'd known never did, so this topic was new for me.
The portion of the book about cat selection was not all that insightful, to my mind. If I did want to adopt a purebred cat, I'd want to research breeds in more depth than the book offered; but my cat came from a shelter, and I felt like the only advice the author had that applied to "impure" breeds was to make sure that the individual cat to be adopted was healthy and well-adjusted.
If you're looking for basics on cats, breed selection, cat training, and/or cat mannerisms, this book is an excellent choice for you. If you're already familiar with cat behavior and have no interest in extensive training, however, the book won't tell you much that you need to know.

22 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars CAT ADOPTION 101, November 21, 2001

By 

Brooser Bear (City of New York) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Cat Speak: How To Learn It, Speak It, And Use It To Have A Happy, Healthy, Well-Mannered Cat (Hardcover)

This is a comprehensive book about the intial stages of selecting and adopting a cat, how to take care of it, and how to give it rudimentary training in behaving itself. It does not go beyond that. The style of writing is easygoing and accessible, but it offers no spark of insight into feline behavior you might expect from a great animal trainer. If you know anyting about caring for a cat, this book will offer little or nothing new, and an encyclopedia like Cats for Dummies might be a bit more worthwhile since it comes packed with more data. For those of you seeking quality writing about cats, "Do Cats Think?" is a much better book written by a naturalist with a passion for felines.