How do you go about training a cat??

Question

My kitty is so rude. He jumps up on everything counters, desks, us. He also eats right off our plates. We scold him ofcourse but after 3 months of this business I'm starting to wonder if he'll ever learn.

Answer 1

Hi there...to discourage countertop surfing and any horizontal surfaces when you cannot be there to physically watch the cat consider using double-sided sticky tape. Cats dislike having their paws stuck to the tacky tape after a few attempts learn to avoid the areas which are unpleasant. The idea here is to get the cat to learn for itself rather than have human intervention. Water squirts only teach the cat that it can't hurt me unless a human uses it.

For discouraging him to stay away from eating your food while you are eating consider placing a small snack tray at the base of the table so he can eat there while you are eating. Over time he will begin to learn eat apart from you. I've included a couple links which will explain why it's important to discourage this behaviour as many human food ingredients can be toxic to cats and other problems associated to cats who graze for our foods.

More on why table scraps for cats isn't advisable: http://cats.about.com/od/catfoodandnutrition/f/tablescraps.htm
List of human foods which are toxic to cats:
http://www.peteducation.com:80/article.cfm?cls=0&cat=1276&articleid=1029

Again, in order to train a cat effectively the key is to be very consistent and patient through time. Giving into a cat's whims only conditions him to be rewarded for his efforts. Therefore reward him for doing things correctly and he will learn to stay off the counters and eat on the floor away from his human pets.

Answer 2

If the is doing something wrong - you need to address it as soon as it happens - jumping on things - you could use a small squirt gun filled with warm water (cats usually hate water) and when he does something wrong, give him a short squirt. Eating off your plates should not be allowed - think of the germs! When you eat, put his own food down on the floor, make a fuss, and if he begs, refuse to even acknowlege he is there.

On the other hand - when he does something RIGHT - praise him, pet him, give him a treat - cats will respond well to this.

Never hit, never kick, never toss - if he does something wrong - pick him up & put him somewhere else, like another room, for a "time out". It is never too late for them to learn!

Answer 3

Water bottle....it needs to become his worst fear. It worked wonders for our cats and now all we have to do is reach for it and the cats know they should run for their lives. LOL Scolding didn't work for us either and we won't hit our cats so the water bottle sent the best message. If your cat is eating off your plates he is already too close to you...he needs to know that the table is off limits as well. It took us about 2-4 hours to train our one cat to stay away from our smaller cat.....or the Christmas tree for that matter. Now, we just shake the bottle and all three of them run. Good luck.

Answer 4

Take A Bottle Of Water. And Spray It At Your Cat.

Answer 5

He is young. We have the same problem. I believe if you put a smallamount of vinegar in water you spray them and they lick the vinegar onto their fur and they dont like so they stop being naughty.We are spraying our cat with water but she does not likeit. It is tral and error.

Answer 6

Patience, and a quick squirt in the face will convince any cat that what ever he is doing is not the thing he should be doing.

Answer 7

I would try sparying water at him. Cats usually react to that. Spray and say "No" at the same time; this way she associates "No" with a bad thing.

Answer 8

You cant train a cat.

Answer 9

you don't train cats, they train you