Can you really train a cat?

Question

I can't even believe I'm asking this ?
Ive had my Cat for 5 years and she a great cat.
Now she has developed this habit of yanking on the blinds when she wants to go out. Which I understand that she wants to go out on the balcony,but now it's at odd times of the night & I'm sleep and can't hear. She even broke 2 of the slats on the blinds and I'm on my second set . Now, I try to discipline her, not working and I also put the blinds up so she can get to them. Now everybody can see whats going on and I don't like having them up while I'm sleep. What should I do?

Answer 1

spray her with a water bottle when she is doing it. after about a week she will learn not to do it any more.

Answer 2

Cats can be trained but not in the same way that dogs are. Your cat actually has already been trained, just not the way you wanted (yanking blinds = getting let out).

Cats don't respond well to negative re-enforcement when administered by a person as they equate the punishment to the person. Punishing a cat does not work and frequently just results in a stressed out cat. In this case the carrot works much better for cats than the stick, meaning reward the cat for doing something good rather than punish for doing something bad.

In your case you can have something the cat doesn't like happen every time she yanks the blinds, but have it happen so she doesn't associate the bad thing with you. That way she'll associate yanking the blinds with something bad happening (bad does NOT equal painful). A well timed shot with a squirt bottle, a tossed pillow (NOT at the cat) or loud noise should work, but it would be better to set up something that can happen when you're not around. You can try coating the blind string in something the cat doesn't like (and that doesn't stain and is easy to clean). They make sprays that cat's supposedly don't like the smell of which you could spray on the blinds. In all it depends on the cat. My cat likes being sprayed with water so that doesn't work as a deterrent and he also likes the feel of tin foil (something else cats aren't supposed to like).

In the long run though you have to think of this from the cat's perspective. She's already trained herself to know that yanking on the blinds gets you to let her out. To really break her from this you have to a) not let her out when she pulls on the blinds (and use deterrents above) and b) get her to associate some other action, such as pawing the window, with being let out. When she does an acceptable action, reward her and let her out. Eventually she will equate the other action with being let out. Unfortunately this will most likely take time.


The last thing to mention is that if the cat is acting strangely, it may be ill. So if the cat is suddenly going berserk in the middle of the night it might be more than just a discipline problem.

Answer 3

well 5 years is kind of late to train a pet. But, obviously if she's just picked up this trait she can just as easily drop it. Cats can most definetly be trained, I've trained mine to do things. While in the process of training her, I would put a sheet or a blanket over the blinds so she cant make noise or mess with them. Spray her with water everytime she even gets near them. Everytime she walks away from them without doing anything to them give her a treat. She'll associate the blinds with bad. And if u still want to let her go on the porch then take her out there one or two times a day at a certain time. She'll get trained to go out there when she's supposed to.

Answer 4

I have three cats; I read a long time ago that cats only learn by positive reinforcement and not negative consequences, which makes it hard once they develop a bad habit. However, we had a patio door problem too and we bought a small motion detector online (around $20) that sounded a short alarm if the cat walked within a certain area. It woke us up for a while, but it did retrain the cat. Then if your cat finds a better way to tell you she wants to go out, encourage her to use that way by letting her out only when she does it. Good luck!

Answer 5

Have you tried spraying water on her everytime she gets near the blinds? Is she scared of anything? A lot of cats are afraid of fake statues of cats, or those teddy bears that start singing if you cross their path - something like that might keep her away from the window.

Otherwise, you might want to get a board (cardboard or a lid to something works) to put over the window at night so nobody can see everything going on.

Answer 6

The easiest thing to do would be to try vertical blinds or curtains instead. That will allow the cat to peek out without damaging your blinds.

Try teaching her an alternative means of letting you know when she wants out. People teach dogs to ring a bell on a string by the door when they want out - perhaps you could try that instead?It's taught with a clicker, and clickers can be used to train cats as well, so it might work for you. Here are the links:

http://www.awesomedogs.ca/articles-ringbell.htm
http://www.clickertraining.com/cattraining

Answer 7

It is possible to train a cat. Do the water bottle thing one guy mentioned and your cat will learn.

Answer 8

spray her with water as shes just about to jump this should cure her it can take up to 28 days to b reak a habit

Answer 9

our cat is a genius... i trained him in a few weeks how to go in and use the toilet in the bathroom, and got adventurous and tried training him how to flush it... WORKED!!! took about another 6 months of training though... and when he wants to get in he knows in sequence who is most likely to be at home, and goes to the respective bedroom wndow to 'knock', by scraping his claws against the glass.

Answer 10

Maybe you should try a cat door or put her out before you go to sleep. If you have sliding glass doors this one might work really well for you: http://www.jefferspet.com/ssc/product.asp?CID=0&mscssid=UL531EMB13CW8LDJTR7CAAETF1PM7AXB