Cat Training

CerbiesMom

Anybody have well-behaved cats? I want my cats to stop attacking my dogs for food, to stop bursting out the doors when we open them, and to stop jumping on counters and the kitchen table. If anyone has any suggestions, that would be awesome.

andreangil

Our male cat used to dart out every chance he got. Everytime we needed to go outside we had to make all the noise of opening the door (without actually opening it) and wait for him to come to the door ready to escape. Then we just had to put him in the bathroom for a few minutes until we were done doing what we needed to do outside. Or if we were going to the store, he would just be in there for the hour or two while we were running errands. Eventually he just lost interest in trying to go outside.

We've never had problems with the cats jumping on the counters to get food, but when I did my homework on the kitchen table one of our female cat used to sit on my book or whatever paper I was writing on. Picking her up and moving her didn't work because she just came right back, so we started squirting her with water. She moved on her own and didn't come back.

Occasionally, our cats fight over a toy and when they do that, we just make a loud noise (like a clap and a hey!) and throw something small at them(like an empty water bottle)--just enough to startle them and make them stop. Maybe that would work for your cats attacking your dogs?

Mdawn

I've tried to get my cats to stop doing that for years with no success...lol I've tried squirting them with water, dropping a can full of pennies...everything...nothing has worked. If you can figure it out, please let me know.

RonE

Isn't that an oxymoron?

My impression (as someone who shared a dorm room with a cat for one week) is that anything a cat does that even remotely resembles trained behavior is either a manifestation of the cat training the "owner" (re: slave or indentured servant) or was instinctive behavior to began with (e.g. litter "training.")

Most of my interaction with the small, but ferociously independent feline that graced me with his presence for a week involved survival tactics on my part, like wearing heavy leather gloves (falconry gloves, actually) to play with the cat so he wouldn't shred my wrists.

melgrj7

To keep the cats off of counters and other things you can put down double sided tape on the places where they would land (like the edges). It needs to be there every time they would have the oppurtunity to jump up for at least 2 weeks. Or you can get a scat mat if the tape doesn't work, but the tape usually works.

For attacking the dogs . . . with snickers I used time outs. When she was a kitten and young adult she was bad about attacking basically everything that moved (us, the dog, the other cat). When I finally got sick of it I started tossing her into the small half bath that is in my parents kitchen (this was when I was in highschool). Usually it was just for a few minutes and she hated it so it worked well. I made sure there was nothing fun to do like shred toliet paper. Sometimes she stayed in there for half an hour to ensure I didn't kill her! I figured it was better for her to be in there than for me to lose my temper. Anyway, if she attacked the dog I would tell her NO! Then grab her and toss her in the bathroom and leave her there for a few minutes or until she stopped crying. It did work, after a few weeks you could see her make the effort to not attack anyone, she would stop herself and walk away and attack a toy instead.

Mdawn

When Max was a kitten, he had a HUGE problem with attacking people. He acted like he was half wild or something. He would attack me, my boyfriend, GUESTS, it didn't matter. And he wasn't playing either, he was mad when he'd do it. We finally ended up buying a rabbit cage; we put a bed in there and toys along with a small litter box. Whenever he'd get in that frame of mind, we just put him in the cage and left him there for awhile until he calmed down. It was the only thing I could think to do because he was really hurting people. He would at times latch himself onto my leg and I could literally walk from room to room with him still attached! He was nuts!

We have since been able to stop using the cage. lol

For attacking dogs, we had a tiny problem with that as well when he was a kitten. At the time, we had a Golden, named Montana and Max liked to mess with him. He's run and jump on Montana's back attacking him. He just let Montana deal with it by flinging him off. He didn't do it all that much as I guess being flung across the room wasn't too pleasant for him. lol

Also Max started to calm down when we brought Gus home (our other cat). Max really showed a lot of patience with him and basically took care of Gus. We were leary about adding a second cat with Max's temperament, we were afraid that Max would try to kill Gus or something...lol...but instead Max adopted the "big brother" attitude. It was weird. They are still best buddies.

Corteo

For the tables and counters, put book tape on them with the sticky side up. Loop the ends of the tape so it stays on the counter/table. This stopped Fungo in his tracks