Training Your Cat To Behave

If you have a cat that jumps up on the kitchen counters, climbs up on the couch, scratches the furniture or has other undesirable behaviour, you need to read the following on training your cat to behave. 

When training your cat to stop undesirable behavior you should keep your cat in the same room as yourself and keep a rolled up newspaper at hand. When you see your cat misbehaving, slap the newspaper loudly in your hand. The sharp noise will startle the cat and he will stop what he is doing instantly. Do not slap the newspaper at any other time and he should come to associate the loud sharp noise with his naughty behavior. Most cats need to be dissuaded more than once so you need to be continually on watch for his bad behavior. If you become tired of watching him then it  may be time that you put him away in a place where he cannot get up to any mischief so you can have a rest from constantly watching him. And you do have to watch him constantly as he needs to be disciplined every time he misbehaves.

For the times that you are unable to keep an eye on your cat, it may be advisable to deter your cat from counters, couches or windowsills by leaving citrus fruit on the counters, etc. Cats are repelled by the acidic smell of citrus fruit and so will avoid  areas so treated.

An alternative to citrus fruit is double sided sticky tape. Cats do not like having sticky substances on their paws. Or you could leave utensils like eating forks on the counter. Cats don’t like getting their paws pricked, but if they do stumble over the forks, the noise will scare them away and alert you to their misbehaving.

It is best to not let your cat know that you're the one making the startling noises. If he  relates the noise to you he may only misbehave when you are not around. You want the behavior to stop all the time.

Teach your new cat right from the first day home. Do not feed your cat on or near the counter or table but make sure that he is fed on the floor only, otherwise he will associate these places with his meal which is why he may jump up on the counter or table.

If you want to keep your cat from scratching the furniture you need to give him an alternative. Cats need to scratch so you need to have a scratching post available for him. Usually you only have to show your cat the scratching post once and he will get the idea. If he does not seem to be catching on try treating the scratching post with catnip.

If you think a scratching post too expensive you might consider buying the cheaper scratching mat. Alternatively you could make a scratching post out of a long piece of wood to which you could glue some old strips of carpet.

If you find that, even after successfully training you cat to use the litter box, you find that he does his business elsewhere, it may be because you have neglected to keep the litter box clean. Cats are fastidious and will not use a dirty litter box. Alternately, their reluctance to use the litter box may be down to the fact that you have recently changed your brand of litter and they may not like the smell.

While you may feel that chastising your cat physically is a good idea, it never really works. Making a loud noise to startle them works much better than physical admonishment, besides you will most probably make the cat afraid of you and you want the cat to be your friend.

Cats do not like loud high pitched noises, so a squeal from the wife or daughter or blowing a whistle should startle the cat into stopping the undesirable behavior.

For further advice on training your cat visit http://cats.about.com/od/behaviortraining/ht/ScruffingCat.htm