You may be surprised to learn that there isn’t really a way to discipline your cat, and that spray bottle you’re using isn’t doing anything but harming your …
I gave up on counter surfing a long time ago, but I am worried they’d jump
when the stove is on and get burned. I might try the air thing or sticky
thing around the range.
Well i have a different problem. My Cat keeps Scratching and Putting her
paws beneath My door, causing my door to shake and make noises. This get’s
very annoying especially around night time. She does this cause she want’s
to come in my room, but i don’t wan’t her in my room cause all she does is
climb and get into things that might break or cause loud noises while I’m
trying to sleep. I’ve been putting her in the cage that we use to bring her
to the vet to keep her from meowing and scratching my door. I don’t know
what else to do other than that, and i would rather have an alternative
solution than having to stuff her in a cage all night.
Cats adapt too. If they experience a blast of air on the counter top,
they’ll jump down—at first. After that, they’ll just ignore it. Been
there, seen that. LOL
Very rarely but often enough to concern me is my 19 year old cat Lucy jumps
up onto the bed and onto my pillow while I’m sleeping and will bite my head
till I move and she can possess my pillow. Do you know why she would do
that and how to stop it??
I don’t mind her sleeping on my pillow but I’m not a fan of having my head
bitten, it’s not hard enough to draw blood, but hurts enough to wake me up.
Hey, What do I do when I have 4 cat boxes in the bathroom and several in
the bedrooms, but she still pees in the floor or on towels? She’s about 12
years old and LOVED. She’s actually a very well behaved and sweet cat.
@Bob Swenson my cat is the same way with his dad. He learned biting hurts
when we were fostering another cat for awhile, but unfortunately he still
bites – just not as hard. Never get another cat just to teach your cat a
lesson as they might not get along.
I’ve had to spray my cat when I’m leaving the apartment and he attacks me
feet because he tries to get out, telling him no or to stop makes him more
aggressive. Other than that hes pretty chill.
I’m totally loving your videos here. I also bought your book “Cat Daddy”
and read it today in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. You’re not
only a cat expert, you’re an absolutely amazing person and an inspiration
to me.
My cat, Meena, is a good girl except when she gets up on my desk to look
for plastic things to chew on….(big no-no. I need to invest in some
double-sided sticky tape.) and if there is no plastic things for her to eat
(which there rarely is), she chews on her own tail fur. I’ve tried
everything. Applying bitter spray to things she shouldn’t chew (no effect),
providing her with acceptable chew toys (she isn’t interested), even
rewarding her for NOT chewing on things with pets and small treats.
Unfortunately, rewarding her good behavior seems to back-fire on me; Meena
seems to not take it as reward for being good, but as permission to start
doing bad things again… I don’t know what else to try. Neither positive
or negative reinforcement seems to have any effect. Any ideas on how I can
get Meena to stop chewing her own fur or seeking out plastic things?
i had such a compressed air auto thing for my livingroom shelf because i
had whine glasses on the lower one wich my cat uses to get to the higer one
when she relized that this “pfft” thingy reacts to her she began to actualy
love it
she played arround with it
tossed it on the ground and hunted it down there
that got me thinking
she is a wild animal
she is a indor only cat (i live in the middle of the town with lots of cars
right outside)
there is no real reason to cut down her freedom even further
so i just put the glasses on the midle board of the high shelf
now the path is free and little sammy plays up to this day with the empty
compressed air bottle
i cant take it away she loves it
I’ve always had cats, my last cat died after 18 years from cancer he was a
perfect cat but very un-catlike, he would never jump on the counter, steal
food ect.. now i have two cats female & male less than a year of age and i
thought them to respond to the sound of me clicking my fingers when they
need to stop doing something or the “psst” sounds when it’s there
dinner/treat time and they even sit and wait when i give them there food
but i even if i trained them just like i did with my previous cats and
where brought up the same way for some reason these ones sit on the counter
to watch me and sometimes if I’ve been forgetful and they steal food or
at-least try too i had no idea how to stop this cause it’s the first time
it’s ever happened to me, i don’t believe is yelling cause with animals it
really has no effect except to stress the owner out! so seeing this vid is
really gonna help solve this! THX
Great video.. My cat loves to sit on the counter. He has a spot area
where he can sit and watch me fixing food. I’ll say, eh eh or just blow air
at his head and he will back away to his spot. I wouldnt have to move him
back to his spot then wash my hands again to fix food. 🙂 I do clean my
counter everytime I get ready to fix food. 🙂 Love my cat! Meow!
What IZ NOT to like about our KITTEH GURU Jackson. He iZ “BOUT THE ACTION,
BOSS” when it comes to our kittehs! We love you Bro, Jackson. We also love
the SEAHAWKS and Marshawn Lynch. Couldn’t resists.
How do you train your cat to stop begging for food without using a squirt
bottle?
My cats beg and meow for food all day despite the fact that they have a
firm eating schedule (since cats like routine). I only feed them, at their
regular meal time, after they have quieted down and aren’t meowing. Every
time they meow (whilst sitting outside the closet door where their food is
stored or next to their bowl – clearly demanding food and NOT just meowing
because they’re cats and that’s what they do. I know the difference), it
will push back their feeding time a few minutes because I don’t want to
reinforce negative behavior (meowing/begging for food) by feeding them on
their terms when they demand it.
After they quiet down, I go over to the closet where their food is stored
and they run over and start meowing like crazy before they jump into the
closet and rub against the container of food (if I didn’t stop them, they
would find a way to get into the tightly sealed plastic container of food
and they would eat all of it). This behavior is unacceptable and should not
be rewarded with food. What I started doing is squirting them when they run
over to the closet. How can I change my tactic?
I’m not seeing a YES/NO option here. Suggestions are highly welcome! 🙂
More information to communicate our cats’ obsession with food:
– We have a dry erase board that the household uses to make sure the cats
are not double fed. We write the date and time of feeding every day. The
cats will try and trick you into thinking they haven’t been fed by begging
for food when you get home even though they were fed a mere few hours prior.
– I was at the house all day one day and I fed them in the morning, as
usual. They were, of course, begging for food all day. There was a point
where they quieted down and I gave them a few small treats to tide them
over until dinner. (We’re trying to teach them how to sit so they only get
a treat after quieting down and also doing a trick). Right before their
dinner time, I realized one of the cats had chewed threw the plastic my
dinner rolls came in and ate part of 2 dinner rolls inside the plastic bag.
They must have done this when I was in the shower and wasn’t there to watch
them – just for a few minutes. The bag literally looked like a rodent got
into my dinner rolls. I cannot make any sense of it.
– They get into the trash like dogs. We have since resolved this issue, but
to put it into perspective for you, our cats taught our dog how to knock
over the trashcan to get the food inside of it. I couldn’t make this stuff
up.
– Their lives revolve around food. I have tried doing playtime before
mealtime and they are pretty uninterested because all they really want to
do is eat. They also know when their mealtime is so they much prefer food
over playtime.
– They know which drawer their treats are in and one time they found a way
to open the drawer (which has a nob, btw), ate through the foil,
ziploc-esque bag, tore it into a million pieces, and ate all of the treats
inside the bag. We have to store their treats in a different drawer which
has a hang down handle (you’d think a cat would be more likely to open that
kind of a drawer on their own).
I just don’t think it is normal to go to such lengths to rectify their
behavior. I shouldn’t have to remove all food that is out, even if it is in
a bag or container. They will eat threw anything and figure out how to open
ANY container. And since negative reinforcement and discipline don’t work,
what will? HALP!
Thanks for the tip! My naughty ginger/white cat is constantly counter
surfing, I think it’s the negative attention he’s after but it’s not like I
ignore him all the time.. I do give him quality attention.
I have 2 bar stools by the kitchen counter and it is true that my cats
enjoyed being on them while I am preparing meals but afterwards… it becomes
an easier way to counter surf…
I only used a squirt bottle once – when I got a new, 3-ft high houseplant
with a 12 inch diameter pot that said “litter box” to all my kitties. I
hid behind an upholstered chair pulled close to the side table with the
plant right in front between the two and stuck my arm with the bottle in
the space between the chair and the table. Anyone got anywhere near the
plant and they got squirted. I’m sure they knew my hand was there but it
seemed as if the plant or the pot was doing the squirting. I stayed like
that for 3-4 hours until the behaviour stopped. They’ve never gone near
the plant again. But you have to do it non-stop until the association is
made. Tedious but worth it – I don’t worry that they’ll eat the plant now
either.
Great video! My mom hates it when my cat Delilah jumps up onto the kitchen
table. I’ve told her that we need to get a cat tree for her to sit on, but
she doesn’t want a cat tree in the kitchen… I’m trying to get her to
understand that if we give Delilah a “yes” area, she won’t get on the table
or counter.
And yes I do meet them half way, they have their own table in the kitchen
they are allowed to be on. they sleep on it they walk on it they sit one it
and watch us cook. :-P
I’ve no problem with my cats jumping up on the counters because I don’t
leave anything that might be of interest to them. I let them jump once, to
explore, and once they figure out there is nothing good there, they just
don’t jump anymore.
My experience is, the more you try to keep them away from somewhere, the
more they want to investigate because they think you are keeping something
good away from them.
Question, I will not use the squirt bottle I purchased, and have not used
yet, for cleaning only but I was going to use it on my cat who sprays
despite being neutered. I was told before neutering that this would not
necessarily take care of the issue. I have 2 male cats and 1 female. There
is still a territory issue going on but I do not want to rid of any of
them. What do I do to stop the one male from spraying? I do not mind them
on my counters, though I will probably do the stand thing. I typically do
not leave things out, but some of my family do tend to leave things out for
them to get into (and then they get yelled at or in trouble, which is silly
imo).
My mom’s husband also has a bird, but eventually hung the cage up (he
brought it out from their bedroom I believe)… thinking further away from
the ground, ie the cats, the better. However, the one cat we have jumped up
to the cage on the ceiling the one day… the bird got loose and luckily, I
was able to save the bird (birds scare the crap out of me but instinct took
over). The cats were being squirted then and now the cage has been moved to
another room (closed off). But, can a bird in a cage and a cat co-exist? If
so, how? I thought if ever I had a bird, it’d be on a stand with one of
those spray cans! Would that work? Or no, since the bird is technically
prey?
Animalist
Can you train your cat? +Jackson Galaxy has the answer in today’s episode
of #CatMojo!
Kathy La Hay
Thanks for another great episode.
jewelmarkess
I gave up on counter surfing a long time ago, but I am worried they’d jump
when the stove is on and get burned. I might try the air thing or sticky
thing around the range.
Gyrobotful
Well i have a different problem. My Cat keeps Scratching and Putting her
paws beneath My door, causing my door to shake and make noises. This get’s
very annoying especially around night time. She does this cause she want’s
to come in my room, but i don’t wan’t her in my room cause all she does is
climb and get into things that might break or cause loud noises while I’m
trying to sleep. I’ve been putting her in the cage that we use to bring her
to the vet to keep her from meowing and scratching my door. I don’t know
what else to do other than that, and i would rather have an alternative
solution than having to stuff her in a cage all night.
Rita Brown
Cats adapt too. If they experience a blast of air on the counter top,
they’ll jump down—at first. After that, they’ll just ignore it. Been
there, seen that. LOL
ChiiXxTohru
Very rarely but often enough to concern me is my 19 year old cat Lucy jumps
up onto the bed and onto my pillow while I’m sleeping and will bite my head
till I move and she can possess my pillow. Do you know why she would do
that and how to stop it??
I don’t mind her sleeping on my pillow but I’m not a fan of having my head
bitten, it’s not hard enough to draw blood, but hurts enough to wake me up.
Christina Little
Hey, What do I do when I have 4 cat boxes in the bathroom and several in
the bedrooms, but she still pees in the floor or on towels? She’s about 12
years old and LOVED. She’s actually a very well behaved and sweet cat.
Stephanie Vincent
@Bob Swenson my cat is the same way with his dad. He learned biting hurts
when we were fostering another cat for awhile, but unfortunately he still
bites – just not as hard. Never get another cat just to teach your cat a
lesson as they might not get along.
silverbracelet6
I’ve had to spray my cat when I’m leaving the apartment and he attacks me
feet because he tries to get out, telling him no or to stop makes him more
aggressive. Other than that hes pretty chill.
Alexander Alex
I’m totally loving your videos here. I also bought your book “Cat Daddy”
and read it today in one sitting because I couldn’t put it down. You’re not
only a cat expert, you’re an absolutely amazing person and an inspiration
to me.
MimiYuzui
My cat, Meena, is a good girl except when she gets up on my desk to look
for plastic things to chew on….(big no-no. I need to invest in some
double-sided sticky tape.) and if there is no plastic things for her to eat
(which there rarely is), she chews on her own tail fur. I’ve tried
everything. Applying bitter spray to things she shouldn’t chew (no effect),
providing her with acceptable chew toys (she isn’t interested), even
rewarding her for NOT chewing on things with pets and small treats.
Unfortunately, rewarding her good behavior seems to back-fire on me; Meena
seems to not take it as reward for being good, but as permission to start
doing bad things again… I don’t know what else to try. Neither positive
or negative reinforcement seems to have any effect. Any ideas on how I can
get Meena to stop chewing her own fur or seeking out plastic things?
Kent B.
i had such a compressed air auto thing for my livingroom shelf because i
had whine glasses on the lower one wich my cat uses to get to the higer one
when she relized that this “pfft” thingy reacts to her she began to actualy
love it
she played arround with it
tossed it on the ground and hunted it down there
that got me thinking
she is a wild animal
she is a indor only cat (i live in the middle of the town with lots of cars
right outside)
there is no real reason to cut down her freedom even further
so i just put the glasses on the midle board of the high shelf
now the path is free and little sammy plays up to this day with the empty
compressed air bottle
i cant take it away she loves it
Zaphodz
Brilliant! I always learn something from your videos and smile as well.
My cats encourage me to watch you more often!
Mari Angeles Perkins
I’ve always had cats, my last cat died after 18 years from cancer he was a
perfect cat but very un-catlike, he would never jump on the counter, steal
food ect.. now i have two cats female & male less than a year of age and i
thought them to respond to the sound of me clicking my fingers when they
need to stop doing something or the “psst” sounds when it’s there
dinner/treat time and they even sit and wait when i give them there food
but i even if i trained them just like i did with my previous cats and
where brought up the same way for some reason these ones sit on the counter
to watch me and sometimes if I’ve been forgetful and they steal food or
at-least try too i had no idea how to stop this cause it’s the first time
it’s ever happened to me, i don’t believe is yelling cause with animals it
really has no effect except to stress the owner out! so seeing this vid is
really gonna help solve this! THX
Brandy Evans
Great video.. My cat loves to sit on the counter. He has a spot area
where he can sit and watch me fixing food. I’ll say, eh eh or just blow air
at his head and he will back away to his spot. I wouldnt have to move him
back to his spot then wash my hands again to fix food. 🙂 I do clean my
counter everytime I get ready to fix food. 🙂 Love my cat! Meow!
Tina Lynn
When I snap my fingers, all 17 of my cats know that someone is doing
something wrong LOL. Works better than any water bottle!! :D
bowzerbird
What IZ NOT to like about our KITTEH GURU Jackson. He iZ “BOUT THE ACTION,
BOSS” when it comes to our kittehs! We love you Bro, Jackson. We also love
the SEAHAWKS and Marshawn Lynch. Couldn’t resists.
zaicolainen
I though that cats trained us! =^_^=
Anne Myers
love the advice and love the music at the end…..lol thank you for such
awesome vids and advice
Jessica Rudolph
How do you train your cat to stop begging for food without using a squirt
bottle?
My cats beg and meow for food all day despite the fact that they have a
firm eating schedule (since cats like routine). I only feed them, at their
regular meal time, after they have quieted down and aren’t meowing. Every
time they meow (whilst sitting outside the closet door where their food is
stored or next to their bowl – clearly demanding food and NOT just meowing
because they’re cats and that’s what they do. I know the difference), it
will push back their feeding time a few minutes because I don’t want to
reinforce negative behavior (meowing/begging for food) by feeding them on
their terms when they demand it.
After they quiet down, I go over to the closet where their food is stored
and they run over and start meowing like crazy before they jump into the
closet and rub against the container of food (if I didn’t stop them, they
would find a way to get into the tightly sealed plastic container of food
and they would eat all of it). This behavior is unacceptable and should not
be rewarded with food. What I started doing is squirting them when they run
over to the closet. How can I change my tactic?
I’m not seeing a YES/NO option here. Suggestions are highly welcome! 🙂
More information to communicate our cats’ obsession with food:
– We have a dry erase board that the household uses to make sure the cats
are not double fed. We write the date and time of feeding every day. The
cats will try and trick you into thinking they haven’t been fed by begging
for food when you get home even though they were fed a mere few hours prior.
– I was at the house all day one day and I fed them in the morning, as
usual. They were, of course, begging for food all day. There was a point
where they quieted down and I gave them a few small treats to tide them
over until dinner. (We’re trying to teach them how to sit so they only get
a treat after quieting down and also doing a trick). Right before their
dinner time, I realized one of the cats had chewed threw the plastic my
dinner rolls came in and ate part of 2 dinner rolls inside the plastic bag.
They must have done this when I was in the shower and wasn’t there to watch
them – just for a few minutes. The bag literally looked like a rodent got
into my dinner rolls. I cannot make any sense of it.
– They get into the trash like dogs. We have since resolved this issue, but
to put it into perspective for you, our cats taught our dog how to knock
over the trashcan to get the food inside of it. I couldn’t make this stuff
up.
– Their lives revolve around food. I have tried doing playtime before
mealtime and they are pretty uninterested because all they really want to
do is eat. They also know when their mealtime is so they much prefer food
over playtime.
– They know which drawer their treats are in and one time they found a way
to open the drawer (which has a nob, btw), ate through the foil,
ziploc-esque bag, tore it into a million pieces, and ate all of the treats
inside the bag. We have to store their treats in a different drawer which
has a hang down handle (you’d think a cat would be more likely to open that
kind of a drawer on their own).
I just don’t think it is normal to go to such lengths to rectify their
behavior. I shouldn’t have to remove all food that is out, even if it is in
a bag or container. They will eat threw anything and figure out how to open
ANY container. And since negative reinforcement and discipline don’t work,
what will? HALP!
meowmeowfan
Thanks for the tip! My naughty ginger/white cat is constantly counter
surfing, I think it’s the negative attention he’s after but it’s not like I
ignore him all the time.. I do give him quality attention.
catherine vaganay
I have 2 bar stools by the kitchen counter and it is true that my cats
enjoyed being on them while I am preparing meals but afterwards… it becomes
an easier way to counter surf…
gmkbelanger
I only used a squirt bottle once – when I got a new, 3-ft high houseplant
with a 12 inch diameter pot that said “litter box” to all my kitties. I
hid behind an upholstered chair pulled close to the side table with the
plant right in front between the two and stuck my arm with the bottle in
the space between the chair and the table. Anyone got anywhere near the
plant and they got squirted. I’m sure they knew my hand was there but it
seemed as if the plant or the pot was doing the squirting. I stayed like
that for 3-4 hours until the behaviour stopped. They’ve never gone near
the plant again. But you have to do it non-stop until the association is
made. Tedious but worth it – I don’t worry that they’ll eat the plant now
either.
Darci Stewart
Great video! My mom hates it when my cat Delilah jumps up onto the kitchen
table. I’ve told her that we need to get a cat tree for her to sit on, but
she doesn’t want a cat tree in the kitchen… I’m trying to get her to
understand that if we give Delilah a “yes” area, she won’t get on the table
or counter.
Leslie P
And yes I do meet them half way, they have their own table in the kitchen
they are allowed to be on. they sleep on it they walk on it they sit one it
and watch us cook. :-P
Sandra Lillian Barcenas
I’ve no problem with my cats jumping up on the counters because I don’t
leave anything that might be of interest to them. I let them jump once, to
explore, and once they figure out there is nothing good there, they just
don’t jump anymore.
My experience is, the more you try to keep them away from somewhere, the
more they want to investigate because they think you are keeping something
good away from them.
victoria hanshaw
Question, I will not use the squirt bottle I purchased, and have not used
yet, for cleaning only but I was going to use it on my cat who sprays
despite being neutered. I was told before neutering that this would not
necessarily take care of the issue. I have 2 male cats and 1 female. There
is still a territory issue going on but I do not want to rid of any of
them. What do I do to stop the one male from spraying? I do not mind them
on my counters, though I will probably do the stand thing. I typically do
not leave things out, but some of my family do tend to leave things out for
them to get into (and then they get yelled at or in trouble, which is silly
imo).
My mom’s husband also has a bird, but eventually hung the cage up (he
brought it out from their bedroom I believe)… thinking further away from
the ground, ie the cats, the better. However, the one cat we have jumped up
to the cage on the ceiling the one day… the bird got loose and luckily, I
was able to save the bird (birds scare the crap out of me but instinct took
over). The cats were being squirted then and now the cage has been moved to
another room (closed off). But, can a bird in a cage and a cat co-exist? If
so, how? I thought if ever I had a bird, it’d be on a stand with one of
those spray cans! Would that work? Or no, since the bird is technically
prey?
Fox Valley Animal Welfare League (FVAWL)
Jackson Galaxy gives his advice on what works and what doesn’t when trying
to train your cat.