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How to get my sister's cat to stop doing two things.
urahonky
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So my sister's cat has recently started doing two really annoying things, and I was wondering if anyone had any ideas on how to make her stop them.
1. Mewing outside our door when we're going to bed. As soon as we shut the door and lay down for the evening, she'll begin her obnoxious mewing until we yell at her a half dozen times. She knows it's something she shouldn't do because as soon as we open the door she runs. I've tried squirting her with a water bottle, spanking her, and just yelling at her.
2. This is more important than the other. She has begun to trek onto our counters ONLY when we're gone or asleep. This normally wouldn't be a problem but I am absent minded at times and leave a glass on the counter, which she proceeds to knock it off onto the floor shattering it. She's done this about two times. She also tends to jump on our desk and knock off any drinks on there as well... Just last night she knocked off a half drank can of Coke, basically staining the carpet. I need to get her to stop this. But the problem is that she ONLY does it when we're gone. When we're around she's an angel. So punishing her after-the-fact just doesn't seem to do anything (which makes sense, because she has no idea what the hell she did).
Any tips?
1. Mewing outside our door when we're going to bed. As soon as we shut the door and lay down for the evening, she'll begin her obnoxious mewing until we yell at her a half dozen times. She knows it's something she shouldn't do because as soon as we open the door she runs. I've tried squirting her with a water bottle, spanking her, and just yelling at her.
2. This is more important than the other. She has begun to trek onto our counters ONLY when we're gone or asleep. This normally wouldn't be a problem but I am absent minded at times and leave a glass on the counter, which she proceeds to knock it off onto the floor shattering it. She's done this about two times. She also tends to jump on our desk and knock off any drinks on there as well... Just last night she knocked off a half drank can of Coke, basically staining the carpet. I need to get her to stop this. But the problem is that she ONLY does it when we're gone. When we're around she's an angel. So punishing her after-the-fact just doesn't seem to do anything (which makes sense, because she has no idea what the hell she did).
Any tips?
urahonky on
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and for the drinks.. train yourself to not leave out glasses where if they are knocked over they won't be a problem
You're boned.
On the other hand, if you do find a solution, you'll probably get a Nobel prize out of the deal, so...
When the cat is meowing at night, just ignore it. It will be annoying as hell at first but hopefully the cat will stop when it realizes nothing is happening.
For one, stop hitting the cat. That's just messed up. Also yelling does absolutely nothing. Nothing.
For two, it's a cat. Good luck training it do anything. For your desk issues, just take it upon yourself to stop leaving glasses and half full cans of Coke lying around. That's going to be 1,000 times easier than keeping the cat off of there.
That's funny. Neither of my cats are bothered by fans.
Do they sit directly in front of them? Or are they just not bothered by the noise?
If she continues howling at the door at night, consider also applying a citrus spray to your cat.
I think it's a good suggestion. My cat hates desk fans; she won't come into my room when it's on
Yeah, this is a cat you're dealing with here. Never physically hurt a cat, or any animal for that matter. They don't respond like we do except in the fear area and that sure as hell won't make them stop what they're doing. Try the fan idea and as for jumping on the counter, you could put something on top of the counter that they won't like stepping on, like aluminum foil or sticky tape (this is courtesy of some Google searching)
And just be mindful of stuff you leave laying around. No cups laying around? Nothing broken
Didn't work for my cat. Neither did vinegar, black pepper, or cayenne pepper, all of which we had friends swear worked perfectly on every cat. The cayenne even gave the cat a taste for hot things apparently. Spray bottle training is the only way I've been able to train my cat to do anything. If one of you goes to bed earlier, then the other one should give the cat a spritz if it starts to meow loudly and repeatedly.
That said, the cat is searching for you guys. Crack your door so it can come and go and it may stop it from doing that. The counter top issue is something I've never seen anyone fix themselves, the cat's usually just stop doing it, or start doing it, randomly. They like pushing things, I echo Esh, don't leave glasses/cans/drinks out in places that the cat can get to.
One of them used to cry loudly outside of our bedroom door at night. We would have just left the door open but she does not understand the concept of sleep, and would wake us up 3 - 4 times a night, every night, for pettings. She also did not get along very well with the others, being kind of a bully, so we started closing her in our home office room at night, which means we couldn't hear her crying and she wouldn't beat up the others.
Fast forward a half a year, and one of the others starts doing the exact same thing. Fortunately, the bully stopped being aggressive toward the other two, so we just started locking the two of them in the office at night. Ironically, the initial cryer actually no longer does this. On the rare occasion we don't lock them in, she will still wake us up if the bedroom door is open, but if it's closed she doesn't cry all night in front of it.
The problem is that the remaining one, the second one that started crying all night, doesn't just meow but begins wailing pathetically if she is completely alone in a closed room with no other cats or people. If there is just one cat, or just one person, she is okay, but all by herself she sounds like she's dying. So now even though the first cryer no longer cries, she still gets locked up every night to keep cryer #2 company.
Oddly, they actually seem to like getting locked up at night now. It's like they think it's their bedroom. Every night when I refill the water and food bowls in the office, they both happily run in and occupy their spots and wait for me to close the door. I guess they like the routine of it. They resisted when we started and we'd have to chase them around to get them in, but now they go in on their own most of the time.
She used to have the same problem with scratching shit, but we bought her a scratching post/house thing and she goes in there when she needs to relieve some stress. I don't know how an animal that sleeps 19 hours of the day gets stressed, but she apparently does.
I can't keep my door open because I have really bad asthma and allergies. I'm normally okay with them, but the last thing I need is to have her hair all over the damn place in the bedroom. And my sister can't let her in her bedroom because of her boyfriend, who's allergic to cats.
Sticky tape sounds awesome... I might have to try that. Like I said, it's probably easier said than done when you guys say "stop forgetting cups" because like I said I'm absent minded. I'll drink something, set it down, walk to the office, surf the web for hours, and then go to bed completely forgetting about the drink. The next morning it's shattered on the ground.
Man this never happened with my male cat. He used to just ignore people all together... I like those kinds of cats. Social ones are weird to me.
Why did you guys get cats?
All cats are assholes. That's why they're awesome.
Is the cat young? young cats tend to knock stuff over on purpose. it's just what they do. my parents have everything blue tacked down because of their young cat. The cat grows out of it.
As for the meowing, sounds like it's lonely. You won't get it to stop this outside of opening the door to let it know it's not alone. Sounds like you have a social cat, it likes company.
What's wrong with striking an animal to teach it a lesson?
And before you answer, don't use the phrase "animal abuse" because that's not what I'm talking about.
1. It doesn't work. And when it does, it doesn't work the way you think it does (i.e., you aren't training the animal not to do something specific, you're training it not to do anything around you).
2. They don't learn anything except to avoid and fear you.
3. It's pretty much animal abuse (oh noes I said it...because it's true).
4. It doesn't work. Especially with cats.
I have 2 cats. One of them is a kitten and sometimes her favorite thing at 4 in the morning is to attack our feet. Obviously this is a no-go for me so I put her in the downstairs bathroom (where her litter box is). Now that I think about it, she must have gotten the picture because she doesn't do it anymore. My bedroom is on the 2nd floor so mewing isn't an issue. If they started meowing at ungodly hours they'd get the same treatment.
[edit] Also, cats aren't as smart as dogs. They will never put together getting hit with the behavior you're trying to prevent. They'll just be afraid of you. A dog will put together [eat the shoes]=[get a smack on the nose], a cat will go [Person]=[I get hit].
I know, cat lovers of the world unite in how superior they are etc etc. But listen, cats are stupid. If they're doing something you don't like, it's much easier to make it so they can't do that thing rather than to teach them not to do it.
My cat lays in front of them, behind them, rubs against them, she fucking loves fans. And the window AC unit too. The thing to do is ignore it because right now when you do anything to react to it you're giving it the attention it wants. It sucks but just ignore it and it will stop after a while.
As for the second thing, stop leaving shit glasses where the cat knock it over. Then the cat won't knock it over and you're counter won't have some shit on it, that's win-win right there.
Exactly. If we wanted pets that needed to constantly beg for our continual validation, we'd have gotten dogs. Also, I personally think that as long as the object in question isn't made of glass or ceramic, it's hilarious to watch my cat sit at the edge of the coffee table and gaze down at the floor, judge the distance, and then push some object over the side and peer after it to examine how it bounces and what sound it makes and whether or not it breaks when it hits the floor.
Your dog plays fetch; my cat does science.
This is true. Cats are frequently solitary and territorial by nature; in a domestic environment, they're actually self-domesticating. Whereas the goal with training a natural pack animal like a dog is to condition it to recognize your status as the alpha leader in its social circle, you can't dominate a cat and expect it to obey you. It will only decide that the terms of its living arrangements are shitty and avoid you if it doesn't run away outright.
It used to sleep with her every night, so part of our compromise is that it is not going in our bedroom. I've got allergies, etc.
First night, it paws and meows all night. Did this the next few nights.
I didn't hear it last night, though. Maybe it's taking the hint. Best of luck... the little shits are tough to break of bad habits.
One option is to not sleep in the same room as your sister :P
You could lock the cat in another room, like the basement or a laundry room for the night.
This is pretty good advice. If you can tolerate a few nights of meowing and scratching, you just may be able to break the cat of her desire to sleep in the bedroom.
Awkwarrrrddd...
The best thing you can do when a cat does something you dont like short of actually destroying property (such as clawing on the couch etc), is to just let it do what it wants.
If your alergic, get shots.
Cats are tiny women in little fur coats. You arent going to get your way around them, so just go with it.
I had a cat that would sit outside my door and cry and even chew on the door frame and she only stopped doing it once I began completely ignoring it. They want the response, if they get no response eventually they'll stop. It's annoying as fuck and hard to not go out there and scare her away, but that's just a temporary solution and you want a permanent one.
My other cat, which I adopted as a tiny abandoned runt feral that was abandoned by it's stray mother outside my house with gooey ass eyes, did two annoying things, one of which WAS crawling on counters, tables, whatever, and the other knocking over glasses. The cat would follow you around, wait for you to put your glass down, hop up wherever you put it, and knock it down right in front of you.
I tried spray bottle, "NO!", citrus spray on surfaces. No go. She did this until my mother came to visit and smacked her off the table/counter/whatever a few times. Go figure. Cats can learn just fine from a little pop, you just have to catch them in the act.
Now she has replaced her counter hopping cup knocking habit with a glove stealing habit. Much less obnoxious. She just carries gloves around the house, drops them at your feet, and verbally announces herself with a burr.
But yeah, "zomg never strike an animal, SO CRUEL OMG OMG ABOOOOSE" Is just so much BS. My cat needed a smack or two off the counter to stop doing what she was doing, and guess what, she didn't magically start to hate my mother or shy away from me, she still sleeps purring in my arms if I let her.
She was being bad, and *smack* BAD! About four times, seemed to fill in that mental blank better than months of "Daww, NO! squirt squirt" "fun"ishment did.
Never a reason to hit a cat. Pht. Thats like saying there is never a reason to smack another human being. It's Incorrect.
Spray some of that around the door.
Mine sit in front of the fan. right in front of it.
Alright, I can solve your problems. First off, NO NEGATIVE PUNISHMENT. The cat does not understand.
First off, put double sided tape where you don't want the cat up. Do this for a few days and the cat will never go there again. Cats can't stand being stuck to something. They won't get really stuck, it'll just make them uncomfortable and they'll jump right down.
For the noise, #1: ignore it. You botched that so the cat knows it gets attention even if it is negative attention. #2: spend a lot of time playing with the cat before bed, give it a lot of attention. Then go into your room and no matter how much it meows, do not react. After awhile it will give up. Keep at it for a few days.
I socialize cats for the shelter, btw.
Seriously, I don't get why people think it's okay to hit things that don't possess the necessary cognitive faculties to understand WHY they're being hit. Jesus. It seems like you are just becoming frustrated and taking it out on the cat which is equally screwed up. Perfect way to make the cat never trust you again.
For the meowing, I might suggest playing with the cat a lot before you go to sleep to wear it out so that maybe it will just want to retire instead of meow at your door. Worth a shot.
As for the counters, we use tinfoil on the edge of counters. Apparently cast don't like tin foil or something. Problem is people coming over will probably think you're crazy for leaving remnants of tinfoil on counters. Win some you lose some.
Bother me on steam: kabbypan
You can't just talk lightly, hug them, and expect them to learn anything.
I'm not saying beat your cats, but the mindset that physical punishment is some deplorable and terrible thing is ridiculous. Granted, cats are MUCH more fragile than dogs, so it's rarer to see.
I am not against physical punishment, but I am against what is essentially taking your frustration out on an animal that doesn't understand why.
Bother me on steam: kabbypan
Second -- I didn't want to get the cat. This is what happened: I got married to my wife in June (09), lost my job in August(09), and consequently nearly ran out of money. The ONLY solution was to move to the bad part of town and get a roommate. My sister was in nearly the same predicament, however she just bought a cat. After talking around we decided to let my sister move in.
At first she left the cat in her room, so it wasn't a big deal. But then she got a new boyfriend, who was allergic to them, and then that changed completely. Now we're stuck with her walking around the house breaking stuff.
Also I swear this cat thinks she's a dog. She "barks" when happy, wags her tail, and even plays fetch. Not to mention a very, very short term memory.
Are you fucking kidding me. I am volunteering now with an eye toward one day having a rescue/rehabilitating abused animals which my parents and I have been doing my entire life. What are your qualifications for 'knowing' that negative reinforcement works on cats?
Please don't post if all you have is your folksy down home (incorrect) wisdom.
edit: Just do what I said earlier and your problem will be gone in a week. It won't be a big deal. I promise the cat learns nothing from you yelling or tapping its butt.
My cat was doing it and my mum stopped it with roughly FOUR applications of NO! SMACK, after my cat decided to knock her dinner wine into the dinner I made her. I support this, because the cat no longer knocks my coca cola/beer all over my pizza.
"It doesn't work" is just a complete fabrication based on nothing. Nothing. It does work. Certainly did for my cat.
And before anyone decides to be an ass and accuse me of "abusing" my pet, I saved that cat before it could even crap on it's own, I bottle fed that cat, and nobody loves it more than I do. But If four pops on the ass off a counter solve a behavior problem, they've solved a behavioral problem. Saying "Nu-uh doesn't work" doesn't make it retroactively not have worked.
Triwizard Drinking Tournament - '09 !Hufflepuff unofficial conscript, '10 !Gryffindor
Nerd blog at culturalgeekgirl.com
Bother me on steam: kabbypan