Kick Those Bad Kitty Habits

Despite what some dog enthusiasts may think, you can actually train your cat too and is not too difficult. Although cats are renowned for their independence and I’ll-do-what-I-want attitudes they, like all animals, learn through experience. Your kitty may never jump through hoops, but then again if they enjoy the trick they may take to it quite naturally.

It is important to first understand when starting to train your cat, whether it is toilet training or to stop clawing the furniture that your cat responds best to positivity – negative reinforcement is never the way to train your cat. Furthermore, it’s in a cat’s natural instinct to do what they want when they feel like it, so patience in training is a must.

Keep these tips in mind to help your training go smoothly, and you’ll find house-breaking your kitty relatively easy and pain-free:

1. Reward good behaviour.
Cats respond best to rewards and will keep doing something if they get positive results.

2. Do not yell.
Cats associate yelling with anger at them, and this may result in them being afraid of you, instead of steering them away from the bad behaviour you’re trying to cure them of. Although yelling at the cat and showing them what they did wrong seems like it should work; it actually works to make them think that the bad result comes from you, not what they did.

Toilet Training 101
When toilet training your cat, make sure the food is not next to the litter box. This simple move may even cure accidents; after all who want to eat by the toilet? A cat’s system is fairly regular, so timing when they will need to go is actually quite easy. If you control when they eat, you can time it to be around when they will need to relieve themselves. About 15 minutes before you know they will need to go, you can take them to the litter box and keep them there until they do their business in the box. Afterwards praise them enormously, and give them treats to show them that what they did was great. This praise will pay off in showing the cat that this is something they should be doing. After a while, you can eliminate treats to every so often.

If you notice that your cat is continually going in one particular area and you want to deter them, try spraying the area with either citrus or another odour that your cat will not like. Placing down aluminium foil in the area may also help, as cats don’t generally like the feel of walking on the foil.

Scratching Furniture
Those lovely lounges have become your moggy’s favourite scratching post, much to your dismay. Training your kitty to stop using the furniture won’t take too much effort, just a little patience and enthusiasm on your part. Buy your cat a nice scratch post, because they will need to carry on this behaviour somewhere. Make the post as desirable as you  want for them to make the experience a positive one. On the most frequented spot on your furniture, putting double side tape will help kick kitty’s habit. They won’t associate that spot as a good one any longer; spraying citrus by the spot will also help keep your cat away.

Take the time to play with your cat by their post. Spend time and make it fun for them to use it, and they will continue to want to scratch their hearts out on the post instead of your furniture.

As long as you stay positive and excited about the behaviour you want your cat to learn, you should have a fairly smooth training process. Keep the reprimands out of cat training, as they will only serve to hinder the success of your cat learning the new behaviour.