Training Your Cat To Be Nice To Your House

Is your cat taking over the house? Climbing curtains, chewing cords, knocking over the trash and jumping on the counters? Well you don’t have to put up with it! Even though it may seem like your cat cannot be trained, a little bit of patience and persistence can help you get a feline housemate that is well behaved and a pleasure to live with.

Curtains might be a way to dress up your windows to you, but to your cat they are a fun thing to climb up on and shred with their claws. You want to discourage this behavior and one way to do that is to use tension rods. When your cat tries to climb up on the curtain that is attached with a tension rod, the whole thing will come tumbling down and make a clatter that will scare him. This might be a bit inconvenient for a while, but your cat will soon learn that climbing on the curtains is not fun and will avoid them altogether. You can do this temporarily until your cat gets the hint and then go back to your usual curtain rods.

Another thing is that you can simply use vertical blinds in your windows. Your cat won’t want to climb them and he will be able to move a slat on the blind and view the outside world with out tearing down the whole thing.

If your cat is chewing up things around the house try putting a distasteful substance on them. Cayenne pepper, biter apple, orange, nail polish orange peels, lemon peels and sprays specifically purchased for this purpose in the pet store can all do the trick. The next time your cat goes to chew he’ll think “ick!” and won’t want to chew that item again. Of course, you want to test the item first to make sure whatever you are putting on it won’t get ruined.

If your cat is a garbage digger, the best solution is to just not make it available to him. Store the garbage in a cabinet or in the garage. If you have to have the garbage out then make sure there is a tight lid and avoid swing top lids. A good garbage pail would be one that you have to lift off the top or one that you have to use your foot to open. If your cat is tipping the garbage can over put something heavy enough so that they are unable to tip it over

Cats hate loud noises and surprises and to discourage him from jumping on the counter you can leave some items up there that will make a loud noise when he jumps up. Try putting empty aluminum cans on the edge with pennies in them or lay utensils on the counter or cover it in foil paper.

Carpet shredding is a favorite past time of my cat. To try to get her to stop, I use one of those cardboard cat scratchers. Whenever I catch her scratching the rug, I yell and then go over to the scratcher and scratch it myself. She comes right over and uses it instead of the rug. A couple of times she has run right over to it and I do notice her using it more often so hopefully she is getting the hint. You can try this with any type of scratcher your cat prefers, just make sure you put one handy in the room she likes to scratch up.

Lee Dobbins writes for E Pet Center where you can learn more about pets and caring for kittens and cats.

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