Shoulder Cat

mickee

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Right now mine are kittens of 2.6 pounds but one of them has the habit of when she is finished with the attention she turns and climbs down your back. This is cute as a kitten, but won't be as a full grown cat. How should I try to correct this or can I?

Mickee
 

gizmocat

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As she starts to turn, pick her up, say NO, and put her on the floor. Train her now before she gets older and heavier. You have to let her know what is acceptable; don't let her do it or she'll think that is okay to do for the rest of her life!
 

gizmocat

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do you really want the cat on your shoulder? You could hold her in your lap instead; that would make it harder for her to climb down your back.
 
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mickee

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Normally I am holding her in my lap and that is the way she chooses to leave or I could be carrying her when she decides it is time to leave and exits over my shoulder and down my back.

I was thinking as a kitten it is cute, but later it won't be and have no idea how to get a cat to do what I want. Cats are very differnt to dogs. So far we are doing the no thing about the kitchen table, but that is about all so far. I will try doing that when she starts to exit my shoulder. She likes to sit on my shoulder and watch me type, as I am a transcriptionist and type most of the day.

Thanks!!!!

Mickee
 
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mickee

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Oh I forgot her sister, who belongs to my daughter, like to climb up my leg, which obviously I can't allow, except when I have jeans on. So I am assuming the same line of treatment with No is in line for that also. Normally I just scream as it catches me off guard and hurts like the dickens and I will not ever, ever, ever declaw another cat. I did it once and never again.

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silentnate

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Our kitten was like this... As they get bigger they grow out of it, as the previous poster stated just say no and put them on the ground
 
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mickee

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I will try the no thing as it is annoying to others that come to visit. I wondered as they were orphans and children carried them a lot, if it was a way of escaping continual holding and it is just used to trying to escape being held. She doesn't want to be held but about 5-10 seconds and then she is done. She will come up for attention and likes lots of rubs and scratches. She sleeps very, very close to me, but it is all on her terms of course. The holding and petting is just not in her realm of necessity.

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commonoddity042

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Originally Posted by Mickee

I will try the no thing as it is annoying to others that come to visit. I wondered as they were orphans and children carried them a lot, if it was a way of escaping continual holding and it is just used to trying to escape being held. She doesn't want to be held but about 5-10 seconds and then she is done. She will come up for attention and likes lots of rubs and scratches. She sleeps very, very close to me, but it is all on her terms of course. The holding and petting is just not in her realm of necessity.

Mickee
Pudge'll ride around on my shoulder for a long while. The only time she dismounts down my back is if someone unfamiliar (or someone she doesn't want touching her. She is very shy around strangers and doesn't even like being held near them.) approaches me. Otherwise, she meows at me to put her down/on her tree.
 

goldenkitty45

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I trained my Russian Blue kitten to jump on my shoulder as a kitten. As she got older, she would have the habit of doing that to me unexpectedly. I "warned" her to let me know as a few time she fell off or I got scratched.

But it did come in handy. The command was "up" for her to do it. One day she was on a shelf and too scared to jump back down. I kept trying to get her to use my shoulder as a bridge; kept telling her to jump down....well she didn't understand. However I reversed it and used the "up" command - which she immediately jumped down on my shoulder and was fine.
 

commonoddity042

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Originally Posted by GoldenKitty45

I trained my Russian Blue kitten to jump on my shoulder as a kitten. As she got older, she would have the habit of doing that to me unexpectedly. I "warned" her to let me know as a few time she fell off or I got scratched.

But it did come in handy. The command was "up" for her to do it. One day she was on a shelf and too scared to jump back down. I kept trying to get her to use my shoulder as a bridge; kept telling her to jump down....well she didn't understand. However I reversed it and used the "up" command - which she immediately jumped down on my shoulder and was fine.
I've done the same with Pudge (although I just added on to a natural love of shoulder riding). Either "up" or "hup hup" gets her on my shoulder.
 

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I have a shoulder cat, and I think it's a good thing, not a bad thing. My shoulder cat used to try to climb me, as well, though, and that's not okay.

To train the cat to stop climbing you, do more than just say "No." You'll see your cat prepare to climb by looking up at you, moving around, getting ready to jump. This is the time to remove the temptation and redirect the cat. My cat doesn't climb a moving target, so I move, and make it obvious that I'll pet her if she jumps on on a table, counter, chair, or other place nearby that is okay for her to be on. Then I pet her, angling my body to make it a small target.

As I sit in my computer chair, my cat often jumps onto a combination of the back of the chair and my shoulder. This is much more comfortable than having a cat on my shoulder, and I really like it. My cat only jumps on shoulders with clothes (she used to sit on the ground by the closet in the morning waiting for my husband to put a shirt on), although she has erred in the past and seen a strappy tank top as a shirt (not good enough!). At a little over two years old, Athena does not jump on shoulders nearly as often as she used to, but she still does sometimes. I might have been less positive about the long-term prospects of her as a shoulder cat were she not always so small ... she's now an 8 lb fully grown cat.
 
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mickee

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All of these stories are wonderful. I love mine to be with me it is just the running down my back part that I don't like. Mine too will sit with front paws on my shoulder and hind quarters on my computer chair and that works real well.

Thank you for all the suggestions and ideas.

Mickee
 

coaster

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I wouldn't mind having a shoulder cat. I've tried to get Rocket and Twinkie to sit on my shoulder, but they don't care for it. Though I can see the point about needing to control when and on whose shoulder a cat will sit. It can be quite unnerving for a cat to jump on a stranger's back or shoulder. I had a huge tomcat with long, untrimmed nails do that to me at a shelter one day and boy, was I ever glad I was wearing my leather jacket.
 

gizmocat

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Gizmo likes to climb over my shoulder and stand on the back of the chair to be Tall. When she does this, I scoot the chair over to her kitty palace and let her jump onto one of the cups.
Fortunately she is not very heavy.
 
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mickee

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Mine are doing better now. I am using the No command and so far mine listens well, but my daughters on the other hand, has a mind of her own. I will keep it up. I still let mine sit on my shoulder but not escape down my back.

Thanks everyone!!!!!

Mickee
 
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