*****KatKwery! - Sep. 10*****

[persi & alley]

Marianjela and glitch both won again! Glitch came in late but still managed to use the word member. Marianjela used almost all of the secret words but used surprise first. Laureen, you won today and I did not miss it. You used think first. Search was used but did not score points and meat was not used at all.

Today's KatKwiz was about negative reinforcement of cats.

Confession time again. Have you ever sprayed your cats with water? What is the worst thing you have done to "teach your cats a lesson"? What technique have you found that does work with your cats? Are you like me and let your cats freely roam the kitchen counters? What bad habit do your cats have that you wish you could break them of but have never been able to do so?

 

[marianjela]

Well, we've had this KatKwiz discussion on behavior before, but we can never go over it enough. Animal conduct is very important; if you have a pet that doesn’t behave properly, your enjoyment of that animal is limited, and the likelihood of you keeping that pet is reduced. Even if you do not adopt the pet out, or find them a new home, your bond wont be as strong as it could be.

I think in all honestly, I have never squirted a cat with a bottle of water or sprayer to warn or teach them a lesson; however, my cats have been shot with a water gun by my children in play. Too bad the cats didnt find it funny! They definitely do not like to get wet!

I have tried making loud noises to scare the cat from doing something, for example when scratching the couch, we'll let out a loud, "hey" or "pssst" and the cat usually stops. I have even tried shaking a can full of coins of screws to get their attention or startle them, but it is never convenient enough. Although someone mentioned clapping - that sure is "handy" enough! After reading the article before, I dont really think negative reinforcement is the best, but when you are talking about a cat... they dont really respond to the high pitched "good boys" like a dog would. I think the most effective method for disciplining the cats is "psst" or clapping. The loud noises definitely gets their attention and distracts them from whatever it is they were doing.

One things for sure, no matter what method we use, they do seem to do whatever they dang well please already! We are constantly shoeing them off the table. I have tried putting down double stick tape, but it doesnt deter them for long. Probably because I cant keep the tape down forever. It's just as easy to pick them up and put them down. When my boys were younger and in cribs, we put balloons covered by a sheet to teach the cats to stay out. No matter the method, cats really are stubborn creatures! I dont think there was ever anything I did to a cat to regret... I would never hit a cat, just as I dont agree spanking is the best form of punishment for children. I think that is just asking for trouble down the road later.

I have a foster/orphan kitten at the moment that I literally let walk all over me; I think she thinks I am her mother, she comes up to me on occasion and tries to suck on my lips, ears or hair and I have thought it was cute, that is til this morning when she bit me and put a bleeding hole in my lip! I still love her Forgiveness is easy when you weigh less than a can of soda! But I still dont regret spoiling her - she is too darn cute... only it will make it harder on me when it comes time to say goodbye. Her worst habit is getting in my face, especially when I am sleeping. I will blow on her. She hates it. But it doesnt stop her from coming back. That's the most convenient thing i have when I am in bed though, that and throwing her on the floor.

If there was one single bad habit that I would like to break the cats of - getting on the table or counter tops. Nothing they do really makes me angry-angry, but I do not like to see them crawling around and walking where we eat. Especially when you think about them walking around in their kitty litter boxes before that. Ugh.

The cats rarely claw enough to cause me grief, though I've caught them scratching at the furniture a few times, they usually stop when I call after them. Even though they have their own scratching posts, they seem to like my couch and one of my chairs. Thankfully they havent damaged it, but like I said, they rarely claw at it. They love to tear up boxes though. Roly will scratch a box to pieces if we leave one laying around. He also likes to scratch at the back door, and it's always at the same spot. I think he likes to stretch there. But again, he hasnt damaged the door, and he doesnt do it often enough to cause any grief, and he always stops when I catch him. I dont know if he does it when were not home, but since there is no evidence left behind, I imagine he's not hurting anything.

I cant think of any other behavior that they really need corrected for... I only have one male and he is neutered and luckily doesnt spray. So it definitely would have to be the counters and tables. Or maybe trying to deter them from escaping outside in the summer. I really want to add a cat fence/topper to my existing fence so that I dont have to worry about that. Especially since they seem to want out so badly sometimes. If only I didnt have to worry about them getting hurt. I've also looked into cat enclosures, but I dont know if I have the room outside for something of that nature.

Thank you for the points again Lee. I dont know what we are going to do once the KatKwery is over! I think whoever wins the TheCatSite Superbowl will have to host the next TCS contest!!!

 

[laureen227]

Originally Posted by Persi & Alley

Confession time again. Have you ever sprayed your cats with water? What is the worst thing you have done to "teach your cats a lesson"? What technique have you found that does work with your cats? Are you like me and let your cats freely roam the kitchen counters? What bad habit do your cats have that you wish you could break them of but have never been able to do so?

yup, i'm guilty - altho i'm always careful to aim for the butt regions! actually, i rarely spray them anymore - shaking the bottle usually has the desired effect! other than the nose tap for biting when they're kittens, i haven't done anything else. i've occasionally clapped - loud noises often are effective - or yelled [i can yell pretty loudly!]... i don't 'allow' them to roam the counters - i know they occasionally get up there, but not often, & never when i'm working in the kitchen - they've all done that when they were new to the household, but i would just say 'no' & put them down. they learned! hmm... the only 'bad' habit i'd like to break them of is this: when they do have to upchuck, it's like they intentionally head for the hardest to clean area in which to place their 'offerings'!

i have wall-to-wall vinyl flooring - so they head for the doormat or the sofa!

 

[yam102284]

Originally Posted by Persi & Alley

Confession time again. Have you ever sprayed your cats with water? What is the worst thing you have done to "teach your cats a lesson"? What technique have you found that does work with your cats? Are you like me and let your cats freely roam the kitchen counters? What bad habit do your cats have that you wish you could break them of but have never been able to do so?

Yup, I've done it. But I'm also careful not to get it near their faces. I haven't had to do it in awhile though. One, because they really haven't been behaving badly where I've had to do it. And two, because usually just shaking the bottle gets them stopping whatever they are doing. I don't usually do things to teach my cats a lesson. I usually just yell, or clap my hands to get them to stop doing something. If Namine's scratching at the rug after the litterbox, I'll clap my hands to get her to stop (i can't have her doing that, we live in an apartment). We have a VERY small kitchen in our apartment. There really isn't a lot of counter space for them to roam on. They are actually pretty good and never get up on the counters anyways. Kairi likes to get on the table every once in awhile, but we'll just shoo her off of it. Probably the one bad habit I would want to get them to break, is waking me up so early! Ugh. Namine used to get me up at 2 a.m. I don't know what happened, but now she doesn't do that anymore. She still wakes me up early, but not nearly as early as 2 a.m. But on weekends, when I don't have to get up at 5:30, I would like to be able to sleep a little later, instead of waking up to feed them because she's scratching at the door frame or running over the bed. Kairi really doesn't have any bad behaviors that I can think of right now.

 

[laureen227]

about 40 minutes ago, i walked into the kitchen - a very startled Firefox immediately jumped down off of the counter & ran away!
so, they do get up there - but they also know it's not acceptable!

 

[glitch]

Originally Posted by Persi & Alley

Marianjela and glitch both won again! Glitch came in late but still managed to use the word member. Marianjela used almost all of the secret words but used surprise first. Laureen, you won today and I did not miss it. You used think first. Search was used but did not score points and meat was not used at all.

Today's KatKwiz was about negative reinforcement of cats.

Confession time again. Have you ever sprayed your cats with water? What is the worst thing you have done to "teach your cats a lesson"? What technique have you found that does work with your cats? Are you like me and let your cats freely roam the kitchen counters? What bad habit do your cats have that you wish you could break them of but have never been able to do so?

Thanks for the points! Although I was really hoping to lose!! Yes the pressure is getting to me, Im just waiting for marienjela to kick my butt!

I can believe she used almost all the secret words, she had like how many posts! She did her homework on that subject and I did not!!

I have sprayed my cats with water... Yes naughty naughty I know, but in the begining with BooBoo it was a learning experience, and if you think that was bad you should of been there the night me and jake got Pooped and Peed on by Tissy and BooBoo, I think Id rather be sprayed with water!! We woke up rather traumatized.... Not fun! Ive never done anything to serious to them although there has been times when I feel bad about the things I have done, such as scare-ing (okay I can't spell today so give a girl a break k?) them to the point where they've jumped 10 feet in the air! Poor things! The only thing that works with my cats is the cool guy clicker or the snap of the fingers, it needs to be a loud noise in order to get their attention and have them stop doing what they are doing! it works well just to either click or snap and grab their attention! It almosts demands their attention! My cats can do what they want to do, this house is theirs too and I share it freely with them, I clean everything off before I cook and stuff and when they get on the kitchen table when we are eating them I click or snap and they get down! I think everyone should spend the 2 dollars at the pet shop to get the clicker though, its originally for dog training I think but I love that thing to pieces! Ive never had anything so easy work so well! Why spray or spank when you can click or snap!?! Way more fun!! My cats dont have bad habits come on now, they're perfect angels!! Yeah right, okay the one habit I would love to break them of is SNEAKING OUTSIDE!! Someone save my kitties because we all know its not a safe road to live on and sooner or later something will happen... Kitten got poisoned last year and I know it could happen again! Plus we've had distemper in the area and that was the other thing the vets thought it could have been but she was only sick for 12 hours before she died so they think she got poisoned! I still have one cat that wont go outside which is nice but the problem with that is he's my recue baby so he was outside most of his short life at the time and lost his pad on one of his feet so he has no desire to go outside and risk being frost bitten again no matter how nice it is out and thats okay with me and Im not going to even make him because I would rather him be an inside kitty! I would rather have my cats claw the furniture and jump on the counters and sleep in the sink then do go outside! At least when they're doing the naughty inside stuff I know how to handle that, but when they're not with you you really dont know what they're doing! My cats dont go potty all over or anything so I can't say they're bad in that department and they dont claw or scratch you very much although Eek is not taking crap from the kids anymore and I dont blame him!! They sit on him or anything like pull his tail then Eek will scratch or bite them and I think it serves the kids right, they need to have respect for other living creatures!! What a good way to learn them by being hurt by one! Poor BooBoo is 8 years old and I wish he would fight back but he wont, he loves the kids to much to ever harm them in anyway shape or form which I totally understand! And if my cats attack someone because they did something mean to them then well they had it coming and this is the cats house too, so they have run, people who dont like it, go somewhere else! Oh my did I ever babble in that one but oh well! Who cares!

Have a good night everyone! Sleep well! I know I will!!! Oh wait, looks like someone got me beat with the rambling! At least she had something to say and said it well though! But I have faith that the people at the cat site on the katkwery and katkwiz have a good idea of what Im talking about since Ive been playing it forever, so even though my paragraphs aren't right, I hope you guys get what Im saying!

 

[belongstoevie]

Originally Posted by Persi & Alley

Marianjela and glitch both won again! Glitch came in late but still managed to use the word member. Marianjela used almost all of the secret words but used surprise first. Laureen, you won today and I did not miss it. You used think first. Search was used but did not score points and meat was not used at all.

Today's KatKwiz was about negative reinforcement of cats.

Confession time again. Have you ever sprayed your cats with water? What is the worst thing you have done to "teach your cats a lesson"? What technique have you found that does work with your cats? Are you like me and let your cats freely roam the kitchen counters? What bad habit do your cats have that you wish you could break them of but have never been able to do so?

Late again! If I didn't have Cronos crawling over my keyboard in the evenings, I'd do this then. The other day I made a post that I had to redo about 6 times because he kept messing it up! I don't have the patience for that during the KatKwery!

Confession time? Honestly, I have NEVER sprayed Evie with water. In fact, and I think I said this last time, I wouldn't even have thought about spraying her with water as discipline until I came on here and read that others do. Wait, on that note, to be honest, I HAVE sprayed her with water. In the shower.

The worst thing hubby and I have done to Evie to "teach her a lesson" is to scold her. The way we do that is to bonk her. I guess it's actually hitting her, but we don't do it hard. Kind of a bonk on the nose (or whatever part we can reach!). Though, when she is stalking the chins, we do throw things at her. We don't hit her, just want to scare her a bit.

What we've found works best with her is being stubborn!

Repetitively not allowing her to do what she wants to do. Like when she wants our food, we just push her away. And away. And away. And away... Eventually she gets bored and moves on! When it's something bad, which she doesn't really do anymore, we would hiss at her. I guess the only thing we still do that with is when she's stalking the chins.

Yup, we are with you! She has free reign of the kitchen counters. Except when I'm cooking, and that's just because I have all of one section to cook on and it tends to get full!

Though the other day she did break something very important to me. I was really upset, but it was my own fault for leaving it out where she could break it...

Oh, the only thing she doesn't have free reign of is the dirt in the plants. What works to keep her out of that is that we put the large sized dog e-collars over the pots. Where the dog's neck would be is where the plant stem is. Looks silly but works GREAT!

She doesn't have many bad habits any more. She's got attitude, but is pretty well behaved. The only thing I'm trying to break her of is her disdain for other cats! I want her and Cronos socialized so he can come out more, but she wants nothing to do with it!

So far we haven't been able to break her of it, but it's only been a few days. Give us time.