You have a cat in your home. You love her, adore her but are fed up of several of her irritating activities. She litters, pees here and there - on the costly carpet, on bed sheet or in the kitchen. She scratches your furniture, flings from curtain or electric cord. You are wondering what to do of this naughty creature. In a rare and radical case you may be thinking of rearing a dog to teach little pussy a lesson. Well, take a pause. We are giving you some simple tips regarding basic training of your cat. This includes toilet/potty/litter box training.
First of all there are two basic rules that are to be followed.
Don't reprimand or punish your cat for any unwanted behavior. This may make your cat fearful of you or else the cat will continue with the unwanted behavior in your absence.
Reward your cat for the desired behavior. It will act as a positive reinforcement.
Excessive Meowing
Meowing is an acquired behavior of the cat. Cats have been trained to do so. Whenever pussy wants food, attention or affection, she meows. Over a period of time this becomes a self-reinforcing habit and later on cats meow just for the fun of it. The situation gets worsened when the cat is lonely or bored.
The first step in breaking this habit is to exercise and play daily with your cat. There are so many cat toys available in the market. You can choose anyone of them. But you have to really get involved in the game. If left on her own cat will soon get bored of the game.
Don't pay attention to the pussy and give her anything when she is meowing. In fact ignore her completely whenever she does so. Fulfill her needs when she is quiet. This will instill in her mind the desired behavior that is expected of her.
Nocturnal Activities
By nature cat is a nocturnal animal. Given a choice she will sleep whole day and begin her activities late in the evening or night. If you find this behavior annoying, you have to change the biological clock of cat as per your needs.
Firstly, don't reward cat in anyway - by playing with her or feeding her - whenever she wakes you in the night.
Don't let your cat doze off in the day. Keep her active all day along and feed her late in the evening/early night. By following this schedule you will deprive your cat of sleep in the day and hence she will catch up with her sleep in the night. In about 2 weeks time her biological clock will match yours.
Litter Box Training
It's important to make sure that you train the cat correctly in the first place. As a kitten, every time that she looks like she's about to crouch or she starts sniffing near a corner (classic signs of oncoming urination or defecation), pick her up and put her in the litter box. Also, first thing in the morning, put your kitten in the litter box. Kittens learn extremely quickly.
The most important reason why a cat stops using litter box is that the litter box may not be clean. Make sure that you clean the litter box every day, and completely change all the litter and wash the box out at least once a week. That will help encourage your cat.
Unless a cat is not fully trained in the toilet habits, don't let her a free run of your house. Keep her confined to a small area.
Cats never shit where they eat, so put her food bowl near wherever she had the accident.
Don't punish a cat after she had made the mistake. That will make the cat fearful of you. Scolding and then taking the cat to litter box after she has eliminated will make her to associate litter box with punishment.
Reward your cat for eliminating in the litter box. In order to do so you must be present there at the time when she eliminates. You need to have an idea when the cat urinates or defecates. Most cats eliminate after waking, eating and exercise. To help predict the toilet behavior of the cat feed her at regular times. Praise her whenever she litters in litter box.
Scratching Furniture/Climbing Curtains
Cats love to scratch furniture. To prevent them from doing so place double-sided tape or masking tape left sticky side up at strategic places on the furniture. Cats don't exactly relish having an object cling to their sensitive feet. Bring them a scratching post to satisfy their scratching instincts.
Similarly cats love to climb up curtains. Put a soda can or similar thing at the top so that it falls when the cat tries to climb up the curtain.
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