How do you "train" a cat?

[willconcern]

So, one of my cats is a demon. She walks on everything, jumps on everything - kitchen sides, tables, up the curtains (although now she's bigger, she falls off them). We chase her off the sides and table when we see her doing it, and she knows she isn't meant to be there - I can tell by the way she looks at me, and scampers off if I happen to come in when she's on the side....

Yesterday she knocked over something reasonably valuable (of DP's) by trying to jump at it. It's an electical item, and we don't know yet if it still works or not. DP is mightily pissed off. He's also pissed off with me as he thinks the cats should be trained, like a dog might be, not to jump on things, on sides etc. He also thinks I was not sympathetic to him being so pissed off when the cat knocked this thing over. I said I was sorry (although I didn't break it myself), and that of course if the thing didn't work any more, I would replace it for him.

I should add the cats were mine before DP moved in. They are 18 months old, so fully grown. It's only one of them that is a problem in this way. The other one behaves like a normal cat, she lies around sleeping in the sun rather than constantly trying to jump/climb/knock things over.

I should add, DP being pissed off about this is a bit of a trigger for me - a previous partner of mine hated my previous cats so much that I ended up giving them away. He didn't last long after that as I massively resented him for it (amongst other issues). So I feel protective of these cats.

So my question is, can we train a cat not to do these things? If so, how? The only thing I can think of is to shoo her off things, and keep doors shut so she doesn't go into eg. the lounge and destroy things.

Any ideas?

[BertieBotts]

We always just shooed ours off the kitchen surfaces and they didn't go on them any more even (as far as I could tell) when there were no people around.

They are curious to a fault - curiosity killed the cat, as they say! - so yes they do tend to explore things like speakers just because it's new and what does it feel like to sit up there.

I agree cat is likely not to repeat this experiment as probably got a fright.

[cozietoesie]

You'll likely now get the 'It'll never be the same now.....' bit accompanied by references to 'having no option but to look at [massively expensive] new system because of 'your cat'. I give you due warning.

[willconcern]

Over and above that should say

[willconcern]

Fluffycloud you are so right! The outburst was indeed over & the "shit" that cane from my mouth, followed by shoving of naughty cat outside! But I didn't lovingly buy the speaker & lovingly set it up ready for use & admiration, so my reaction is proportionately less strong.

So he now says he just wants them to know the boundaries of where they can & cannot go, he acknowledges that they climb less on the sides than they used to & he seems OK with it all now. He did question what about a speaker would interest a cat. Nothing, I say, other than that it's there, & said cat thought she'd see if it was a comfy place to sit.... Seeing as it fell over & scared her to death, I don't expect she'll be doing it again soon.

[abigamarone]

I've trained both of mine to sit, shake a paw and roll over. One of them still likes pushing things off shelves or windowsills. And will sometimes catch your eye as he's doing it. Not usually that much of a problem and I love them very much but I'm still pissed off six months later about the bathroom sink incident.

[hollinhurst84]

I've managed a little with clicker training. But mine is an odd cat, he won't go on surfaces and he won't touch anything lying around. I left some roast chicken (on a plate!) on the coffee table and came back to find him completing ignoring it

[cozietoesie]

Display cabinets. The oldies weren't entirely daft.

[Bamaluz]

My mum used to put blu tack under her ornaments so her cats couldn't knock them over.
It's easier than trying to train a cat

[cozietoesie]

They usually have Credits in Manipulation as well, Yes.

[coffeeisnectar]

cozie at one point I was trying to do the bowls while one was up trying to eat the food before it even got in the bowl with the other three at my feet headbutting my legs, tripping me up and occasionally taking a swipe at each other. Very dementing at 7am. We slept in this morning and boy cat 1 who rarely ventures upstairs, came up to let us know he was fucking starving expecting breakfast. I went down, did their food and did he eat it? No, he went out. Little sod :o

[CheshireChat]

We used double sided tape when we wanted to teach our cats not to climb on top of the litter tray. We had to replace it twice I think and they stopped doing it.

[cozietoesie]

Not a lot!

[Sadik]

I think training cats is probably on the whole easier than training teenagers, if that helps

[Sadik]

I think if there is one place you don't want them to go, you can do it. IME cats hate being moved, so if - for example - you have a high up place you're happy for them to be, and you persistently shoo them off one you don't want them to use, they'll (eventually) give in. But you have to be absolutely 100% careful not to ever leave any interesting food on the forbidden counters.
IME also you can train cats to sleep on towels on the whole - useful if you have allergy issues, as you can wash the towels more easily than sofas. The trick is to have towels in good spots in every room, and whenever they're sleeping not on a towel, pick them up and move them. (This does mean that dd's bath towel which she leaves on her floor is generally rather fluffy.)

[cozietoesie]

That's not training - that's self-interest. Cats all have Masters degrees in that.

[coffeeisnectar]

Dp told me very proudly that his cat was trained not to go on the work top. I got up one night and found said cat laying on the work top having a nap.

We have four cats. They jump through the hatch from the living room to the kitchen (rather than walking an extra four feet), climb through the conservatory window across the sink into the kitchen and all of them climb on window ledges, sofas, tables and beds. I just stay on top of cleaning the work tops and hoovering the fur although they aren't too bad with shedding fluff everywhere.

The one thing they are trained on is where they have dinner. All have allocated places and they all sit in their own spots waiting while I do their bowls.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Yes they get really precious over them. The level of annoyance is directly proportional to the level of care taken in setting up the speakers.

If they aren't balanced on spikes, resting on marble/granite slabs blu tacked down to a sand filled speaker stand with the speaker covers taken off I suspect he will get over it.

[willconcern]

An expensive speaker on a stand.

[Fluffycloudland77]

Is this an expensive speaker balanced on spikes?

[willconcern]

Fingers crossed Cozietoesie

[Outaboutnowt]

My mum has been trying to train her cats not to walk on the kitchen surfaces for 7 years now.
And it has worked - she has never seen them jump up for years. It's just the paw prints all along the worktops first thing in the morning that give them away!

Seriously I don't believe you can really train cats. The more you try to get them to do something, or to stop something, the more they think 'Fuck you' and do the opposite.

[cozietoesie]

Maybe he's just railing at the gods then but will get over it.

He may even realise he's being unreasonable but just can't stop immediately because it was a pride and joy.

Do a quick check of the house and put the Ming in an attic if needed?

[willconcern]

No, he was the same with the cat as normal.

[cozietoesie]

A pride and joy might rankle for a few days even if you had broken it, I guess.

Has it affected his treatment of/attitude towards the cats, though?

[willconcern]

I don't have the scratching issue - they have never scratched anything inside, and use the fence in the garden.

It really is just the jumping on the kitchen side and knocking stuff over - the demon cat is forever jumping onto shelves. In 18 months though, this is the first thing she's actually broken - it's a bugger that it's DP's serious pride and joy.