Curbing Unwanted Behaviors

[JGombs99]

Hello, all. For those who haven't seen my other threads around the forum, long story short, I'm not new to cats, but I am new on here. Recently, I lost my cat and now have a new one. Admittedly, my last cat owned me, but this time I'm determined not to let that happen (I know, I know, fat chance!).

My question is fairly simple, although I know the answer might not be. My new kitty, Patches spent a week in nearly constant hiding. Now that she's out, she's NOT shy! She's exhibiting a few behaviors that I know are not uncommon for cats, but I'm wondering how I can curb them, or if I even can. These behaviors include getting on the counters and coffee table constantly (I must've taken her off and put her onto the floor 10-15 times in a row), and literally trying to get into my plate and cup (I even fed her right before I got my dinner). I know squirting with water isn't an effective option, so I'm wondering what is. I'm more than happy to let my cat on the household furniture, but I want to keep tables and counters off limits. Any suggestions are appreciated!

 

[abyeb]

Here’s an article to get you started: Solving Cat Behavior Problems: The Key Ingredient

Cats do like vertical space, which is why Patches likes jumping on the tables and counters so much. Do you have any cat trees or cat shelves?

 

[JGombs99]

Thanks for the article! I'll be sure to check it out. Yes, I should've mentioned that I bought her a cat tree. It's got a couple of different levels, and a couple of different scratching surfaces. Overall, it's approximately 4 1/2 feet tall at it's highest point, and is definitely higher than the spaces I'm trying to keep her off of.

 

[Brian007]

I've found repetition, perseverance, and nonchalance to be effective in training my two cats not to jump on the kitchen counters. I simply removed them immediately time and time again without saying anything much. After about a month or so they stopped. There simply isn't enough room in the kitchen for two giant fluffy ragdolls to be teetering amongst the crockery.

At the moment, I'm training my eldest, Dudley, not to jump up onto the sideboard in the living room as he's started putting his paws up onto a painting there and it's not my house (or painting). I have no problem with him being on the sideboard per say but he's not to scratch the painting. So, I've put a pile of cushions up here, which seems to deter him and if he does get up the other side, I lift him down and distract him until he's over it.

Same goes for stopping Parker from nosing into my food. I just gently push him away without saying anything. After a couple of attempts he sits down. I then give him a snippet and leave it at that.

It will take time and a great deal of patience to train your cat but it can be done. Rewarding her for not going onto counters or poking her nose in is also an effective method of cementing good behaviour.

 

[Tagrendy]

Put something high enough for him to climb so he can watch everything - counters, tables etc & put double sided sticky tape on the surfaces he should avoid. Also can have a can full of coins around to shake whenever he jumps on counters.

 

[Etarre]

When we first got Juniper, she was all about exploring and jumped up onto some places where we didn't want her to be. Once she had seen them and found that there was nothing all that interesting up there (her toys were all on the floor), she seemed less motivated to risk disapproval to investigate.

I will say that Juniper is pretty obedient overall so far, and seems eager to please, so maybe we got off easy here. Perhaps Patches is displaying her tortitude....

We did have some trouble teaching her the difference between her scratchers and our rug, and that took a surprising amount of time to teach her (about a month), but she got it eventually. Perhaps that's normal, but my first cat got it right away, so I wasn't sure how to troubleshoot the problem effectively. Turns out the answer to a lot of cat behavior questions is....patience!

Good luck! There are a lot of threads about keeping cats off counters here, and some creative suggestions (foil, lemon oil, etc.) so a search of those might be helpful.

 

[Timmer]

i don't think you can do anything. What do you think happens when you are not home? The cat is on the tables and counters. I even found cat hair on my stove. My advice is it will cause less stress for you to keep the counters wiped off than spraying the cat or getting upset. It's too confusing to the cat to try and limit where they can and cannot go, especially when it involves counters and tables.
That's my 2 cents, for whatever it's worth.

 

[Wenda]

I agree with the repetition and nonchalance post. When I first got my kitten Ares he was a total psycho about trying to get whatever I was eating (even stole food right from my boyfriends sandwich while he was eating it!). I told him no, of course, but mostly I would pick him up and put him on the floor every time he tried to get in my lap to see what I was eating. Now, he is still a little curious, but he's not a nightmare. He'll jump up beside me to see what I have, but when he sees I'm continuing to ignore him he'll go settle down somewhere nearby or go distract himself with his many toys. He doesn't try to steal our food anymore...just hopes we'll become weak and feed him some lol. (still trying to train the BF not to feed him scraps lol).

 

[rubysmama]

Do you know if Patches was a stray at any time? When I first adopted my Ruby, who was found as a stray or lost, she was always hungry! She scrounged for food all the time! And never left her dish before it was licked clean. Eventually, after several months, she became less food obsessed.

 

[JGombs99]

Thanks for the replies! They are vastly different, and they give me lots of info and techniques to try. I'm going to weed out the most extreme options (coins/loud noises and doing nothing at all), and I'll try to focus on the patience, repetition, while researching the foil thing some more. I started with the method of simply removing her from the undesired area late this morning. I know it will take a lot of repetition, but I'm hoping for the best. I just don't want to scare her or run the risk of her associating me with being startled (coins), but I'm also not ready to resign myself to just dealing with these unwanted behaviors for the next 10-20 years if I don't absolutely have to.

 

[JGombs99]

I don't know for sure on her previous history. I was told she was an owner surrender, but have no other info. She's very affectionate, and isn't shy with people (other than the initial adjustment of getting used to the new house). Plus, the vet said she's a good weight, but shouldn't put any extra weight on. So, I'd have to lean on the side of thinking she hasn't ever been a stray.