the only time i worry about 'counter surfing' is on the stove if i'm cooking, or next to my plate when i'm eating. my cat is welcome pretty much any where she can go otherwise.

I love your work but I gotta disagree on the spray bottle. I get it may not work for everyone, but I definitely got positive results. It got to a point pretty quick where if he was counter surfing or misbehaving I just had to pick up the bottle and give it a shake for him to stop. I could keep him off the counter(sanitary reasons) while I was there just by saying his name and shaking the bottle, but i have no doubt he went up there while I was gone if for no other reason than there was a window. Sure theres things your cat will do when youre not around(like destroy toilet paper, which is why the bathroom door is ALWAYS closed), but in my experience as a cat owner, the most annoying and destructive cat behaviours tend to be intended to get your attention. My cat liked to knock stuff over and off the table, but I never found anything out of place when I got home from work and he had the apartment to himself all day. He only did it when I was around and he wanted something. Early on he'd try getting my attention by knocking things down several times and getting sprayed for it, then finally just jumping up on my desk and getting vocal and pawing at my shoulder or giving me a little headbutt. Sometimes he'd just lie there and wait, or I'd pick him up and pet him for a bit. But either way he wanted something, and as soon as I got up he would run over to either the door if he wanted out or his dish if he wanted a can of food. So believe it or not, I actually got my cat to a point of asking me politely(or occasionally whining impatiently) to my face when he wanted something as his default behaviour. My spray bottle lay knocked over on the floor for months and didnt move save for rare occasions. I could usually get him off the counter with a stern tone. But I always made sure he got attention and got what he wanted when he came and approached me directly for it instead of being an ass and making a mess. Did it negatively affect my relationship with my cat? Cant say it did. If I let him out in the morning he would usually be lying at the end of the driveway when I parked my car and follow me around to the back door. When I went to bed he'd curl up next to my feet EVERY night. He never once attacked me or anyone else without being provoked somehow. He'd constantly rub up against my legs or give me little headbutts or cat winks. I could pick him up from just about anywhere at any time and carry him around without protest or struggle. He'd be perfectly happy settling down in my lap and purring away while I watched TV. Best behaved cat I've ever seen. Even at the vet he never gave trouble(barely even reacted to needles), though I think he might have been scared into a ragdoll state there and was just more pliable than cooperative. And this was a feral I pulled out of a cardboard pile at 6-8 weeks old. So to me using a spray bottle is a useful tool, but it cant be the only one.

One question if I may: are your videos just about cats? I guess I could look into it. Great info about Mr Spray bottle.

@@Jarsia I'm a dog person, but someone dropped off a female cat on my property a few months ago. Of course I took her in being winter and all, and the cat seemed a little underweight. Don't know much about cats, but I do know I just can't keep her. She's destroying my house little by little. My inside dogs fight all the time because of the cat. I now know why that cat was abandoned. I've had to make too many changes all over the house. Won't go into details, but what I can say is that this girl cat seems to be possessed. I have to find her a new home, and certainly I would tell anyone who's interested that she has many issues. I have 6 dogs that used to get along just fine. The water bottle is my only weapon that I can use to have some normalcy around the house. I know I may be damaging her in ways that I may not understand. I don't think taken her to the pound is a good idea. I tried to teach her a few things to calm her down just like the dogs, but doesn't understand what I'm trying to get her to do. Perhaps spaying may be the answer before finding her a new home. Ok, that's what I'll do, I'll take her to the vet and maybe the vet can help me. I can't believe I hadn't thought of that because money is not an issue. Any thoughts?

Alvaro Q couldn't hurt. She should be spayed if she's going to be a pet, and it might settle her down. Training cats to behave is much easier if you get them as kittens, obviously. Best of luck

Icon of Sin go home youre drunk

Icon of Sin always good to plan

Icon of Sin xD

But cats are way cool and now you are ready to handle one.

How fortunate for you.

Same. The one cat wanted to drink from it on demand.

this is the equivalent of a parent hitting their kid and the kid growing up to have a BDSM kink

Natiform your cats are amazing for that. My kitten would give me hell if she goes anywhere near water.

Sounds like the cat used reverse psychology on you 😂

I use it too. They just run and come back. Or sit an look at me. Like I've lost my mind. 🤷

have you ever tried training a dog to Leave It? If you don't teach dogs to distinguish what a Leave It is for themselves, and just try and get them to memorize what they can't have and obey you, they are going to get into the "Leave It" when you're not around. The first dog I trained I used the latter method; when we weren't around, he barked nonstop, got into the garbage, and stole food from the counters, among other doggy behaviors. Even if you use the positive reinforcement method (what Jackson is describing here), if there's not a "yes" for your "no" (aka leave it), then they're going to continue the "bad" behavior. You tell a puppy to stop chewing your shoes, but you don't have any rubber teething toys? They're gonna keep chewing your shoes. It's the same principle of a cat scratching furniture because there are no scratch posts.

@Manik Dhankar you should never own an animal.

@Manik Dhankar Because you're a fucking animal abuser, that's why.

@@artsymarsy8480 discipline isn’t abuse

@@lahbono7470 Hitting your animal is abuse. Full stop. It's the same as spanking your kid. It's not discipline, it's abuse. An animal or child learns 1) bad things happen to them when you're around, 2) they need to conceal behavior, and 3) to never trust you. If you're only going to have a pet or kid so you can hurt them under the guise of character development, you deserve neither.

Brill, I'm going to try this.

After that you should make sure to store the post-its somewhere unless you want your cat to freak out every now and then. :)

That's good!

This is the best tip I have ever heard!!!

Omg i'm so gonna try this!

My Henry,

Aww, yeah. They just do it when you're not looking! Cute story about Larry.

You're telling me. My Dad served in the military when I was a kid. In his old age, Mum got a puppy. The old man got the puppy a harness leash, only trains with positive reinforcement, and gets down on the floor to play with the puppy. ಠ_ಠ We got the hard-arse, the puppy gets this guy.

That's Because Humans Should't Have Pets In The First Place: But They Do,So The LEAST That Can Be Done Is Not Treat Them Like Shit.

Lol

@@JT5555 who says humans shouldn't have animals?

​@@missbraindamage Nature Does. It Is Nothing Less Then Pure Arrogance For Humans To Think They Can OWN Another Creature On This Planet. What Possible Right Do Humans Have? Because Their Smarter? Please. Humans Have ONE Useful Skill And That Tool Making (Something That Would Have Wiped Humanity Out A LONG Time Ago,Without It) And Only A Total Idiot Destroys Their Own Planet So Bad That They Have To Try To Find A New One. Hell,Humans Even Have The GULL To Classify Anything Not Human As PROPERTY: A THING That Simply Has Far Less Value,Because It's Not A Stupid,Greedy,Arrogant,Hairless Ape. So No,Humans Should NOT Have Pets But They Do And They Treat Them Like Shit.

Cuz I'm a human, that's why

Or a human...

Are you saying they will keep misbehaving because they are cats lol that’s why u train em

I have never, literally never paid attention to my cat jumping on the TV cabinet. She is up there everyday.

@@nicholaspb9133 my cat likes lay to on the tv cabinet but since she lays and doesn't block the tv when we're watching it we really don't care that she lays there(i think she think she's the center of our attention lol)

😂

LOL.

😂😂

Just realized my cat does the same thing. Whenever she gets bored, she starts scratching the door, then I start spraying her. She stops scratching but she runs up to me like we are about to play. I get out the toys. Pretty sure she now has trained me to play with her

Squirt her with a water bottle & firmly say 'no'.

No & yes don't work. Their cats not dogs. Use spray bottles.

your cat is seeking attention... I'm no saying you're not giving enough attention, cuz not every animal is pleased with the same amount of hooman slavery. I don't know if it helps you, but i've always tried to interact if i was able to, give them a few minutes of playtime with me so they had their attention, and then i need to continue with what I was doing. I don't put away their toys after 'attention-time', but i place them in such way that it invites them to keep playing but I'm not needed. [eg attach the string we just used to a chair, put the toy at the end of the cat-fishing toy near on one of the levels of her scratching pose, inviting her to catch it]. If my cat comes ask attention again, i'll just tell her that i'm working now, we just played, play is all done for me but she can play if she wants to. it doesn't always help, but most of the times she understands that i can't be her full-time playpartner, that i need to get stuff done too. My cat is also a real talker, she meows any thought that goes through her mind, like a tourette-patient but without the cussing :) Sometimes this can be very very annoying, especially if you're busy cooking, my oh my, she can be saying 'food' every 3 seconds, just to tell me she smells it, knowing it's hooman-food and not cat-food.. I never give her anything during cooking. She doesn't get stuff from my plate when i'm eating; and i arrange it so that we both get our food at the same time so she doesn't need to be jealous that i'm eating fresh fish and she only gets.. processed fish-craps :). I know she's not begging for food when i'm cooking, but after 150 meows it gets really annoying; so i tought her to "keep mouth shut" with a simple "shht" and my finger over my mouth as bodylanguage. It works, but sadly it's only good for a short period of time. I'm not mad at the cat when this happens, i'm just a bit annoyed then and I know it's not the perfect solution to shut her up by "shushing" her, and i try to avoid that as long as possible. I'll never punish her for talking too much, because i really love it how talkative she is. But like ying & yang exist; every upside has it's downside; you gotta find the balance... So i enjoy our "talks", i love that she "meows" everything that goes through her mind. It took a while to learn the subtle differences in her meows (eg; meow for "i want outside" almost the same as the meow she gives me when there is a toilet issue (eg i blocked access) ... my cat even uses 'clicking-sounds', at least that's how we hear them; it's probably just meowing way above the 20kHz range, so inaudible for us.. She doesn't know i can't hear that, but i noticed also different lengths between her "clicks" so i'm still figuring out what she's trying to say in some cases, while in others we already managed to find out what's being said or meowed/clicked :) ...

And the other thing is when I want some privacy away from my two 8-month-old kittens I put them out of my room and there at my bedroom door just whining and whining and whining to the point where I feel sorry for them and I end up letting them back in only for them to start playing scratching my hands and feet and stuff 🙄😂😂😂

I do something similar with my boy I'll bring his little stool next to me when I'm eating and he just stands there and falls asleep standing up ; Its adorable. Bet the other 2 girls are judging him( he is the youngest )

It worked for me as well

Yeah, you and NOBODY. My girls insisted on chauffer-only. Keys were for losers. And yeah, in Sandy's case, preferably to Brookside Vet, where she could wander behind the exam rooms to the reception desk while the doc washed his hands. It's always a challenge keeping up with that princess. 24Jan2021. Beaut Lady. Heart failure.

🤣😂🤣😂🤣

Exactly! I use the same grammatical pronunciation, it works perfectly

Real talk!

Still pretty much scares your cat.

Nice tips there. We just set our christmas tree and our cat won't stop trying to reach and play with the christmas balls. I've tried, but I can't figure how to teach her not to do it. She also keeps going behind the sofa to scratch it, because she knows we can't get her there. What should I do?

Joana Ferro Regarding the tree... I couldn't say, sorry. :) I don't do Christmas trees, for precisely this reason! Regarding the couch - she's scratching it because it's her favorite material in the house. It's (presumably) sturdy, and she likes the material. Scratching comes naturally to cats - they *need* to do it. So if your cat is scratching someplace you don't want, the only real solution is to give them better options. Invest in a really good scratching post (a sissal one that doesn't wobble and can take their weight), or, if you can't afford that, the cheap ones that lie flat on the floor, that they can stand on and stabilize with their back legs while they scratch with the front works as well. At least with my cat. But all cats are different. :) Also, I've heard double-sided tape works well as a deterrent. :) But again, only if there's a viable alternative, since scratching is such a necessary instinctive activity.

Joana Ferro Katerine makes a good point, but what I did was I made a water bottle, and mixed eucalyptus and lemon oils in with water, just so it was a strong enough scent, and sprayed the entire couch with it. My cats hated the smell of eucalyptus and made a point to stay away from it entirely. I did the same thing to my plastic Christmas tree, and wiped down any counters with it. My house smelled like eucalyptus and lemon (I think is a fantastic clean smell) but my cats would avoid the areas that smelled like it. It doesnt have to be eucalyptus. Just find some oils or a perfume or something that your cats will hate, (you can tell when you open the bottle in their general area, they will sniff it, and get all squinty eye'd, and then run away) And spray everything you don't want them on, and just respray occasionally. They will eventually associate that unpleasant smell with the item they are suppose to stay away from. I only had to do the spray three times in a corse of a month, before I could stop. They never scratched my couch again.

We did get her a scratching pole, but she doesn't seem one bit interested in it. I've tried to force her to scratch it, but she didn't even seem to understand what she's supposed to be doing with that lol Thank you both for the tips :) I'll try the spray too.

Joana Ferro I dont know much about cats, but what worked with me was putting some aluminium foil on the floor where the cat used to scratch the couch, he won't like the feeling of stepping on the aluminium so he won't go there to scratch anymore. Then put the scratching post nearby and buy a laser pointer and play with him while pointing the laser to the scratching post, he will chase the laser and notice that the scratching post feels good, always praise him when he uses the scratching post! And don't force him to use it, he will associate it with bad things.

its not about compromise its about understand ethology and ethical behaviour modification.

The Entire Point Of This Video Is That It Does't Work,And You're No Exception.

Even when you're not there?

Then congrats your cat fears you

Your cat hates you

😆😆😆

Every being has its own character

me too... if she does something bad, I ignore my little rescue kitten for a couple minutes and she learns quick... no scratch, no bite, no chewing on cords, no climbing where you don't belong... otherwise, all play, fun & attention stops. She hates that. When she comes back, she only bites her toys (not me) and stops clawing my legs...she only paws my foot when she wants to play or get my attention... It's the cutest thing!

That's so sweet

That makes them co-dependent, not good either.

I think you're the first person I've ever heard of who sprayed their cat because it was vocal... At least you realized that what you were doing was putting a strain on your relationship with her.

xohsodebonairex Her being vocal... well, it is a hard one, because she even as a kitten had a big loud voice in a small body. It was very stressful to have her vocalising whole night. And it all was just because she wanted to play.

I can relate to that. Don't worry. I wasn't judging you or anything. I fostered a kitten and I know how shrill their cries are. It sucks when they want to play all the time. They're so little and they have SO much energy!

xohsodebonairex Well, now I have amazing relationship with this cat. She is still sometimes vocal, but she uses it in almost human maner - she answers when I ask her something or greets me when I am back home. I love her with my whole heart. Actually,everybody who meets her falls in love with her. Even some of my friends who hate cats, say she is the best of the worst. :) I could talk about her for hours actually.

+CaptainObvious0000 - I used to be able, with my old cat, to get her to not be on the counters-at least when I wasn't looking, hah. (She was like that with everything. Keyword: when I wasn't looking.) But the cat I have now? I've just given up... I can put him down off the counter a hundred times, and he jumps back up again. I used to think, before I had cats, that it was really gross when people had cats on the counters (i.e. where you were prepping food), but there you have it. But I'm hatching a plan to put up "cat shelves" in the kitchen-I have an empty wall, the kitchen is small, so he would still be close enough to "supervise" (ha!), and use the steps to get up on the fridge. I'm gonna get the smallest "Lack" shelves from IKEA. Cheap and good-looking! And hey, Jackson Galaxy is all about cat shelves! I've learned that from him. :)

+CaptainObvious0000 Exactly, cats just love exploring.

Ikr

Out there where?

My stupid cat actually got immune to my hisses, but instantly obeys when I growl. This is how I taught her to stop mewing.

@@Tom-Travels She doesn't sound stupid to me. 😉

@@dianapeters5715 It's interesting that cats only mew to humans and not to other cats or any other animal. It follows that if you become more like a cat, they will stop mewing. It's true.

@@Tom-Travels they only do that as kittens to their mother and when they grow up they only do it to humans

U re not well in the head and should not have animals in your care

Lexi Dawn same

That sounds extreme to me. Just sayin'.

That is worse than the water !

It’s really hard tbh. The sticky, bad scent, or compressed air deterring will help keep your relationship and limit the bad behaviors

Same thing with my dog we close door where off limit

so hows it going

I’m on the same boat minus the licking

Same here, first time having a kitten. She’s somewhere between 2 months old and she’s constantly biting me

This is my worry too. We had an stove with burners and he understood it was bad. Now we have one of those flat top ceramic stoves and he doesn't understand. I am going to get the Stay away or scat and hope it helps. It will probably keep my husband from cooking too LOL

Agreed. When my Mom generously bought me a new stove several years ago, we went to Sears and she asked if I'd like a flat top stove. I said thank you, but I'll opt for the regular electric burner top, as my then 3 kitties would not think it was a good place to nap. Thank heavens they never were stove kitties. Chrissie, Katie, Mau, RIP (old age got them, not trouble)

Never Trust A Vet That Gives Shitty Animal Advice. Clearly Their Not Good At Their Job.

...very time consuming for the first year of their life tho.

I completely agree with you, it took a long time but after a while my cat knew exactly what not to do and we had an incredibly strong bond .

many vets aren't that smart about nutrition or cat behavior. They do know how to take your money though.

Exactly! My guys start by licking faces and then it escalates into biting and swiping, sometimes with the result of half closed injured eyes for a few days. I say "NO!" "Not in the face!" "Pfffft!" And when none of that works, I reach for the bottle, if the aggressor does not make hasty retreat from the visual alone, I slosh the water around which does the trick. The cats never get wet, the plants do. It works and they still love me. They know when they are being naughty for attention, they know they don't want to get wet. It isn't discipline or punishment, it's deterrent.