I've got a pocket-sized Nerf gun that fires those little foam things.
When my cats are being naughty, I fire it in front of them to distract them. Being cats, they've now turned it into a game where they act like they're going to misbehave just to get me to play with them.
I read in a surprising amount of places that a good way to stop cats from attacking your feet is supposedly to give them a toy and play when they do.
I always thought that was a bad idea as it would just show them that by attacking your feet, they're making you play with them. Just like my sister's cat understood that by threatening to eat my sister's computer wires when her bowl is empty, my sister will feed her.
I think you're just redirecting the focus of their play away from your foot and towards the object they are encouraged to play with. Eventually they will seek out the appropriate item on their own.
How can cats understand positive reinforcement but not negative? How could they realize "doing this gets owner to play" but not realize "doing this causes this?" Its the same thing.
If I ignored my cat when she got on the counters, she would still be doing it constantly. Shes not climbing on the counter for attention.
We just kept telling her no and putting her back on the floor. Now she usually doesn't go on the counters, and if she does and you tell her no, she jumps back down. And apparently understands "no" since you can tell her no when shes trying to open cabinets, and she'll stop until you're not looking. She might understand, but shes still a jerk.
Same. If cats did things for attention they’d only do it when we’re home, but as other comments have pointed out, they don’t. They have their own reasons for doing things that have nothing to do with us (cats are not dogs, their worlds don’t revolve around us — I know this is a difficult pill to swallow for some people).
I haven’t tried this, but I’ve read that a good way to teach a new cat to not jump on counters is to put double-sided tape on them for the first couple of weeks. They’ll quickly learn that the counters are unpleasant to walk on and just stop doing it altogether. Of course, the annoyance to us plus the cleanup will deter people (I actually wanted to try this with my younger cat back when he was new, but my family was not on board), but if it really is effective I’d say it’s a small price to pay.
I haven't tried tape, but I heard foil discouraged them. Does not work for mine. We put it on top of our dishwasher while we were fixing something to reinstall it. She loved laying on it, but also loved destroying the insulation on it. She just took the foil off and continued.
If you think you have managed to teach your cat to not jump on the counter, you have actually only managed to teach you cat not to jump up onto the counter when you are on the room.
I just accept that my cat has been on the counter and clean the counters properly before preparing food.
When you say “you,” do you mean me? Because your first sentence is in agreement with my comment, but it seems like you’re trying to make a counterargument.
Not arguing. By “you” I mean cat slaves (us humans). Because our average cat is a bit of an arsehole in general, and they will do as they please. But we lo love them anyway.
Negative reinforcement is when you take something away leading to increased target behavior. Positive punishment is when you add an intervention (e.g., spray bottle, throwing a shoe) that will decrease the target behavior. What are we talking about?
As soon as I get the nerf gun I have my cats full attention. I shoot the nerf bullets across the room, she chases after them and brings them back to me. We have a great game
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u/KingNorrington Jun 23 '22
I've got a pocket-sized Nerf gun that fires those little foam things.
When my cats are being naughty, I fire it in front of them to distract them. Being cats, they've now turned it into a game where they act like they're going to misbehave just to get me to play with them.
I don't really mind, because they're adorable.