Water Pistol To Correct Ornery Behavior

[pattybug]

We us a spray bottle for when our cat gets on the kitchen table and counters....thats the only thing that trained him to not get into things either...it works...be consistent

[Pierce2011]

We have two spray bottles, one in the family room and one in the kitchen just for emergencies. It's a deterrent for the cat and dog fights only. After spending $400 on one eyeball, we went with the spray bottles as directed by the e-vet. (The eyeball is healing very well BTW.) Other than that, we never use them on anyone. My cat also knows the word "NO!" when she thinks she can jump on the hot stove.

[kygman]

Originally Posted by jasper12

I am not an advocate of corporal punishment for children, or animals...but a judicious spanking may sometimes be appropriate. Pierre once bit the baby...and he was severely spanked on his lil' cat bootie...he never bit the baby again.

If Pierre was mine and bit the baby, Pierre would be a gone kitty cat! Let somebody that didn't have a baby take him. And I don't think I'd use a squirt of water or anything like that to let him know he did the wrong thing!

[Drover]

When I was growing up my parents used this technique on me, to great effect.

[sll3454]

Squirting the cat, clapping, snapping, all of that can work - while you are present. But while you are asleep, and while you are at work, your cats will be everywhere you don't want them to be.

Cat jumps on counter. You squirt cat. Cat learns a lesson. But the lesson is, "My human will squirt me if he sees me on the counter." What you want cat to learn is, "The counter is a scary/unpleasant place to be." (I lined mine with empty cans and plastic bottles. Cat jumped up; was frightened by cans and bottles falling; problem solved. It didn't have anything to do with me in the cat's mind - she just decided the counter was not somewhere she wanted to be. Some people use double-sided tape and get the same result.)

For our laundry closet and for a cabinet they were able to open, we used child locks.

There's a spray you can get for your curtains, furniture, and special "scratching spots" on the carpet. Just be sure you have the kind of scratching posts your cats like, as they don't all have the same preferences. Our cats like the carpet-covered kind, and one cat will only scratch on horizontal surfaces (ever since the scratching post fell on her).