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8 Ways to Discipline Your Cat

One of the most obvious things you have or will soon learn is that cats can act out, but not just occasional misbehavior that all animals engage in, but willful misbehavior. Some of these behaviors, like a cat who meows nonstop to gain your attention or performs other things, will be thought of as cute. Others, however, are just plain obnoxious. How do you escape this predicament? Most just give up and let their cats do whatever they please such as walk on kitchen counters, destroying your cords or bite and scratch them but those are not acceptable behaviors.

People don’t give cats enough credit, sure, cats are not like dogs, they do not listen as well as dogs, but it is not that they can’t listen, it is that they don’t really want to. But, with enough training and discipline, they can, and they will listen and become wonderful pets.

Before continuing, there is one thing we want you to be aware of. Discipline in this context does not equate to punishment. It is more appropriately related to social reconfiguration. There are a couple of ways on how to encourage your kitten to stop acting in a way that you can't tolerate any more.

Why Do Cats Misbehave?

Most of the time, what you see as your cat misbehaving is simply them displaying their inherent animal inhibitions. Because of this, it is not advised to punish them for how nature has created them, instead help them adjust the behavior in a way where you see as acceptable.

Other times the cat has just randomly picked up a nasty behavior and proceed to run with it. You may have even contributed to some of the problem by failing to stop the behavior sooner, or not realized that a harmless behavior when they are kittens would lead to a more severe problem later. Depending on what is causing your cat's misbehavior, you should be extremely patient while enforcing discipline. You'll need a ton of patience, but we promise, it will pay off.

Some Common Cat Misbehaviors

There are numerous feline misbehaviors. while some of them are common to all cats, others are distinct bad habits that your cat just simply picked up. most of these undesirable behaviors typically fall under jumping on counters, chewing on wires around the house, and scratching furniture are all examples of inappropriate domestic behavior.

• Wires - Chewing wires can seriously cause harm to your pets and be extremely annoying.
• Biting - Your cat may occasionally decide that biting you is amusing. Even though they are not attacking you as if they are attacking their prey, it still hurts. Check out the article on how to train them out of biting here.
• "Gifts" - Has your cat begun bringing you small dead animals as gifts? You're not alone. Tip: Put a bell on their collar so they cannot catch any live birds as they will see them coming and fly away before they can sneak up on them.
• Play - Cats spend more than 14 hours a day sleeping. The worst aspect is that they have no set schedule for going to sleep and waking up. That implies that they might wake up and become active right before you go to bed or worse yet, wake you up while you are sleeping.

The Best Way to Discipline Your Cat

You must be tired of kitty's shenanigans by this point. After researching and practicing the most effective techniques for training your cat, they are all based on the same principle: cause and effect. The cat must link the bad thing they are doing with something unpleasant.

They wouldn't desire such unpleasantries after it is finished. As a result, they'll automatically quit doing whatever it is you want them to. Here are some recommendations on what you can do.

1. Use Your Voice

Simply using your voice to stop your cat from doing something you don't like may be sufficient. When the cat is doing something bad, have a stop word in mind and use it, such as “no” or “hey” in a loud, assertive, and disapproving voice. Consistency is the key to making this work, once you have found a word that works for you, keep using it for whenever they are doing anything bad. This way your cat will begin to associate the stop word with an inappropriate behavior.

2. Clap Your Hands

Clapping your hands is another method for getting a cat to stop misbehaving. Cats do not like the sound of clapping because it is loud, annoying, and scary to them. The sudden, loud noise that results from clapping your hands will annoy or unnerve your cats, and they may stop. Some felines are also easily startled. Your hands will vibrate if you clap them together. If you keep doing that, they will begin to connect their poor behavior with the disturbing sound of your claps.

3. Reward Positive Behavior

Although it may sound absurd, rewarding a cat when it behaves properly is an approach to discipline and conditioning them. The justification for this is so that the cat will link positive behavior with rewards. It begins doing more positive things because it wants more rewards. For example, if you want to train your cat to scratch their scratching posts instead of your furniture, reward them every time they use their scratching posts, they will start using that a lot more.

4. Play with Your Cat

A cat that is bored is a disaster waiting to happen. If you don't play with your cat much, that could be the source of the issue. If your cat is not getting enough play time they may start to run around the house, chasing after objects, swiping at your leg as you walk by, and so on. Purchasing some cat toys to help you stop these tendencies. Purchase some cat furniture so it can play and scratch when you aren't home. Anything to burn off all that excess energy will help with their behaviors.

5. Use Noisy Cans

This one is very helpful for cats who enjoy climbing on platforms like cabinets. Additionally, you may use it to prevent your cat from snooping around certain areas or trying to attack your indoor plants. Collect some empty pop cans and stack them on top of one another so that even the slightest contact will cause them all to sway. When your cat approaches for the first time and cause them to fall over, the loudness will be sufficient to drive them away. Don't forget to perform this exercise two or three more times till the cat understands. You won't have to repeat this process more than five times for even the most stubborn cats.

6. Use a Deterrent

Some cats do not like citrus and will stay far away from them. Others do not like pepper flakes for some unknown reasons. It is a great benefit for us! You can buy commercial sprays for these odors and use them in and around areas where you don't want to your cats to be or if your cat enjoys chewing on objects, you can get certain (harmless) sprays that make such objects taste terrible.

7. Time Out

Yes, just like children, you can give your cats a time out, and it is highly effective too. Give your cat a time out when it misbehaves. Choose a location in the house to serve as the cat's prison, such as their kennel, or your bathroom. When they behave badly, scold them, and use your stop words such as “bad” and take them up right away and lock them in the bathroom for 20 to 30 minutes. They will come out as angels in comparison. Repeat this act for every time they really misbehave as they will start to associate their bad behavior with their “prison”.

8. Utilize a Spray Bottle.

Nobody enjoys being doused with water, especially your cats. Obtain a spray bottle, and anytime the cat engages in undesirable behaviors, spritz them with water. The general rule for this corrective technique is doesn’t reveal to your cat that you are the source of the water as you don’t want them to associate the water splashed with you instead of their bad behavior.

Looking for more personalized training? Book a call with our experts here!

If Nothing is Working, Here Are Some Additional Advice:

9. Visit Your Local Veterinarian

Check your cat's health thoroughly while you're at the veterinarian. By doing so, the potential that your cat has a medical problem that is causing them to be aggressive or behave badly will be ruled out. You can also get some more advice from your veterinarian about all the different methods you have been trying and see if they have any additional clues on why your cat is misbehaving.

Most of the time, you won't even have the faintest clue that cats may be dealing with undiagnosed wounds, hormonal imbalances, anguish, roundworm, flukes, and tapeworm (from mites, fleas, wormer, etc.), as well as psychiatric disorders. You'll get better guidance on what to do next after seeing your veterinarian.

10. Examine Your Cat's Diet and Prescriptions

Have you recently altered your cat's food? Modified a few ingredients? Perhaps your cat was even on medication when they suddenly began exhibiting some odd behaviors. For instance, were they recently spayed or neutered? Or haven’t been spayed or neutered could be the reason for aggression. Consult your local veterinarian and inquire about any potential effects of the prescribed drug if they are on any. If it's food, try switching the brand, design, or ingredients they were used to, and see if the issue disappears.

Looking for more personalized training? Book a call with our experts here!