Help me manage our cat's behaviors, please!

[Skim]

We are struggling to figure out how to manage our 2yo cat's behavior. Right now, Rose jumps up on our counters, the table, when we leave the table, when we are still there, when I'm close to the kitchen but not there she will just jump up and try to eat whatever may be up there. Her main goal appears to scavenge crumbs or yogurt or milk left in bowls.

Rose did this after we adopted her from the shelter as a kitten, but stopped pretty quickly (only jumping on tables once we were out of the house or asleep). Now, she'll do it whenever she feels the urge, unfortunately.

Her behavior changed into this after we had to leave home for 9 days for my father's funeral out of state. During that time we found someone to come over and care for her, but could only come by once a day. We feed her twice a day usually; she eats a raw food. Our theory is that she is reacting to the significant change in routine and the uncertainty of our being gone so long.

Also, we discovered we were feeding her a lot more than the recommended amount on the package and slowly decreased that once we returned from our trip (over 6 weeks ago), and adjusted her food accordingly.

Now, to seriously complicate matters, we got a puppy a week before our trip. The puppy came with us, but the cat was not happy with the puppy before we left. It happens that this dog chases the cat when she runs - which she does when we chase her off the table or counters. It was barely an issue before we left for the trip. We are training the puppy to not chase the cat but she hasn't stopped yet. She chases the cat when we spray her with water (which we've stopped), and if we rush over to remove the cat from the off-limits surface. So I try to be calm and get the family not to yell to get the cat off of things, in order to keep the dog calmer and less likely to chase the cat when she's naughty, but it's not working. I think the dog is trying to help us in her way, actually. Sigh.

So, poor kitty missed us, had to deal with a puppy, her feeding was changed, and then we get back and expect her to be normal! But, we really can't have her eating bits of food because she gets diarrhea when she eats dairy or grains... which, of course, we eat every day.

And I don't know if it matters, but Rose is an indoor/outdoor cat. She has safe places from the dog, i.e. places the dog can't enter, upstairs and in the bedroom.

ANY suggestions are more than welcome. Thank you so much!

[Skim]

Anyone? It's really crazy to keep her off our surfaces and not incense the dog.

Please

[sarafi]

Sorry, my first response would be to grab the dog when you notice the cat doing something you don't want her to do.

I don't think there is anything wrong with the water/yelling (ok maybe the yelling isn't pleasant) but you want the cat to stop getting on things, right? And the problem is that the dog chases the cat when you correct the cat and she runs.

So I think that you should make sure you are holding the dog when you correct the cat.

[Skim]

Thanks for your reply.

I'm not so concerned about the dog's behavior - we are handling her OK. My main concern is the cat. How do we control her in the house? Spraying her doesn't work. Yelling doesn't work. Simply removing her doesn't stop her from doing it over and over and over. Why can't she change her behavior NOW when she would as a kitten?? It's so puzzling and frustrating.

** How do we stop the cat from repeatedly and persistently - and, I might add, brazenly - jumping up on food prep and food eating surfaces? **

[gingerstar]

One thing you might try is giving her an acceptable "high place" to go, higher than your counters, where she can go, and when she goes on the counter, remove her to the "high place" and give her a treat when she goes up there on her own. (Disclaimer: I've never tried this! But training ideas are from "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor)
The thought is, she can jump up on this, and see everything, satisfy a cat's desire to be up high, but not be where you don't want her.

Fosters and Smith has this, for example. I know cat trees can get expensive.
They also have those "scat mats", don't know much about them, but perhaps they might be an answer for you.

ETA: partly, you need to think like a cat. They don't understand that there are rules, so if she wants to see what is on the counter, she jumps up. It's not really "brazenly", y'know? She's just being a cat.

[Skim]

Thank you for your reply.

I do like the cat tree idea, removing her onto that seems gentler and more productive. But she does just jump up when we have food on the surface - so it's not just seeing it, she smells the food and can't seem to help herself from jumping up *right then*. Even if we are right there, which she never did before December. Sigh. And I lol at my use of "brazenly". It's kind of a joke in our house; I know she doesn't really understand rules or even care that there might be rules or pleasing us (like the dog cares). We love her just the way she is. We just hate the jumping while we're still at the table!

Originally Posted by gingerstar

One thing you might try is giving her an acceptable "high place" to go, higher than your counters, where she can go, and when she goes on the counter, remove her to the "high place" and give her a treat when she goes up there on her own. (Disclaimer: I've never tried this! But training ideas are from "Don't Shoot the Dog" by Karen Pryor)
The thought is, she can jump up on this, and see everything, satisfy a cat's desire to be up high, but not be where you don't want her.

Fosters and Smith has this, for example. I know cat trees can get expensive.
They also have those "scat mats", don't know much about them, but perhaps they might be an answer for you.

ETA: partly, you need to think like a cat. They don't understand that there are rules, so if she wants to see what is on the counter, she jumps up. It's not really "brazenly", y'know? She's just being a cat.

[sweetsadie77]

Someone told me that cats hate the feel of tinfoil. So to teach them not to be somewhere loosely put tinfoil down in the places you don't want them. They'll "learn" not to jump to the places that have the tinfoil.
I haven't tested it so i don't know if it will actually work, but its something to try.
I think there are also some smells that cats have aversions to that smell good to us, citrus and/or mint. So maybe scrubbing the surfaces you don't want the cat on with citrus smelled cleaners or something with mint extract in it would avert the cat as well.
Good luck, cats are cute but hard to train (its one of the things I like best about them).

[ktmeyer]

Is she hungry? If she only does it when there is food up there, I'd start leaving some food out of her own to graze on. If she gets up all the time, food or no food, then I'd go with the suggestion to make her some fun places up high. You can make cat trees for way cheaper than you can buy them, there are lots of places online with directions. Oh, and you can tried compressed air instead of squirting with water.

[Skim]

Originally Posted by ktmeyer

Is she hungry? If she only does it when there is food up there, I'd start leaving some food out of her own to graze on. If she gets up all the time, food or no food, then I'd go with the suggestion to make her some fun places up high. You can make cat trees for way cheaper than you can buy them, there are lots of places online with directions. Oh, and you can tried compressed air instead of squirting with water.

No matter how much we fed her, I'm feeling confident it would not stop the behaviors, because she is not eating only when she feels hungry. I think she started having fear of not enough food when we left for 9 days, frankly. She jumps all day long, except right after meals/when she is sleeping. She also scavenges in the compost if we don't lock it down. We feed her raw food only, so leaving it out is not an option for us. Plus, the dog would eat it in a heart beat. They both eat twice a day only.

If we did the cat tree, we would either make it or buy it with used carpet. The off-gassing from new carpet makes us sick.

Thank you so much for your ideas.

[gingerstar]

Reviving this old thread because I just read another thing to try - in the place where she likes to jump up, put a very shallow pan (maybe a cookie sheet with sides?) with water in it. She wouldn't be able to see it from the floor, but when she jumps she will get wet, which cats just hate (usually!) and so in future she will think twice about jumping up there!
Worth a try, maybe.

[outlier]

In case you're still having this problem, one thing I haven't seen suggested yet is to purposefully leave out some of the forbidden food crumbs but put something on it that tastes bad to her. Maybe some paprika or chili powder would do it but not be dangerous? I've used the powder from benedryl capsules with great success when trying to keep my own cat from chewing inappropriate things. One taste and she never touches the electric cord/shoelaces/whatever again!