gd/tone of voice and cats!

[mavery]

I read an earlier post in this forum about trying not to shout at dogs bc it was upsetting to the poster's son. Well, we have a very mischievous cat (she'll jump up on surfaces and knock things off to play with them, get on the dinner table while we're eating etc.) and I do tend to shout at her. My ds hasn't been upset by this, but he's imitating me and when I hear
"myself" I cringe. This morning, he saw the cat in the living room and shouted "Bad cat!". Now I would never, ever, ever call him a bad boy (or a good boy, come to that) and I guess at minimum I can refrain from using phrases like that with the cat. But what about the shouting? Obedience training for cats is pretty much hopeless, and I have no idea how to get my cat to respond without raising my voice.

Any ideas?

[LynnE73]

We squirt our cat when he's being *bad.*

[BusyMommy]

Dunno but I do know that HOWEVER I treat our animals, the kids do exactly the same thing. So, no matter how irritated or : I am, I try to react like I would like my kids to.

Squirting is a good "tool" but again, I don't want to teach my kids that it's ever okay to squirt them. They don't have the same wise judgment I do.

I guess I make an exasperated sound and tell the cat why I'm upset; ie. Hector (in a very stern voice) I do not like it when you jump on the table. I'm afraid you may knock the vase over! And, then I lift him off and ask him to be more careful next time. Of course, Hector the cat hears only but at least it's consistent and removes him from the scene.



Herding cats...almost like herding toddlers...

[mavery]

It occurred to me after I posted this that I should maybe treat the cat like I would treat a baby too young to understand what's okay - so basically just keep removing her over and over. But the trouble is, I think the cat really CAN understand when she's done something wrong - it's just hard to get her to "admit" it and stop it.

Anyway, removal seems to be the safest method for now. I'm tempted to try the spray, but I have a water-loving 21month old who would go CRAZY for the spray bottle.....
thanks.

[sistermama]

I have this problem, too. I often do the cat shoo with my foot - NOT anything like kicking, but you know, the "I"m going to gently move you out of my way with my foot." Well, of course it looks exactly like kicking to ds, so I've had to stop doing that.

[NightOwl]

I don't spray my cats because that just teaches them that water is punishment. I don't want them to be scared of water.

I use a stern voice with mine. I have found that cats respond to that best. Cats tell how you're feeling by the tone of your voice. For example you could say to your cat, "I'm going to put you in a pan and fry you and eat you." but as long as you say it in a sweet voice they think you're being sweet. Say the same thing in a stern voice and they think you're being stern.

Trying to repeatedly remove a cat from the situation would never work with mine because as soon as I walk towards them when they're being bad they run. So, basically my cats get 2 types of discipline depending on whether or not they know what they're doing is bad. If they don't know then I use a stern voice to let them know. If they know they're doing wrong (and most of the time they do) all I have to do is start to get out of my chair and they run away.

Now, I don't know how that's going to work with a child around. My baby is not even 2 weeks old, so he doesn't even get upset at loud voices yet.