What do you do when your cat won't listen to you?

What do you do when your cat refuse to obey?

Is there some kind of reward or punishment system involved in the solution?

I got news for you, fish lady; That's the nature of cats. It's like the old saying, "Dogs come when you call. Cats take a message and MIGHT get back to you." Dogs want to please you because you're the pack leader. Cats will only obey if there's something in it for them. You don't train a cat, you out-psyche them.

(04-07-2012, 04:47 PM)Karenskatz Wrote: I got news for you, fish lady; That's the nature of cats. It's like the old saying, "Dogs come when you call. Cats take a message and MIGHT get back to you." Dogs want to please you because you're the pack leader. Cats will only obey if there's something in it for them. You don't train a cat, you out-psyche them.

I am a guy.
What made you think I am a lady?

Well, I guess without first hand experience with dogs and cats, I do not know a lot of things about them.

Oops! Sorry! I can't point to anything in particular except the fact that most of the pet people I meet are female. I guess I assumed.

We defenitly move in different pet circles. I know pretty much nothing about keeping fish, though I did babysit an aquarium once. Nothing very fancy fish wise, but it was a tall octaginal tank, and I had great fun watching my first cat going round and round trying to get to the other side of the glass to get at the fish. "I try to touch the fish, and there's a window in my way; go to the other side of the window!" This cat was all looks, and no brains, but it sure kept him entertained.

Most fish keepers are actually guys. Or at least the ones beyond beginners. Fish keeping is much more complex than it look. Most people would give up when their first fish die. Saltwater aquariums are the most hard to keep and most definitely owned by more guys.

Correct me if I am wrong, more cat owners are women. Although more of my male friends have cats.

I've never had a cat that really listened to me, only when they choose to. Lucky for me they choose to more than not. Our male will come when called. The girls, not so much. However they do all come when we cal Chicky, chicky, chicky. That is when they know they are getting a treat. Either that or they all think their name is Chicky...

"All cats have the same name; the sound of the can opener." Or as I tell adopters, "Cats don't care what you call them, so long as you call them for dinner."

LOL, that is so true. Someone asked me once if cats actually like their people. I said, sure they do, and they will till they figure out how to use a can opener...

(04-12-2012, 08:39 AM)bw Wrote: I've never had a cat that really listened to me, only when they choose to. Lucky for me they choose to more than not. Our male will come when called. The girls, not so much. However they do all come when we cal Chicky, chicky, chicky. That is when they know they are getting a treat. Either that or they all think their name is Chicky...

Language barrier you got there!

I've read a bit about clicker training, and seen a video of the person who developed it teaching a six month old puppy to sit and heel in less than a half hour. When you think about it, it's not training so much as establishing a mutual language; a binary code of yes and no. It lets ytour dog know what you want by trying different things until he gets that yes. It also encourages compliance from a cat by telling it there might be a treat if he gets it right. We're not so much teaching them our language or learning theirs as we're finding a middle ground.

Some cats will come when you get their attention and then you show them that you have food. Some will actually come when you call them by name because they know you are about to give them treats.

I have never seen a cat come when you call them without food being involved, with one exception. My older cat, Tabitha comes to us when we call her name and say, "Ride". That is when she knows that she and her sister, Phoebe the Bengal are getting their ride in the pet stroller.

My cat NEVER listens to me and I'm used to it by now. Dolores is like a surly teenager and she only puts up with me because I feed her. But even though not all cats are super friendly, a cat is a lifetime commitment so I'm stuck with her grouchy butt for the rest of her life. It's a good thing I love her. Usually I'll call her, she will give me a look of disdain with her green eyes and then go back to grooming herself or whatever she was doing.
She's still cute, she's just kind of a jerk.

If one of the boys doesn't listen to myself or my lady then he will get the silent treatment. Overall, though, I really don't give them orders, unless one of them beats each the other one up, which has been happening lately. My fiancee and I now threaten to throw water at the one and then he immediately stops.

I have never had any cat come when called, even when offered a treat. My three cats spend most of their time in my daughter's room. Probably because the dog isn't allowed in there. But at night my daughter wants the cats out so that they don't constantly want to come in and out of her room like they do during the day. Every night I hear her telling them, "Out, out, out, out, OUT!!!" I don't know why she even tries when she just ends up picking each of them up and physically removing them from her room anyway. The youngest and largest cat is the worst. She lets out the most horrendous cry when being picked up to be let out of the room. You'd think my daughter was torturing her.

My cats are very very attentive. They come when they are called, and they stop when they are told off. I trained them multiple ways. I would shout their names whenever I would pick them up, or whenever they would come to me, so they would learn their names. Now they come whenever they are called. Whenever the went someplace they were not supposed to, I would shout, sternly, NO and spray them with a water bottle. I now no longer have to use the water bottle and a simple NO will work. I now combine the NO with a clap and a finger point, so that if for some reason I cant shout, simply pointing or clapping is enough to get them to behave. If they do not do what I ask, then I go up and pick them up, Say NO! Tap them on the nose, and they then run off and hide and know they did bad.

This is a most interesting question. The best thing we have learned with our cat is when he is doing something wrong or is in the wrong place like up in the china closet we ignore him. For if we try and move him from an area or yell at him then he does become mean. He bites and races around knocking things down and repeatedly goes back to where he is not suppose to be. We have tried spraying him with water or gentle tapping him with a newspaper or offering a treat, just to get him to behave. Nothing but ignoring him works.
We have noticed other times when he is a good cat that shaking the treat jar or offering to brush him gets his attention, but those times are rare and far between, mostly he is a brat.

My cats never listen, but my trick to get them to stop doing something is the good ole' coins in the can trick. They HATE that and it's awesome because I throw the can and they have no idea it's me. They think it's some crazy, unknown object making a loud noise so after a few times they avoid the behavior they were doing because they figure out a connection to the loud, annoying can.

(01-24-2013, 02:33 AM)scotty Wrote: My cats are very very attentive. They come when they are called, and they stop when they are told off. I trained them multiple ways. I would shout their names whenever I would pick them up, or whenever they would come to me, so they would learn their names. Now they come whenever they are called. Whenever the went someplace they were not supposed to, I would shout, sternly, NO and spray them with a water bottle. I now no longer have to use the water bottle and a simple NO will work. I now combine the NO with a clap and a finger point, so that if for some reason I cant shout, simply pointing or clapping is enough to get them to behave. If they do not do what I ask, then I go up and pick them up, Say NO! Tap them on the nose, and they then run off and hide and know they did bad.

I'm seriously impressed that you trained your cats to listen to you and obey you. Most cat owners just take it as a given that cats are independent and rebellious and do what they want. If I want my cat to get off the counter ,I just pick her up because she doesn't understand the word "no". Did you start training your cats as kittens, or did they learn to answer to their names later in life? I think my cat is set in her ways and it's probably too late to train her. I might just do what Wolfpacklovin does and try the coins in the can trick.

I started when they were kittens. I am not sure how old they were when we got them, it couldn't have been more than 2 months though. I think once the cat is set in its ways...its set in its ways....

Mine were also scared from water so the spray bottle helped. I think the breed of my cats also made them more susceptible to it, they are Ragamuffin cats, so basically rag doll personally cats, making them way more like dogs than cats. Occasionally, they will do bad and jump on the counters etc, but if I even just stand up and look like I am walking towards them, they RUN off as fast as they can!

I'm pretty sure that refusing to obey is second nature to cats and I've often heard that they can't really be trained. We have fun joking about our cat because we can only give the *illusion* of obedience. Like if she's plopped down in the middle of the floor, my daughter says "sit!" and then "good girl" as if she wasn't already sitting. :-) Or if we need to step over her, we sometimes say "don't move... good girl!" Because fooling ourselves about that is the only way to think that she'll listen to us!

I've also had a friend laugh at me for trying to get the cat to do something I wanted her to do. The friend told me that the cat is surely saying "You want someone to obey you? Get a DOG!" :-)

I have to say that in all the time I've had cats they hardly ever listen. They are not like dogs that you can train to obey you, cats are cats and you are there to serve them and enjoy their company . If I need for them to move or something sometimes treats work. That is however iffy at best.

I have a lot of cats that will actually come when I call them. If I tell them to get off the counter they usually listen as well. I never trained them, but I like to think a little affection goes a long way. If I pet my cat a lot he or she tends to like me. Therefore, when I call the cat it will come because it wants me to pet him or her again. My cats also walk up to me when I'm outside and meow to get my attention. It depends on the cat and how much the cat likes you. I've never tried to get my cat to sit or lay down, or anything like that. I'm sure it's possible. If you just want your cat to know when to get off the kitchen counter, well, I'm no expert there, but I simply clap my hands and the cat gets the message. If you want the cat to stop sharpening its claws on your furniture, by it a scratching post.

It really takes a lot of patience and time to tech your rules to a cat. I'm not a strict pet guardian, I realize that living with a pet is different then living alone. The first thing I did was to move all my precious and breakable stuff out of their reach. It's better to be safe than sorry, and I can't really blame the cat for destroying something I love, it's not precious to her. Both of my cats caught up to the rules pretty quickly. My older cat really hates when I pick her up, so when she climbs somewhere she shouldn't I just pick her up and put her down. After a few times, she stops climbing up, and after a few sessions like that she doesn't climb there anymore. My younger cat doesn't climb that much, but I had a problem with him biting through my cables. I solved it by buying a bitter spray at the pet shop. When they bite or scratch me I make a sharp "ssss" sound I usually make when I'm hurt, they get gentler after that. I think that cats react similarly if they get bitten too hard during play time. Those are just small scratches I get, of course, I was never attacked or bitten seriously by my cats. I also sometimes clap loudly when they do something I don't approve of. When they do something I like, I give them a treat.

I'll usually begin with a "tktktktktktktk" sort of noise, to get her attention. Usually, that's enough to get her attention and cause her to come over. But if it doesn't, then I'll start with a hiss. If that doesn't work, I'll call with a "Come here kikikikikikikikiki", while patting my leg. Of course, her, being a cat, won't always come over, so sometimes I'll just have to go over there, grab her, and then scratch her or take her out.

When my cat does not listen to me, I usually pick her up and put her on the ground. Normally she sort of listens to me as she responds to her name mostly. Normally, when she hears her name she will come running towards me. I have heard that most cats do not do this. One of my cats does. She responds to her name. I gather she thinks she is a little dog.

The other cat does not always respond to her name. Mostly I do not have to reprimand her. She is the most lazy one! I guess it depends on the cat's personality!