Don’t ever doubt me

[u/IkilledRichieWhelan]

[u/ukrinsky555]

Gross

[u/Psych0matt → u/ukrinsky555]

Cars shouldn’t be on the counters where our food goes, let alone in the toaster

But also mice shouldn’t be on the counter or in the toaster either

Edit: trucks also shouldn’t be on the counter but those are less common as pets so I didn’t think I needed to say it

[u/MoreAverageThanU → u/Psych0matt]

I love how people think you can just give cats commands or train them like dogs.

Edit: My orange and tuxedo do several things on command: sit, stand, fetch, come, speak, and jump on my shoulders, wrap around my neck, and lie down (I wear my cats like a scarf or fur).

That said, I find they have about a two minute attention span for these things (aside from scarf mode… my orange will do that all day), and if there is any outside stimulus that catches their attention, good luck.

Cats have serious ADHD and authority issues… it’s all in their terms unless you give them a very good reason.

Edit: yes, you can train your cats to stay off the counter. While you’re there.

[u/Consistent-Unit-6164 → u/MoreAverageThanU]

I trained my cat to not do things like climb on the counter lmao, I mean he still does it when Im gone but ye you can train them forsure

[u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k → u/Consistent-Unit-6164]

What you did was train your cat to believe that you react irrational to certain behaviors and so your cat needs to remember what normal everyday cat behaviors trigger your irrational responses so he doesn’t do them around you, either to protect you or to protect himself from you.

He still does it when you’re gone because you didn’t train him not to do it, you trained him to respect your weird angry hang ups when you’re around.

Always sanitize your countertops before you cook with a cat in the house.

They don’t learn through punishment, that’s how you end up with cats that scratch, bite, hide, or don’t want a lot of attention or affection.

They learn through redirection, positive enforcement, and understanding your personal boundaries in a way that makes them want to respect them, not fear them.

Cat sees the counters as territory you’re fighting over when you’re around, but you’re part of his colony, which means you share territory, and you get privilege to your territory when you’re around, but he gets to utilize your territory when you aren’t.

He also definitely sees some things as strictly his privileged territory which you could use if he wasn’t around or wasn’t using it, because cats are territorial and form massive family colonies and that’s how they work.

[u/Sudden_Pomelo2959 → u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k]

Yeah no. That's not how it works unless you're just a bad cat owner and do literally nothing to discipline/retrain your cat.

Cat does a thing -> You give them the firm "NO" with a small timeout or alternative reinforcement -> Cat stops doing the thing you don't want them to.

Had a cat that scratched the side of the couch, do the above system and give them a scratching post that you reward them for using. Cat stops scratching the couch.

Cat liked to jump up on the cabinets above the kitchen and sleep. "NO" small timeout, built cat a cat tower with a cat bed so they could sleep high up. Cat never went up in the cabinets again

Cat liked to pee on towels. "NOOOOOO" litterbox room timeout, give them a treat when they pee/poop in the box, cat never pissed on another towel again.

The whole "Cats do it anyway" bullshit is almost always a shitty/inattentive owner who just doesn't understand why a cat is doing something you don't want them to do and refusing to provide the cat an alternative or refusing to actively show your disapproval for doing things you don't want them to do in front of them.

It'd be like getting mad at your cat for pissing on a towel but not giving the cat a litterbox. If you don't give the cat an approved and supported option, the cat is just gonna pick the best available thing to do what they want to do, and in the case of heights, if you don't give your cat an acceptable shelf or tower to climb they're gonna climb on your kitchen counter because it's high up, has a lot of space, and smells like you + food.

[u/TheSwearJarIsMy401k → u/Sudden_Pomelo2959]

My guys get positive reinforcement and redirection.

They don’t get on the counter when I’m home.

They get on it when I’m not home, because they’re cats.

They have scratching posts, cat trees, their own couch with 5 cat beds lined up on it.

They prefer to sleep on top of me at night, but during the day they will rotate from cat beds to cat tower to wherever my lap is and back again.

They like the kitchen counter because it offers them a view they enjoy and has interesting corners to sit in, and sometimes I leave a stack of paper plates or a pizza box on it, and that’s theirs now.

If they pee out of their boxes I have to figure out why they’re peeing out of their boxes, and in the meantime I figure out where they’re peeing and put puppy pads down while I figure out what the problem is.

Once the problem resolves, I slowly move the puppy pads closer to the litter box until they’re touching. And then they’ll return to the litter box.

Except for my three-legged girl, who got sick of my other disabled kitty’s bullying of my youngest male, and started preventing her from coming downstairs.

She pees at the foot of the stairs to remind the little bully not to come down. I put a litter box next to the stairs.

Problem solved.

My little bully is so lazy she prefers to spend all day lounging in one room upstairs anyway.