A new kitten in the home is something widely enjoyed by everyone, providing hours of entertainment; their curiosity is in a league of it's own! Once your little one has settled into your home - it's now time to start enforcing the rules on good and bad kitten behavior will enable for both you and your kitty live happily every after! Very early in their lives, kittens will have had the constantcontact of their siblings and other for company. At night, this will be a very lonely new experience for your kitten and meowin will be his communication to you for attention. Reacting to this by getting up and comforting him can be very hard not to do but doing so will only reinforce the behavior that this is okay and this is what he needs to do to get your attention! So your kitty will carry this behavior well into adulthood. It is hard - but you need to ignore kitty in this first stage to stop it becoming a conflict in your companionship. Although this can be taught in the future to an adult cat - it can be alot more time consuming. Good ways of coping with the noise is investing in some excellent earplugs! Don't worry, if you have kitten proofed your house - there is nothing to worry about with kitty getting hurt or stuck! Another way is to squirt kitty from underneath the closed door to wet his paws, he'll start associating meowing for your attention gets me wet paws which I don't like - therefore the behavior will start to cease. Which brings me to the perfect weapon! The squirt bottle or squirt gun! Filled with water - this can be the ultimate tool in getting the best behavior out of your kitten! I've often read that yelling at the kitten "NO" can be harmful to the relationship - I'm not sure how true that is but I know for certain, a cat can quickly tell when you pick up a squirter instantly and knows the behavior he's currently conducting isn't one that you like! Another great method of training I am coming more familiar with is "Clicker Training". This is a small clicker that fits in your hand, a word comand is used and the cat is helped to show the desired response, once the desired response has been completed a treat is given and a "click" from the Clicker is given. The clicker is to reinforce the good behavior and because the click will always be the same as oposed to your voice saying "good kitty", your cat will be a quicker learner! Binx is now four years old - but I have had no problem training him to star in his first book "Cat Training Tips" which is coming soon! "Watch This Space". The Complete Cat Care Team have put together a great product, that covers everything from toilet training your kitty to looking after your senior cat! |
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