Basis rules for education
A cat’s education needs to take place from the very moment that the kitten/cat enters the house. After all, it is amazing how fast and practically irreversible the cat will accept certain habits in the house. You must therefore determine in advance what is allowed and what isn’t and from the very first moment you should reward desired behavior and punish undesired behavior. You must give the reward: a stroke, a cuddle etc together with friendly spoken words (a short word, always use the same word), possibly with a cat candy. You mustn’t visibly give the punishment (except for punishments for aggression towards you): you must be very creative to cause unpleasant feelings with the cat when you punish him for his behavior.
Both punishment and reward must be applied immediately or after a few seconds. Otherwise the cat will not understand what he did well or wrong.
4. Punishing undesired behavior a)Scratching wallpaper and furniture:
A cat needs to be able to scratch something: in order to sharpen his nails and to mark his territory. After all, his soles have smelling glands which exude smells which we cannot smell. That is why a cat always returns to a spot where he has scratched before, because of the smell. You should therefore give them some spots where they may scratch: a couple of rolled up (inside out) mats are good enough; you can spread them in the house. You firmly rub the cat’s soles on the mats in order to leave the smell behind.
During his first weeks in the house you must carefully watch the cat and immediately react if the cat wants to scratch something which is not allowed. Punishing will take place for example by using the plant spray. Another way is to produce a very loud noise (rolling a can filled with marbles towards the cat, prick a balloon…) or throw a soft object to the cat (you must hit him). You punish him while you are busy with something else. You certainly don’t look at your cat or you hide yourself so that the cat doesn’t suspect you.
If the cat has scratched something while you were absent you must “protect” these objects by means of sanctions. Wallpaper, chair legs and furniture can be covered with sandpaper: if your cat scratches this, it will give him a very unpleasant feeling and he will stop scratching. You can place a can filled with marbles (in unstable balance) on the armrest, you attach a rope to it which hangs down on the place where the cat scratches. During scratching the cat will definitely hang in the rope, so that the can with marbles will fall down on him. The balloon trick also brings good results: You hang the balloons on the places where he scratches. During scratching the cat will touch one of the balloons which will break and will frighten the cat. You must keep on punishing the cat during two weeks in order to teach the cat that scratching the undesired spot has unpleasant consequences.
b) Cat scratches earth out of the flower box.
Some cats have the strange habit to scratch earth out of the flower boxes and much worse, leave a pee behind. The solution is simple: You place coarse wire netting in the box and cover it with an earth layer (about 1 cm). When the cat starts scratching in the flower box, his claws are caught in the wire netting which gives an unpleasant feeling: the cat will stop it. Leave the wire netting in the flower box at least 3 or 4 weeks. Another trick: filling the flower box with aperitif sticks; place them vertically with the tips 1-2 cm above the earth.
c) Cat jumps in closets filled with delicate things
A cat is usually very careful and will not easily knock over things during his explorative expeditions. After all, something that falls makes a sudden loud noise, something the cat doesn’t like. But accidents can happen and it mostly concerns things the owner loves the most. Solution: Empty the closet or only leave unbreakable things in it and place a balloon in the closet. When the cat jumps on the closet, he will hit the balloon with this nails; the balloon will explode and will make a lot of noise. The cat will get scared (an unpleasant feeling) and will never jump on the closet again. You must keep up this measure at least two weeks.