Updated: August 4, 2022 by Kristen Chapple
It’s a well known fact that kittens can be destructive at times. While they’re super fun and adorable, that doesn’t mean that they know and respect the rules in your household. So you have to teach them. Read on and find out how to train your kitten to follow your rules.
Training doesn’t guarantee that they will behave all the time afterwards, but at least your time together will be a lot better. The idea is that the younger the cat is, the better. Though it’s a lot easier to train a kitten, remember that patience goes a long way with kitten training as well.
How To Train Your Kitten
When training your kitten anything, there are a few steps to follow, no matter if you’re trying to teach her to stop scratching your furniture or stealing your food. From litter training to funny tricks, most training follows the same pattern.
Set the Rules
The first thing you will need to do is to set the rules. Know exactly what are the situations in which your kitten misbehaves and what outcome you want at the end of the training.
If you’re fine with your kitten on the kitchen table when you’re eating, good for you. But if you’re not, put it on the to do list for training. You’re the only one who knows with what behaviors of your kitten you’re comfortable and with what you’re not.
Provide the Means
By providing the means we refer to the fact that for example, if you want your kitten to stop eliminating on your carpets, buy and set up a litter box for her. We exaggerated a little bit with the example to get the point.
If you want your kitten to do something specific or to stop doing something annoying, make sure you provide everything she needs. You might want her sleep somewhere else than on your couch, so arrange, build or buy her a place to sleep before trying to train her.
Teach Her to Follow the Rules
Once you’ve got everything ready, you can start training her.
The main method of training is to reward good behavior and set consequences for bad behavior. Of course, the consequences won’t mean beating your kitten, but you can use your voice in a firm tone while saying ‘no’ or use something like a spray bottle and spray her with water when she does a mistake.
Since cats don’t like water in general, that will serve as a reminder to not do the same thing again.
Reward Her
Always reward your kitten for good behavior. Petting and praising her will make her associate those behaviors you want her to have with good outcomes. Small treats also work wonders when it comes to training your little furry friend, so make good use of them as well.
