Cat and kids issue

[toon_town_nutter]

Our cat has taken to not respecting food boundaries at all. If we're eating the cat is involved. Food gets swiped off our plates, food batted out of our hands, cups licked.

I've taken to sending the kids outside to eat it's got that bad. What can I do to stop it?

[katydidthat]

I was cooking dinner a few years ago ... I put a perfectly cooked steak on my son's plate, and took it to the table, then went back into the kitchen to get the salad and bread.  Came back to find that kitty had sniped the steak and was busy eating it.  I reclaimed the steak and put it in the fridge, and gave my son half of my steak.  I never left food unattended again ...  kitty KNEW that what she had done was wrong, but she'd been given an opportunity and she took it.  It wasn't a problem from then on.  

This happened in about 2006 and my son (15 now) still remembers it.  

I'm not sure if he remembers that the following day I GAVE the steak to the cat to finish it off.  I thought that she would have forgotten what happened and just see this as part of her normal rations.  But, I wasn't about to throw out a beautifully cooked fillet steak in the bin!!!!!!

[patchoo78]

A spray bottle of water is good but DON'T put vinegar in it, it could harm their

eyes badly.  The water's enough.  

So use the jet setting don't aim for their eyes.. You don't have to put heaps in, just enough so they can smell it,

Cats apparently find the smell of vinegar unpleasant

[2106greencat]

.........and then stop feeding the kid's

[daydream**believer]

eww ewww ewww at cats on the table.

Yuck.

Give the cat a whack, get it off the table and lock it in the laundry while you eat

[daydream**believer]

agree totally with kilroy.

[tcmsecretuseid]

Spray bottle. Squirt gun. Anything with water will do the trick. 

Simply say eh, eh, then squirt. My cat is three years old and I had him trained not to jump on the tables, the tv cabinet, shelves, and the kitchen counters in about a week. 

After a few squirts, all you will have to do is say eh, eh, and the cat will jump off the table. He will be expecting a squirt. You must be ready to immediately squirt that cat when he jumps on the table. 

Pushing, yelling, or hitting a cat won't train them. 

Good luck. As with all training, don't think of it as punishment, but rather a tool to help your cat know what he is supposed to do. 

[cat_mioux]

I hope you realise kitty will jump on the kitchen bench when you're not there to squirt.

Cats are cats. :^O

[flashie*]

Give the cat a whack, get it off the table and lock it in the laundry while you eat

Seriously.....................you should never smack a cat.:O

http://mysmelly.com/content/cats/raising-an-adequate-cat.htm

[azureline**]

Smacking animals is not a nice way to train them. 😞

I think the question of cats on benches probably equals dogs on beds or couches?

It is all relative to what we think is ok in our own home.......

Our dog sits on the couch in the family room but he has his own bed. Some people don't like it.

[tcmsecretuseid]

 My kitty never jumps on the table, or any other place that I trained him not to go. I've had cats for my entire life, and all of them were trained not to jump on the kitchen counter, or table. I also trained them only to claw a cat post.  Cats are very smart, and very trainable. 

Use the eh eh sound, and a squirt bottle in the beginning. You must be there every single time that they attempt to jump up in the areas that you don't want them to go. After that, simple use the eh eh sound when they crouch to jump up in the forbidden areas. 

My cat knows where he is allowed to jump up, and where he is not allowed. I never let him see me squirt him. He thinks it comes from the sky, and that eh eh sound is his warning in the beginning. You can take out the warning and go back to just squirting, if you have a dumb cat.