The Best and Worst Ways to Train Your Cat

Dear people of Team Cat Mojo. This is a public
service announcement. My name is squirt,
squirt bottle. You may use me to remain stains. You may use me to
water your garden. What you should not
use me for, and whathas upset many of my brethren,
is to punish your animals. Welcome to the Cat Cave. Alright, it’s time we talked
about squirt gun diplomacy. If I can’t use this, how
do I discipline my cat?No such thing as
disciplining your cat. I’m sorry to say folks,
they have no ideawhat you’re talking about when
you use this voice on them. Squirt guns do not work. They do not work. Now let’s use an example. Let’s say your cat
is counter surfing. Counter surfing of course
means that they’re justwalking across the
counters, and it’ssomething that
drives you insane. And you would much rather
that your cats aren’t countersurfing. If you wanted your cat
to stop counter surfing,then every single time,
24/7, that they jump upon the counter– if you
wanted to be hanging outwith Mr. squirt
bottle, and you wantedmake sure that they got off
the counter, when then you’vegot to camp out there,
all day, every day. Then when you’re not
around, I promise youyour cat is counter surfing. I promise that you haven’t
taught them a thing. All they know is that
when you’re around,they shouldn’t do something. And when you’re not
around, they will. So you have succeeded
in diminishingthe bond between you
and your cat completely. They are afraid of you, not
afraid of the experienceof getting wet when they
jump up on the counter. So it’s something that I find
really, really important,because it follows
that line of thinking. Can cats be disciplined?No, of course they cannot. What let’s say
that we were usingan air-compressed canister and
an electric eye, that tool. Put down, cat jumps up,
squirt squirt, OK, with air. And they’re gone. What’s the big difference there?That you didn’t do it,
the counter did it. That’s an effective no. What can you do if
there’s somethingthat you would rather
your cat not do?Well you’ve got to
make it work for them. So counter surfing– first
of all, what does it attain?Are you keeping
food on the counterand then asking your cat
not to eat that food?Is your cat a big fan of running
water out of a faucet, and yetthere is no running water
in the form of fountainsany place else?Or is your cat thriving on
potentially negative attention?It doesn’t really matter. If you yell at your cat
or praise your cat–it’s attention, right?So if every time I
jump up on the counter,I get attention,
negative or positive,short of striking or squirting
or whatever, then I’llprobably keep doing it. If absolutely
nothing happens whenI jump up on the counter–
no food, no reward, no loveydovey, no pick
you up and put youdown, no pet on the way down, no
yelling your name, no nothing. Nothing happens. Then why would I
continue to do it?OK so now we get to the
second part of this. Squirt guns are out. So now we get to what
I call the yes no. It doesn’t matter whether
you’re parenting someonewith for legs or two. The yes no is a great
way of doing things. Let’s go back to our
counter surfer friendwho, every time you’re in the
kitchen, has to be out there. We can do something very simple. For instance, use a placement. The placemat has double-sided
sticky tape on it,which is a really cool little
trick, because you can take itoff, put away somewhere, put
it back down, it’s sticky. Every time you cat jumps up on
the counter– sticky, sticky. Eh, I got to go. Or you use the
compressed air canisterswith the electric eyes that
I use, like StayAway or Scat,any of those guys. They go. We just established the no. Now where’s the yes?Well the yes for a
tree-dwelling, inquisitive,counter surfer is something
up in that kitchen thatrises to the height,
approximately, of that counter. Now away from the
counter, so we’renot asking them to jump up on
the counter, get sticky paws,get frustrated, go down,
and do whatever they do. But for them to have a sill,
a stand, a tree in the kitchenarea so while you’re making
dinner, they can observe. Yeah. I approve, right?My name is Fluffy and
I approve this dinner. Then we’re good. So the moral of
the story here isthat if you want your
cat to do something,you’ve got to meet them halfway. Compromise is one
of the highest formsof love in a relationship. This actually signifies
something completely different,on a deeper level. This signifies that
we believe that wecan bend our animals
to our will, right?And if we step back from
the squirt gun for a second,step away from
the squirt gun, wemay realize that that is not
a humane operational system. Squirt gun diplomacy is
not actual diplomacy. In essence, think
about the no and yes. And once you think
about no and yes, you’llprobably get somewhere, alright?So anyhow. That’s all I got for today. Keep watching. Guys, thank you so
much for subscribing. We passed 20,000 subscribers
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to hear from you. Please leave a comment. Please keep subscribing. Don’t forget, we just had
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onward and onward every month,so you’ll find out about
that by subscribing as well. In the meantime, be kind to all. We all deserve a break. Until next time. All light, all love,
all mojo to ya, baby. Ahh, love ya.
You’re a bad cat. I’m not a bad cat. You’re a bad cat. I’m not a bad cat. You’re a bad cat. I’m just misunderstood. Meow.