# How do I alter my cat's behaviour? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 30, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740 "2002-12-30T20:17:54Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 13\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Harli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c0e974/32.png) [@Harli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harli)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/1 "2002-12-30T20:17:54Z")
I would like to enlist the assistance of the SDMB’s pool of knowledge. I am at my wit’s end. I have a cat, nearly two years old. She is an adorable, fixed, shorthaired sweetheart…most of the time. Generally, she is wonderfully friendly and a total suck. She loves attention, loves to be held and pet, and generally loves to be around people. For several months now, she has become a monster when the lights go out! My SO and I have lost too much sleep because of this. At night, when we go to bed, as soon as things quiet down, we hear her up on the coffee table, the dining room table, the entertainment centre, and she knocks items off. She has not broken anything in quite some time _knock on wood_ but it is still horribly distracting when we are trying to get to sleep. I think I have found a solution to stop her from getting on top of the entertainment unit…I have used a spray called “Get Off My Garden” which gives off an offensive odor to animals (only slightly offensive to humans) and keeps them away from the sprayed area. I sprayed her two “jumping points”, which seems to keep her off the unit, which was her favourite night-time distraction area. And then there are mornings. Every morning, 30 - 45 minutes before the alarm goes off, she’s making noise, being generally disruptive to our precious sleep by getting up on top of stuff and knocking things down. We have tried disciplining her by locking her in the computer room (where her litter box is) for the bit of time before we get up. But this is still disruptive to our sleep. And it doesn’t stop her from doing it the next morning. Why is she doing this constantly? How can we train her not to do this? I appreciate any and all help/suggestions. ---
**Author:** ![Tupug\_Anachi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7993a0/32.png) [@Tupug\_Anachi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tupug_Anachi)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 8:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/2 "2002-12-30T20:41:27Z")
Your kitty is a night owl. She’s probably catnapping all day and so is wide awake at night. I suspect trying to wear her out during the day isn’t an option, although you might try a rigorous long play session with a laser light or another cat toy that gives her a good run before bed time. Have you considered locking her in the computer room for the night? Give her some toys and food and water and get some sleep. ---
**Author:** ![fauxpas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e480ec/32.png) [@fauxpas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fauxpas)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/3 "2002-12-30T20:43:51Z")
Leave your screensaver on and (preferably get a projector and leave it on) Screensavers might help out a bit (and they’re free! :)) ---
**Author:** ![Harli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c0e974/32.png) [@Harli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harli)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/4 "2002-12-30T20:47:31Z")
The problem with leaving her in the computer room for long, is that she scratches at the door, and eventually breaks into her sorrowful, high pitched meowing. I swear that no cat has ever had a louder, or higher pitched meow than my little one. Oh! And she _knows_ that she isn’t supposed to be up on the tables and such, and often runs right into the back room when one of us gets up to punish her. _sigh_ ---
**Author:** ![Kyann22](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/a4c791/32.png) [@Kyann22](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyann22)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/5 "2002-12-30T20:52:13Z")
Harli, Just to let you know, you aren’t alone in this. We have two cats that are around 4 months old and they are holy terrors at night too. We have a townhouse, so we don’t usually hear them downstairs (until last night when they broke a vase), but at least 5 times a night they come up and start clawing at the carpet under the bedroom door. I can’t let them in because they run and jump on and off the bed and keep us awake even more than when they are shut out! Ugh. Maybe we’ll get some relief with the help of someone! ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/6 "2002-12-30T21:42:30Z")
I find that a good solid play session with the cat, say an hour or so before bedtime works wonders. Get the cat tired out. But remember- cats need play. ---
**Author:** ![ENugent](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/4af34b/32.png) [@ENugent](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ENugent)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2002, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/7 "2002-12-30T21:54:52Z")
A long play session about an hour or half an hour before bedtime, followed by a big meal (preferably wet food) will usually knock them out like a light. (The big meal trick may not work if she’s free fed, instead of having set mealtimes). You can also try to find toys that she’ll play with that don’t make too much noise, and leave them out only at night (to keep more “novelty” for longer). Rotate toys - leave them out for a few days, then put them away for a few days while you leave different ones out. This can keep a cat playing with the appropriate stuff better. Does she have places that she’s allowed to climb? Cats really like to be up high. If you can afford a cool [cat tree](http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/sc_view.cfm?siteid=1&pCatId=1886), that would be great, but even some big cardboard boxes can provide good places to jump to. With three or four smaller boxes, some duct tape, and a box cutter, you can create a cat tree that she’ll like almost as much as the fancy ones. Finally, do not get up, no matter how tempting it is. If you do, you are training the cat to associate loud nighttime playing with attention. ---
**Author:** ![Harli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c0e974/32.png) [@Harli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harli)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 3:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/8 "2002-12-31T15:00:40Z")
Thank you all for your excellent suggestions! The man and I didn’t get too much of a chance to play with her before bed last night, so we didn’t get to truly try this stuff out. I did give her lots of attention before bed though. And of the 4 times she was up ontop of stuff, I only got up once when she knocked the 4.1megapixel digital camera off the shelf (it’s fine). But I didn’t acknowledge her, either good or bad. So yah, she was a little hellish when we first went to bed, but much better in the morning…unless her laying her favourite toy next to my head and kind of batting at it after I hit the snooze button for the 2nd time is inappropriate behaviour 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Scruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Scruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruff)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 3:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/9 "2002-12-31T15:52:53Z")
Get another cat, of about the same age (local pound/cat shelter/whatever). We had similar problems when we got our first cat (many years ago), and found that two cats would play together and wear each other out! ---
**Author:** ![Jake](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f475e1/32.png) [@Jake](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jake)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/10 "2002-12-31T18:07:21Z")
Some wise person on this board (I Can’t remember who) said that you cannot train a cat NOT to do something bad , all you can do is train the cat not to get CAUGHT doing something bad. Anyway, I had to resort to putting my cat out at night. Not an idea solution, though the cat dosen’t seem to mind. ---
**Author:** ![Harli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c0e974/32.png) [@Harli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harli)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 8:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/11 "2002-12-31T20:19:52Z")
**Scruff** and **Jake** , both very good ideas… however, we live in an apartment which a) is too small to accomodate another animal, and b) not condusive to letting the animal out for the night. ---
**Author:** ![C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@C\_K\_Dexter\_Haven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/C_K_Dexter_Haven)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2002, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/12 "2002-12-31T20:51:12Z")
A burlap bag and a deep well will also solve the problem… ---
**Author:** ![Tia3child](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/54ee81/32.png) [@Tia3child](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tia3child)\ **Post date:** [January 1, 2003, 1:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-i-alter-my-cats-behaviour/145740/13 "2003-01-01T01:26:56Z")
Catnip and a noisy toy about two hours befor bed time. It works on Lloyd my cat but he doesn’t move much any way.