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I sympathise, xk. My beautiful cat used to be a big pee monster too. When he was a kitten, he used to be jealous of my lovers when they slept over, and once he sprayed on the bedcovers under which my girlfriend was sleeping. She was Not Amused. He also used to nip the other person in the bed when he wanted to sleep on the pillow next to me. It was my fault, really -- I spoilt him rotten, and had no idea how to train him. But there are solutions. He's now much more well-behaved and much happier, too. (It helps that I'm now living with someone, and that we made the bedroom out of bounds for the cat.)
My experiences in cat discipline have taught me that cats do not understand retributive action unless it occurs while the cat's actually in the act of doing the Bad Thing.
Yeah, absolutely. But cats can be definitly be trained. You just have to catch them at the exact moment and teach them to associate it with something unpleasant. Like, possibly, a little squirt of water. Or you cuold say sternly and loudly, 'No,' and teach the cat to associate 'no' with "I have to stop doing this.' Our cat understands 'no' now, although at the start, he used to just run away whenever we'd say one loud word. Then he learnt the difference between 'no' and other loud words, or loud snorts, or whatever.
The other thing is, does your cat have his own bed? Like, a chair and a blanket that's set aside especially for him to sleep on or wash on? Peeing on things, obviously, means marking out territory, which he may not need to do if he feels like he has somewhere that's totally his. Somewhere social is good (like, where you normally hang out in the house) and you can train the puss to want to be there by a) picking him up when he's asleep and depositing him on the chair carefully, so he settles there to start with; b) giving him lots and lots of pats if he turns up there by himself; c) sometimes food or doing something he really likes on the place you've set aside for him. Does your cat like being brushed? Try luring him with a brush, or a favourite toy. Eventually they get the idea. The place might change every couple of months, but it's a lot better to give them sole ownership of at least one space.
(Of course, you might already have somewhere like this, in which case the peeing might be about attention-seeking. Unfortunately, the only way to deal with attention-seeking is the unpleasant response, or to just ignore it completely.)
Hope this helps. |
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