Suddenly, without warning, DearLadyDisdain exclaimed (5/28/2010 5:09 PM):
I got my first kitten back in March. Everyday since then he has been
waking me up by crying every morning at around 5 am. I make sure to give
him lots of food the night before, and many mornings when I do get out
of bed when he starts up I check and see that his food and water are
still quite full yet. I thought that maybe he wants more attention, so I
make sure to play and pet him for a while before going to bed. But,
alas, I am still being woken up every morning.

Since he has gotten bigger, he now puts his paw under the door and
rattles it while meowing. I wouldn't mind letting him in the room at
night or in the morning if he didn't pounce all over me continuously
(thus not letting me sleep--so I lock him out of the bedroom at night).


When he meows in the morning, I simply ignore him, knowing that if I
don't give him any attention that I won't reinforce his behavior--but
this is still going on! This morning he rattled the door so much that it
actually opened and I suddenly awoke to a kitten pouncing on my
face....

He is a sweet cat and I think myself lucky to have gotten him, so this
is really my only complaint. How do I get him to stop?

Thank you.





Instead of barring him completely, try this. Be warned, you'll have
some nights of short sleep, but I did this with Meep when she was 3
months, and at 14 years she still lets me sleep...

Leave the door open when you go to bed. When the kitten pounces on you,
put him out. Wait for 10 minutes of quiet, then let him in. Try to
sleep. If he pounces or otherwise wakes you up, put him back out.
Rinse and repeat. Eventually he'll get the message.

It took about two weeks of gradually decreasing pounces for Meep to be
fully trained.

jmc