long range discipline?

My cat has a nasty habit of jumping onto my desk in the middle of the
night and shredding papers. I of course do what I can to keep important
stuff off the desk, but she always manages to find something to shred
or lick. I wake up, yell at her and she jumps off the desk, but within
2 minutes she's right back up there again. This cycle repeats until I
get up and shut her out of my room. Quite tiresome. She only does this
occasionally, so it's not worth me keeping her out of my room
permanently. Besides, we'd both be very lonely at night!

Discussions about stress and needing to go to the vet aside, I'm
wondering what other folks do to get the message across from across the
room? I'm tired of getting up 3 times a night to get her off my desk
and I can't bear to sleep without her when she's a good girl

Thanks in advance,
Jen

Jennyanniedots wrote:
My cat has a nasty habit of jumping onto my desk in the middle of the
night and shredding papers. I of course do what I can to keep important
stuff off the desk, but she always manages to find something to shred
or lick. I wake up, yell at her and she jumps off the desk, but within
2 minutes she's right back up there again. This cycle repeats until I
get up and shut her out of my room. Quite tiresome. She only does this
occasionally, so it's not worth me keeping her out of my room
permanently. Besides, we'd both be very lonely at night!

Discussions about stress and needing to go to the vet aside, I'm
wondering what other folks do to get the message across from across the
room? I'm tired of getting up 3 times a night to get her off my desk
and I can't bear to sleep without her when she's a good girl

Thanks in advance,
Jen


Get a portable air horn that works from an air canister, the type that
one can find in a marine environment, and blast it one from your bed
when she is up on the desk.

Careful though, this might wake the neighbors too.

The other is to cover the top of the desk with tin foil or a cardboard
of the same size as the desktop covered with double sided tape. Most
cats hate that sticky feeling.

On Sat 11 Feb 2006 07:25:27p, Jennyanniedots wrote in
rec.pets.cats.health+behav
oups.com):

My cat has a nasty habit of jumping onto my desk in the middle
of the night and shredding papers. I of course do what I can to
keep important stuff off the desk, but she always manages to
find something to shred or lick. I wake up, yell at her and she
jumps off the desk, but within 2 minutes she's right back up
there again. This cycle repeats until I get up and shut her out
of my room. Quite tiresome. She only does this occasionally, so
it's not worth me keeping her out of my room permanently.
Besides, we'd both be very lonely at night!

Discussions about stress and needing to go to the vet aside, I'm
wondering what other folks do to get the message across from
across the room? I'm tired of getting up 3 times a night to get
her off my desk and I can't bear to sleep without her when she's
a good girl

Thanks in advance,
Jen


I have 2 (of four) that do this, though not shred paper, just that
they jump up on surfaces that I'd rather they don't. In the case
of kitchen counters, I keep them clear of anything they'd be
interested in; they eventually get bored, though sometimes still
check them out, and I clean them before any food preparation. For
shelves on the wall that hold plants (only Christmas cactus because
that's all I have been able to keep alive), I don't leave an inch
of room to land on - fill empty space with nick nacks or candles. I
tried to fill empty space on a high dresser top that I didn't want
kitties on, but there always seemed to be enough room (if even a
couple of inches) for them to land on, so I just cleared enough
space that they wouldn't be hurt if they fell trying to find empty
space, and removed anything dangerous or breakable. The favorite
game was knocking things to the floor, and watch as they land (or
break).

In short, there's nothing really you can do to stop them, and
eventually, if there's nothing interesting there, they'll get bored
and stop. I don't have any ideas about how to effectively get the
message across, either from across the room, or even by picking
them up and putting them down on the floor. As you can tell, it
doesn't work anyway.

My best suggestion is to provide places of her own to jump on - a
sturdy cat tree, shelves on the wall designed just for her. Maybe a
window seat that she can look out when you're sleeping.


--
Cheryl

"Jennyanniedots" wrote:


Discussions about stress and needing to go to the vet aside, I'm
wondering what other folks do to get the message across from
across the room? I'm tired of getting up 3 times a night to get
her off my desk and I can't bear to sleep without her when she's a
good girl

About 9 inches of packaging tape upside down. About two encounters
and it won't happen again for a while. Used responsibly, it works
wonders. You get to play the good guy for poor kitty and remove the
tape, and your cat won't even associate you with the correction.

By the way, my cats have all sorts of things to climb on and I was
assuming yours do too. As pointed out in another reply, cats do need
to jump in climb on things.

Jennyanniedots wrote:
My cat has a nasty habit of jumping onto my desk in the middle of the
night and shredding papers. I of course do what I can to keep important
stuff off the desk, but she always manages to find something to shred
or lick. I wake up, yell at her and she jumps off the desk, but within
2 minutes she's right back up there again. This cycle repeats until I
get up and shut her out of my room. Quite tiresome. She only does this
occasionally, so it's not worth me keeping her out of my room
permanently. Besides, we'd both be very lonely at night!

Discussions about stress and needing to go to the vet aside, I'm
wondering what other folks do to get the message across from across the
room? I'm tired of getting up 3 times a night to get her off my desk
and I can't bear to sleep without her when she's a good girl

Thanks in advance,
Jen

Two thoughts. I'll go first with the outlandish and difficult one and
then one from my own experience:

Clicker Training for Cats. It's not something you could just do in the
middle of the night. Would have to be part of a program. But it works
with lions, tigers, and little pussy cats. It's how they train the
Friskies circus house cats. You might want to tire her out before you
sleep. It's that nocturnal hunting instinct coming alive. You could try
a pot of catnip in the middle of things. Or some orange peels - felines
don't like citrus supposedly. Clicker training is probably way too
elaborate for just an occasional nocturnal ripping and tearing party
but it's good for the cultural enrichment for both of you But it's
been used even in getting doggies to not bark inappropriately or play
nicely.

My cat shreds too in the middle of the night but only when she wants to
get fed. Sometimes I get back at her by giving her healthy foods she
does not like. But even if it's not her favorite, she won't shred
anymore. Does your cat want a midnight mouse snack or something?

"Jennyanniedots" wrote in message
Discussions about stress and needing to go to the vet aside, I'm
wondering what other folks do to get the message across from across the
room? I'm tired of getting up 3 times a night to get her off my desk
and I can't bear to sleep without her when she's a good girl



Cans of pennies.
Sticky tape.
Scat mat.
Slappy trainer.
Can of air.
And the dreaded water bottle.

There are lots of training aids out there- they just have to be used
consistently but any of them will work.

-Toni

"Jennyanniedots" wrote in message
ups.com...
My cat has a nasty habit of jumping onto my desk in the
middle of the
night and shredding papers. I of course do what I can to
keep important
stuff off the desk, but she always manages to find
something to shred
or lick. I wake up, yell at her and she jumps off the
desk, but within
2 minutes she's right back up there again. This cycle
repeats until I
get up and shut her out of my room. Quite tiresome. She
only does this
occasionally, so it's not worth me keeping her out of my
room
permanently. Besides, we'd both be very lonely at night!

Thanks in advance,
Jen.

Put some thing your cat might not like on the papers such
as orange peel . That could stop her short term but you want
to address why she is doing this in the first place.
Cats tend to be more active at night and you need to play
with her and give her enough stimulation in the day or
evening time so she doesn't feel the need to do it at night.
Alison

I agree with playtime during the day and maybe they will sleep at
night. Our Maine Coon loves to play and we make sure we at least have
some play time before bed time. I don't leave any food out and he
stays in bed with us until the alarm goes off in the morning. No
reason to get up!

"John Doe"

BEWARE HE IS A STALKER AND A TROLL BEWARE
FOLLOWS YOU TO OTHER GROUPS AND INSULTS THEM AND POST BS ABOUT THEM

HE NEEDS A TASTE OF HIS OWN MEDICINE