My cat’s are allowed to do most of what they want. Limitations are destruction and kitty feet and tushes on the kitchen counters, dining room table and my bed pillow.
When I point my cats just look at my finger. But if I catch their gaze and then look at something else they will look there too. They do this with me - they catch my eye then deliberatly look at what they want me to notice. If I tap on something they will usually come to see what I’m trying to show them.
This is quite nice. How do you teach them that? My cat never look at where I point to with my finger, but he looks at me instead.
I have started to train my cat. I succeed in having him understand the word “descend” - Come down. I was too lazy to carry on the training, I still got the book somewhere. LOL!
At least he replied to his name. My cat was quick to learn, but he only learn 1 thing at one time… as long as he still wants his snack, but lost concentration quite quickly.
I didn’t succeed to have him retract his claws when playing. But he understands that I dislike claws on me, so when he is excited, he goes to do his rabbit kick with a mat.
I’ve had good luck lightly tapping the offending paw with my finger while repeatedly saying “gentle” in a soothing, calm tone.
The Circus Cat taught me the “looking” thing. I realised he would catch my eye and then repeatedly look towards what he wanted me to attend to ie a closed closet door, a food bowl that was emptier than he liked. I also observed that he would alternate his gaze between two areas when he was deciding where he wanted to go. You could just see his little brain hashing it out. So I began experimenting. We started with me visually “showing” him where a toy or treat was. It works very good with food. It works 50/50 for non-food things.
The extent of training our cats has been that they come for dinner when you make chicken noises.
Other than that I remove them from the counter when I’m around and clean it often because I know they’re up there when I’m not. Life is short, pick your battles wisely.
Good advice on choosing the battles. Got a laugh out of your post about how you let them know about their food. All my friend had to say was tuna water and her 2 cats would run inside.
And yes, pet care was so much more basic, even 20 years ago. Like the direction it’s going up to a point. Nice that there’s more awareness about their diets to help them live longer and heatlthier lives.
Thought I’d give a little update on Hell Kitten. She’s actually turned into a great, young cat. Friendly with people and curious with dogs & puppies. In fact she loves playing with the pup we tend a few times a month. She doesn’t get on the counters as much as she used to. However she started gnawing on the bottom louvres of the plantation shutters and was chewing sizable chunks off. I tried everything I could think of to deter her, but nothing worked. In desperation, I took about a half cup of straight Tabasco sauce and literally basted it over the affected parts of the shutters. She hasn’t touched them since! Need to do some filling & touch up painting now.
Wanted to share some photos with you.
The top photo was taken at the shelter, it should have been my first clue. She didn’t like being picked up by the adoption coordinator.
The 2nd photo speaks for itself - you might not want to have dinner at our house!
I’ll put a few more up for your amusement.
So glad to hear she is learning the house rules! I was just wondering about this the other week.
Thought I’d give a little update on Hell Kitten. She’s actually turned into a great, young cat. Friendly with people and curious with dogs & puppies. In fact she loves playing with the pup we tend a few times a month. She doesn’t get on the counters as much as she used to. However she started gnawing on the bottom louvres of the plantation shutters and was chewing sizable chunks off. I tried everything I could think of to deter her, but nothing worked. I’m desperation I took about a half cup of straight Tabasco sauce and literally basted it over the affected parts of the shutters. She hasn’t touched them since! Need to do some filling & touch up painting now.
Wanted to share some photos with you.
In the very top pic, she is hating being picked up by the adoption coordinator. Might have been my first clue…
We call the screen she’s sitting atop as Mt Everest, we knew it was only a matter of time before she conquered it.
When she’s climbing up the blinds, she’s almost to the ceiling! A few days later she made it.
And finally the dishwasher pics - while I was unloading clean dishes, she crawled up to the bottom shelf, made it to the back and climbed to the upper shelf. It was noisy unloading the DW, so I had no idea she was in
there & was surprised to see her! So…you might not want to have dinner at our house. 
She is beautiful! My hat is off to you - I don’t think I could handle the energy of a kitten. I was recently around my brothers 2 five year old cats. I’m so used to my senior cats that I found the antics of the 5yo’s astounding!
I had an issue once trying to roll the bottom shelf back into my dishwasher after emptying it out. I thought a utensil had dropped through the holes in the holder, and was blocking my ability to close the shelf.
Nope. It was one of my cats sitting in the back. I just broke out laughing and said “Get your butt outta there, Alfie!” and he jumped out, so no picture.
I do have one of him playing Circus Kitty in my bathroom when he was MUCH thinner. He can barely make the bathroom counter now. (And please ignore the popcorn ceiling and the gawdawful original tile that I still have to have glazed to get rid of the pattern.)
I’m calling the cat trainer version of Cesar Millan for you. Actually, do cat trainers even exist?
Jackson Galaxy, who trains “Cats From Hell” to not be so hellish. LOL (Actually, he’s also training the owners, just as Cesar Milan does.)
Awww, I love her! She is so cute, and she appears to have quite the personality.
@LindaWhit And Alfie is adorable too. I’m amazed by the athletic ability of your cat!
My Circus Cat, Jonah gave Alfie two paws up! Jonah says that if mom would quadruple his meds then he could do this once again!
Ohhhh, that ability was short-lived. A couple of his current nicknames are Fat Boy Slim Shady, Mr. Chubbalicious and Mr. Chunkamunka (after Hunca Munca from Beatrix Potter’s “The Tale of Two Bad Mice”). Let’s just say he’s on the WAY-freaking-more-than-pleasingly-plump side. 
Oops sorry for the double posted pics! My 1st time uploading…
