How to Get Your Cats to Stop... Everything You Hate: Every No Needs a Yes!

As someone who is educated in interior design I think it's important to include your pets as part of that. Your home should represent your family and your family is your cats, your pets. It would be sad to completely ignore that for trying to look like a staged Instagram picture.

Ahhh the sofa scratching... I would like to share what I did so maybe it will help somebody also. I was moving out and decided to buy a new sofa, more expensive one from my previous sofas but I was really afraid that it will get ruined right away by my two kitties. So before I got the sofa delivered to my new place, I bought one big sisal scratching post, two cardboard scratching beds of different shapes, a second cat tree (carpet and sisal) and put them in my living room / dinning rooming area where I hang out. When the sofa arrived, I covered it with blankets for a couple of weeks and I also put a small entryway carpet near it because I know that one of my cats likes scratching sisal and the other one likes carpet surfaces (I have hardwood floors with no carpets). For weeks, they scratched their stuff with no problem, then I started removing the blankets for the day and putting them back for night and I have noticed that they were NOT scratching the sofa anymore.... Now, the sofa is covered with only decorative throws, my cats keep scratching "their" furniture that is spread out across the apartment or still near the sofa and everybody is happy! I honestly can't believe that it worked.

I took on a new rescue cat who had been surrendered to the shelter because she was such a difficult cat to cope with. She's been wonderful, with just one issue: she scratches all my wooden furniture and within two days had caused a significant amount of damage to it. I watched a few of your videos, Jackson, and worked out a few things. 1) She is VERY motivated by food and 2) she is VERY keen to do the right thing, as she's so purring and happy when she gets things right and has positive attention. So I bought some double sided sticky plastic and wrapped it around all the furniture; and I got a few carpet samples from a local shop, and put one down next to every place she'd been scratching, and sprinkled them with catnip. Whenever she scratched the furniture I said, "No," as calmly as I could. Whenever she even approached the carpet squares I said, "Good scratching!" and gave her a little food treat. She stopped scratching the furniture in a few days and now sits on her carpet squares, scratches one or two time, then runs up to me for a treat. I can't believe how easy it's been to teach her the right thing. Thank you for your helpful videos, Jackson. They are so good.

Learning that cats have associative memories and respond to reward rather than punishment was the best thing that happened to me in terms of dealing with cats. I see people getting annoyed at cats and wonder if I ever looked like that. It does kind of amuse me, because people don't need to be so easily wound up. It's often remarked that I have a strong connection with cats, and it's because I have had a lot of patience with them

this man made my cat love me. I definitely appreciate him making this free knowledge

as someone who grew up with a mentally ill and reactive single parent, i had to unlearn a lot of behaviours myself and when i adopted Salem i found myself challenged in the beginning because i was so reactive and then have a lot of guilt and shame for yelling or scruffing an innocent animal. i made a promise to myself and salem that i would work on it and after just a few months i was able to approach redirecting behaviour more playfully and Salem was way more responsive and is way less anxious because i am no longer unpredictable :) thank you for your fountain of useful and easy to apply knowledge. Both Salem and I thank you for being a voice for cats <3

My four-year-old cat who I’ve had for 3 1/2 years… He’s never scratch the furniture in his life. Doesn’t scratch things he’s not supposed to doesn’t bite. Now when I first brought him home I had to teach him not to tear up the paper towels and the toilet paper… But that only took a day or two. He’s an amazing cat. And when it’s time to be fed… I only whisper to him… “Is it time?” And he immediately goes running to his food bowl. What a wonderful creature. People who have never had a pet, simply do not get it. And by the way, my cat drinks Fiji water.

Gotta love that last message about not having to feel guilty or bad for doing the big Nos if you're here to learn to do better ♥ Makes all the difference in the world!

I totally do the “LOOK AT ME” when my cat is doing something I perceive as being naughty, mostly because it cracks me up when she won’t look at me LOL

I tried all of the above when Norma wouldn't stop peeing & pooping on the couch, bed, etc. Found out she has lymphoma. After being on the right medications, she's a happy cat with no issues thus far.

My cat picked up yes and no!😁 if I tell him no and he wants to do it he'll say yes!!! If I tell him yes and he doesn't want to do it he says no!!!! My daughter heard him one day and was amazed!:_mojoCry:

I’ve been doing the “yes” method without the “no”. So I show my cat the scratch post and encourage them to scratch it instead when they’re scratching the couch. It stops them in the moment but doesn’t prevent them front going back to the couch moments later lol thanks for these !

Thank you Jackson. I have an incorrigible young cat that I am trying to discourage from getting on the counter tops...and even more important, running across the stove. I reviewed some videos and I had to really think about what was a "yes" for him. I discovered the bar stools. He can see the counters and windows from the bar stools. When he sits on the bar stools, I give him a verbal click and a treat. When he gets on the counter, I sternly say down and point to the bar stools. When he gets on them, he gets a click and a treat. I think we are making progress! 🤞🏻 We are starting clicker training as of today.

I tried deflecting the behavior. I was pet sitting a distant relative's cats. One of her young cats was scratching on the corner of the wall. She does this in several places around the house. I told her no and gave her a scratch pad. I even scratched on it like she does. She loves it. I think we will need a few more scratch pads, mats and posts to break her and her brother of this habit. At least walls and corners can be painted again.

11:50 My Trixie seems to be smart enough to realize that 1) the exciting red dot comes from the laser pointer and 2) she can't activate the laser pointer herself, but 3) if she annoys a human enough (by biting on computer cables, hovering in front of the screen, etc.), they will activate the laser pointer for her.

I’ve been a cat owner for 20 years, and when my final baby passed in September, I waited a couple of months to grieve before adopting two kittens last month, a handsome 5mo tuxedo boy (Finn) and a petite 3mo tortie girl (Josie). Josie is everything I’ve ever wanted in a cat. So far the only thing she’s done that has displeased me is pee in an empty box right in front of me, but I didn’t punish her for it, I just got another litter box, and as far as I can tell she’s not peed in or on anything else. Finn, however, is everything I didn’t want in a cat—extremely high-energy that my little girl can’t keep up with. He tires her out and once she can’t play anymore, it’s up to me. The problem is I’m not high-energy at all, so I can’t play with him very long without getting tired out too. He has climbed my blinds, my curtains, wakes me up “brushing” my hair with his claws, and he plays too rough. I’ve managed to curb some of these behaviors—a Ssscat can keeps him off things, a cat tree in my bedroom keeps him from climbing the blinds, yucky tasting tape on cords has kept him from chewing, and I have double-sided tape I’ve yet to apply to deter mild scratching (mostly he stretches on the furniture, doesn’t actively scratch). I am, however, ashamed to admit I’ve still yelled at him for doing “bad” things, and given him little leg smacks for squirming during harness training even though I know it just makes things worse. But when you said at the end of this video that we’re blameless for our own bad behavior up to this point, I actually started crying. I always feel so mean and so guilty when I lose patience with him, I’ve even considered returning him to the foster program because I was feeling overwhelmed and unfit for him, which also made me feel guilty and I’d cry for hours about it. He and Josie are very strongly bonded now, so the idea of separating them is heart wrenching. Anyway, point is, this video helped confirm I’m moving in the right direction with how I communicate “no”, and made me feel a little less horrible for my mistakes. Thank you. —signed Alisha, Finn, and Josie 🐾💕

You're a voice for animals, man. What's better than that? Thank you for sharing the fruits of your experiences, connections, and intuitions about cats.

I love the air spray cans. If used properly my kitties get used to eventually not getting on counters etc. But it's not really a small sound, ha, it's just enough to scare me into jumping whenever I accidentally set it off. 😅. They really do work. Now even I don't jump on the counters anymore😇😁

My cat at one point jumped at my face daily. He was being very rough. At that time, I tried everything (and didn't know about your videos), but he wouldn't stop. My last resort was the no-no spray bottle. But my cat thought it was a game. He wasn't afraid, the spray bottle seemed to encourage him. He's a bit dog-like anyway. Thankfully he grew out of the behavior in the end!

My cat is a door dasher. He was a stray so he likes the outside. I have found that if I pick him up and go outside with him for a minute so he can look around and listen for sounds for a minute he gets satisfied. Then, I put him back inside and close the door. Works every time and he has no chance to dash out. Gentle suggestions work, he understands "no" and it's always delivered in a calm way and he listens.