Training my kitten

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I want her to:
stop jumping on the dinner table.
stop jumping on shelves and knocking things over
stop nipping at my hand if I am typing on the keyboard, because she thinks I am dangling a toy in front of her
stop running out of my apartment door as soon as I open it
sleep on her bed instead of my bed.

Things that work are blowing in her face or yelling ouch or no when she is trying to play with my hand. I also shout for her to get down when she is on the shelves or tables, but she runs and hides like she is scared of me. I don't want her to fear me.
I have had her for a week now. She's 5 months old. I would like my bed back at night and to eat dinner without her sticking her nose in my plate. She's really cute but she also licks her anus.

Anyone with experience?

I tried to teach my cat to play WoW once I sprayed cat nip on my keyboard and bound the keys to different spells.

It worked for a while he could actually kill a couple of things if he managed to get to them.

What kind of personality does your cat have because knowing how it thinks makes it much easier to teach it.

WoW? Umm.... that's ummm.... unique.

She's very playful and very affectionate. Her favorite place to sleep is anywhere she is touching an arm, a leg, or right on top of me sharing my pillow. Very cute in the short term but we'd both get better sleep in our own beds. When I get home she rubs all over my feet and barely lets me walk.

Her favorite game now is chasing a faux fishing pole with felt fish on the end. Maybe one day I'll see how she likes Wow.

I wouldn't really suggest it lol. I only tried it because I was super bored one day.

That sounds nice that she shows her love that much. My cat J!nx is a real loner, haven't heard him purr since he was a kitten.

Like you said blowing in her face seems to be working maybe after a while she'll learn not to do it.

kayef....i will guess this is the first cat you've lived with. what you describe is normal for a young kitten. i hope you will try to keep her from getting outside. the normal lifespan for a well cared for inside cat is 15+ years. over 20 is not that unusual. the average lifespan for cats that live outdoors is about 3.

been around 10,000 or so cats in the last 15 years. i would guess that 99.9% lick their butts. they groom. cats like to be clean. it's nature.

From my experience, yelling at my cat and putting her outside for it really taught her to stay off. Cats also respond to tone of voice.

With pets, when you want them to stay off furniture, you have to keep kicking them off the furniture and saying "get off" in a angry voice. Same as if they keep messing with something, you have to keep stopping them and yell at them for it by saying "No." But sadly it's impossible to teach them sometimes. I could never get one of our cats to stop climbing on the screens no matter how many times we yelled at her to get down. She keep on doing it again in the future and my first cat developed bad habits as an adult and I could never get her to stop such as jumping on my night stand, poking her claws in my bed, not using her litter box. She stopped of course even though I cleaned it but my dad finally told me she was going senile and that explained it. She was probably starting to lose her mind and couldn't remember to use her litter box so she went elsewhere. I came to a point in my life where I kept her outside often because she piss on the floors in m house if I kept her inside for too long ignoring the litter box. She even stopped burying her poop in there and she started to miss the box when she use it. So her bad habits she developed may have been due to her aging and she was regressing back to a kitten. But she still didn't act the same way she did when she was one like playing with string or chasing after balls or playing with mice before eating them or biting my hand for fun or even chewing on stuff. Then she finally passed away in 2008 at age 13. First her mind started to go and then her body got weaker when she was 12. I think her senile started when she was nine maybe. That's when I started to notice the changes in her and it got worse and worse. Then one day she jumped on m lap with her claws out and poked me and I got mad at her for it. She was 11 then. She had never done that before. Maybe her poking the claws in my bed or jumping on my night stand was a way to get my attention to let her out of my room because she knew it was my pet peeve and she only did it when she wanted out and she was a smart cat then, she knew she wasn't supposed to do those things. I think cats and dogs can figure out what bugs their owners so the do them to get their attention. My cat sure did.

But unfortunately it's harder to train an adult cat because they are in those bad habits and it's hard to change them. It's easier to train them as kittens though. It's the same with dogs. Never let your kitten do things you wouldn't want them doing as an adult. A kitten is a good time to train them how to act. That's why lot of people want puppies and kittens when they adopt or get a new pet. They want a pet they can break, not want a pet that is full grown and been screwed up by their previous owners they have horrible habits they were never taught as puppies and kittens.

I think cats also have their own personalities so it be hard to change parts of them if it's part of their personality.

Spray water and a stern voice tends to work for most intelligent creatures. Maybe even on children, not sure though.

Thanks for all of the replies.

I have heard of all these techniques, even the water spraying. My issue is that I don't want to change her personality. I love how playful and affectionate she is. I don't want to do anything that is going to make her feel unsafe and not approach me. Only a few behaviors need to be changed.

This is my first cat because I am slightly allergic, used to have more serious reactions but now all I do is sneeze with an occasional runny nose. A small price to rescue a very lovable companion from being "put down". I know cat groom themselves even their anus. I just don't want her licking my plate since cats mouths are so full of bacteria.

reading the things that have been written here makes me want to cry. KAYEF...please do not listen to anything league girl has written. what she does is exactly the wrong thing to do. it is obvious she never took her cats to see a veterinarian. you know, a doctor for animals. the no. 1 reason cats stop using the litter box is a urinary tract infection. it is very painful. very easy to cure....IF YOU TAKE THE CAT TO A VETERINARIAN. i certainly hope league girl does not have any companion animals now. it's a shame humans do not have to take an intelligence test before owning an animal.

KAYEF...you have taken your kitten to a veterinarian, haven't you? if you haven't, it's important that you do. if you don't want to believe i'm telling you the truth, the vet will answer your questions.

LEAGUE GIRL.....i wish i knew your name and address so i could call animal control in the city you live to report you for animal abuse.

Kittens will be kittens, and basically you need to be patient, and wait for him/her to mature. If you're in an apt., it's harder than if you have a house with an extra room. We have a "cat room", which has a litter box, water & food, cat tree, etc. And no furniture that can be clawed or damaged, and no carpeting. My wife lets them out & around the house, but if they start getting too wild, they go back in their room for awhile. If you aren't in a place where you can do that, I'd recommend removing anything from their reach that could hurt them, and POSITIVELY have NO candles lit! They will knock the candle down and start a fire. Be sure to have a large cat tree, and put catnip on it if they don't seem to want to play on it. Once they get accustomed to scratching and climbing on their cat tree, they should stop attacking other upholstered furniture, etc. But again, kittens are kittens, and they will misbehave until they're about 2 years old. Also keep plenty of cat toys around, and if they start messing with something they're not supposed to, put a cat toy in front of them and get their attention refocused.

My experience is that you can't really "train" a kitten, other than to be very punctual with feeding times, and make the kitten know that he/she will be fed every day at the same times, without fail. That prevents roaming and running away, and if they do get out, they'll most probably come right home at meal time. The other good thing about kittens, is that it's VERY VERY rare that they'll have an accident on the floor, in stead of going outside (or using a litter box). If they do have accidents, that can mean a health problem that the vet needs to look into.

Charles

Cats like heights - they have those scratching posts that are pretty tall - if you get one of those and coat it with catnip, it might go for that instead of the furniture. Also, keeping anything out of kitty's reach is essential - to a cat - things are either food or toys or both.
I leash-trained my cat, he still tries to get out the door sometimes, but he associates the leash with going outside and asks for/demands walks instead - don't think it works with every cat.
I tried the water spray with my cat - didn't work at all - he thought I was playing with him.

Cats aren't pack animals, so they can't really be trained in the same way as a dog can. If you yell at a cat when they do something you dislike, or spray them with water or whatever, they will associate YOU with the negative effect rather than associating it as a consequence of their behaviour.

I think kittens often naturally grow out of some of the behaviour you've described, though.

I never had discipline problems with my cat. He must have been a very good cat or something...

If they try and jump up somewhere they shouldnt i would just lift him off and tell him not to. But in many cases I would shut him in another room while i was feeding him as he would get under my feet and trip me up.... barriers are really the only things that work with cats... that and trying to fulfil their needs in other ways, ie toys, nice beds, catnip, scratching posts.

For the nipping of the hand, tap the kitten's nose very lightly and say, "No!"

What CR said. Only gentle stuff. They are loving and gentle when we are the same with them. You sound like a wonderful parent to a new kitty and I'm very grateful too, for your new kitty. I hope it might be okay if kitty can sleep with you too, but of course that's always a matter of preference and of course allergies, too.

Thanks once again.

I spent all of last night and most of the afternoon today taking her off my bed and putting her in her bed. Waking up every few minutes or so. I can't say I blame her because my bed is really comfortable. She started to react negatively though I did it as gently as possible. I give up. When I get a larger apartment I'll just make sure to close my bedroom door, but for now I guess I won't sleep alone. Not a bad thing though. She seems to be sleeping at the foot (on my foot) most times anyway

I will focus on keeping her off the dinner table and from knocking things off shelves. Those interventions are going better than trying to keep her off the bed.

Don't worry danandlouie. She was very thoroughly checked out before being adopted and we will go to to vet next month to get her checked out again and tested for feline aids. My cat doesn't have any problem with urinating/defecating outside of the litter box by the way.

I wanted to upload a picture of her. I don't know how.