Divert rambunctious pet with cat trees, boxes

We love our calico cat, but she is a problem child. She runs all over the house from room to room, sliding over rugs and up and down furniture. She loves to play, but is always climbing on something she shouldn’t, including window screens, the kitchen counter and window sills. We have tried scolding and spraying with water, but neither works. Does anyone obedience-train cats?

Cats have no idea of right and wrong behavior. Spraying the cat with water just reinforces the cat’s idea of how ridiculous and random humans’ actions are.

You have to get the cat a couple of those big cat trees that have shelves and tunnels on them and put them in her favorite rooms. Make the cat tree even more attractive by rubbing catnip all over it. This is more fun for her to play on than your couch.

Another thing to try: Get a big cardboard box, tape the top closed and cut a few holes in the sides so she can crawl in the holes and explore the inside of the box. Something like this can keep her busy for a long time and tire her out, diverting her attention away from the household objects that she is knocking over.

To keep her from jumping on the kitchen counters, put a few strips of double-sided tape on them so when she does jump on the counter she will feel the sticky tape touching her paws and decide for herself that this is not a nice place to be. If she likes to jump on the windowsills, get a couple of those cat window seats and install them in front of her favorite windows so she can lay there and look out the window as long as she wants and thus leave the curtains alone.