Kitten Training - What Do You Need to Teach Your New Pet?

By Annie Clark

If you are the proud owner of a new kitten, you may be thinking about all of the fun that you will have with your pet. Along with playtime, you will need to teach your kitty acceptable behavior. Cats, like other animals, are easiest to train while young, so you should immediately begin training when you bring your new pet home. The following list includes the main areas to cover in your kitten training.

What items can be played with
Cats enjoy batting at objects, but you probably don't want him or her batting at your prized breakables. The best strategy is to keep these items in a locked, glass case. Otherwise, you will have to teach the animal that certain shelves and furniture items are off limits. Encourage your feline to bat at toys, feathers, and other acceptable targets.

Litter Box Training
This is a key task. You do not want your new pet to use your flooring as a bathroom. Make sure your animal has easy access to a litter box at all times. Luckily, many felines train themselves to use the litter box since they are clean by nature.

Where to Scratch
Scratching is natural kitty behavior. While a kitten's tiny claws may not do much damage, rest assured that an untrained adult cat will. Offer scratching posts and other devices that your pet can use and immediately redirect him or her to the scratching toy if you see scratching occurring in inappropriate places.

Areas that Are Off Limits
Cats like to climb which often leads them into trouble. You will probably want to keep kitty off of your kitchen table, counters and window coverings. Decide before bringing your pet home which places will be off limits so you can begin training immediately.

Socialization
Your new kitten may not have been exposed much to people, kids or other animals. You will need to teach him or her good kitty manners to reduce the chance of someone or another pet being hurt.

By addressing the areas mentioned above, you should have a good start on kitten training and eventually have a well-behaved adult cat.

Are you having difficulty teaching your kitty to behave properly? Visit kitten training to find out cat training secrets. More cat behavior articles are available at http://www.felineinfo.com/cat-behavior-articles.shtml