Best Way To Discipline?

[MysticalVamp]

So I've hit a speed bump in the discipline form...

Tiger can be quite the naughty cat when he chooses to, the problem is some of his naughty behaviour is stuff that needs to be stopped immediately or, in his mind, he gets away with it.

For example- Stealing food off plates.
Only the other night me and my fiancé were eating our tea, and Tiger stole some meat off my fiancé's plate.
Obviously the usual forms of discipline- Ignoring, no touching, no petting, etc.... They would not work with food stealing. Because ignoring the cat would simply lead to him eating the food he stole, therefore he has got away with it and knows he can get away with it.
So my current form of discipline when this happens(not very commonly but he can be sneaky!) is to get up, take the food away and throw it in the bin. He loses his reward but he still gets ignored, minus the initial interaction of taking the food away.
This doesn't seem to stop him from repeating the behaviour though, so I don't feel it has been a good discipline since it has been happening for nearly 4 years now.

Is there anything better I can do other than removing the reward and then ignoring him to stop these types of behaviours? Because it doesn't seem to work either way...

[Grace56]

Hi there, Mystical vamp.
Here is a site which may help you. It gives a lot of good advice on how to teach your cat not to steal food.
According to them, its all to do with the hunting instinct.
Good luck.

http://www.pet-happy.com/how-to-stop-yo ... ling-food/

[Crewella]

We have so many ex-strays that are master cat burglars (yes Daz, I mean you!)that we've had to enforce firm rules. In his first year Daz ate the meat off our pepperoni pizza, stole several sausages from neighbours' barbeques (and one out of the frying pan when OH turned his back), broke into the cat food cupboard several times and ripped into the dry food bags and managed to haul an entire chicken carcass out of the stock pot!

The main thing is not to give them the opportunity - we now keep food locked away and never leave it out where the cats can get at it. Cats are not allowed up on counters, either. If any transgress, a firm "NO" and they get smartly put back down or moved away. And never, ever, feed them food off your plate - all food in this house is given in the cat's own bowl (half of them are on medication or special diets so they're not allowed to eat each other's either and I pick up any uneaten).

All mine have learned that our food is nothing to do with them and will now even be asleep on the sofa next to us whilst we eat and not bother us.

The most important thing is consistency, don't ever give in or you undo about two weeks worth of doing it right!

[MysticalVamp]

We have so many ex-strays that are master cat burglars (yes Daz, I mean you!)that we've had to enforce firm rules. In his first year Daz ate the meat off our pepperoni pizza, stole several sausages from neighbours' barbeques (and one out of the frying pan when OH turned his back), broke into the cat food cupboard several times and ripped into the dry food bags and managed to haul an entire chicken carcass out of the stock pot!

The main thing is not to give them the opportunity - we now keep food locked away and never leave it out where the cats can get at it. Cats are not allowed up on counters, either. If any transgress, a firm "NO" and they get smartly put back down or moved away. And never, ever, feed them food off your plate - all food in this house is given in the cat's own bowl (half of them are on medication or special diets so they're not allowed to eat each other's either and I pick up any uneaten).

All mine have learned that our food is nothing to do with them and will now even be asleep on the sofa next to us whilst we eat and not bother us.

The most important thing is consistency, don't ever give in or you undo about two weeks worth of doing it right!

They don't steal food off the sides, in fact Sox doesn't steal at all. They get all food given to them in their bowls, never off plates.
I don't know where Tiger learnt that he can take food off the plates, but he has and now he seems determined to keep it that way.

There are times when Tiger seems to show some improvement and he'll quite happily ignore us while we eat. Other times he feigns disinterest and comes up out of nowhere, grabs the food off the plate(while we're eating!) and runs off with it. Usually followed by me doing as I said in my first post, getting up and removing his "reward" then ignoring him.

It's not that he steals food while it's left alone, he doesn't get the chance as food is never left alone where he can get it. It's that he steals food right off our plates as we're eating. He's sneaky, and fast. He can go from sleeping to stealing food in seconds..

Grace56: I'll have a read of that website, thank you

[Crewella]

Little tyke!!

I'm afraid you'll have to watch him like a hawk, or even shut him out of the room if he tries.

[MysticalVamp]

Little tyke!!

I'm afraid you'll have to watch him like a hawk, or even shut him out of the room if he tries.

I thought it might have to come to that. Well, if that's what it takes then that's what will have to happen.

[Crewella]

What you want, if you can get there, is for you to be able to spot him about to transgress and a firm 'NO' to stop him doing it .... whatever it is!

Good luck.

[MysticalVamp]

What you want, if you can get there, is for you to be able to spot him about to transgress and a firm 'NO' to stop him doing it .... whatever it is!

Good luck.

That's easier said than done a lot of the time

He fails to give warning most of the time, very occasionally we can catch him and tell him no but the rest of the time he literally goes from "sleeping" to stealing.