That beautiful bond you share with your feline truly enhances your life. They enrich lives even when they are not so perfect.
For example, cats can be food grabbers. It’s not necessary to put your cat in solitary confinement for swiping your food without putting him in solitary confinement whenever you snack, but you should modify this behavior. You strengthen her/his foodie activities by feeding her/him little scraps and by allowing her him sit on your lap as you eat. The result of giving kitty scraps from your plate is her/his swelling attempts at sharing your meals.
Rather than permitting your cat to plop down your lap while you eat, train her/him to consort to a more suitable place. Stools seem to work flawlessly for this. Via cat-clicker training a constructive reinforcement training method, your feline can learn to prefer the stool over your lap for the duration of meal times. When your feline leaps up on the stool, reward her/him with a click and a treat. After your cat discovers that she/he gets rewards for hanging out on the stool, educate her/him to hop up on the stool when you prompt her/him by tapping a pencil or pen on it. Next, train her/him to sit and remain on the stool when cued. Always buttress the desired behaviors with clicks and treats.
As well to giving her/him a fitting place to claim as her/his own during meal times, do not let your cat to sit on your lap while you eat. Make your lap an unpleasant place for her/him to go by putting objects on your lap or by sitting in such a way that kitty cannot jump up into your lap. This way, the mealtime lap lounging and food snatching is not reinforced, but sitting on the stool is. Be regularly encouraging him/her to sit on the stool while concurrently not allowing her/him in your lap while you eat, you stoop this undesirable behavior.. Do not give in and sporadically sneak her/him a snack from your plate, doing this will persuade her/him to increase her/his attempts of making your food his/her meal too.
Together with teaching your cat good mealtime manners, give your cat his/her meals at the same time you eat yours. Feeding kitty when you eat will keep her/him busy for a short time and should take the edge off her/his appetite; helping to decrease that overwhelming desire to pilfer your food.
