Teaching Your Cat Good Manners

People will tell you, if you ask them, that cats can’t and shouldn’t be trained, that they don’t show affection and any number of other tidbits of foolishness, but the reality is that any animal can be trained, and certainly should be.
I”ve been working with cats for well over five years and I’ve found that they are as trainable and as affectionate as any other animal, including humans, when worked with correctly

My own cats respond to down, and will remove themselves from whatever they’ve climbed up on, because I consistently tell them, when they got up, that single word command, and then went to wherever they were.. lifted them carefully and put them on the floor.
They began to associate the word down with being placed on the floor and now will do it themselves.
In much the same way as you train your puppy, by using the same one word commands in a repetitive way, and doing so consistently so that they know the rules don’t change from day to day.. you can teach your cat that down means get off the counter or table, that “no” means stop what you’re doing and find another toy besides my vase, or that “be good” means to you, no growling or slapping.
It hasn’t taken all that long of a time to accomplish, nor is it difficult to do, and having done it multiple times with multiple cats and never had a real failure I can assure you that its something that doesn’t take a master animal trainer to accomplish.
I”ve found that I don’t have a great deal of luck with the spray bottle, and I use it only when I”ve two cats in combat situations, not when I want to actively teach my cat to not get up on something or to behave in a certain way.
All the the spray bottle teaches your cat is that he’s going to get wet.. He associates it with something he isn’t supposed to do, yes, however what it does NOT teach him.. is what he IS supposed to do, and thats a necessary part of training for any animal.
A few tips,
As with your dog, use single word commands, don’t expect him to know what you said if you try to teach him with a paragraph..
SHOW him the behavior that you want. If you use the word DOWN, take him gently and set him on the floor.
If you use the word COME, then go and pick up the cat and offer him a treat and a cuddle. If this is his association with that word, he will come to you when you call
DO give your cat a name and USE IT. I have always disliked the whole “kitty kitty” foolishness. It doesn’t teach the animal that he has a name.. Each cat will determine his or her own name if you use to to them when holding them or feeding, and when you call that name, that cat will run from any corner of the house to respond to you.. Mine tend to hear their name in conversation and fly to whoever said it.. ‘They do learn to associate you with pleasant things and want to come when you speak to them.
DON’T hit your cat ever.. Not only does it teach them to be afraid of you, but the behaviors that you want will generallly come about because the cat geniuinely wants to please you.