Cat Information

How do I teach my 9 month old to pet the cat and not grab her fur ?

My poor cat is being grabbed and poked from every angle by my 9 month old daughter. I have tried to teach her how to pet the cat and say NO when she starts grabbing her tail. Do I wait until she is older and just try and keep the cat away? I dont want my cat to be afraid of my daughter as she grows.

Public Comments

1. you could try the ONE FINGER touch. have her touch them with only one finger. my friend tried it and it worked.
2. My entire family has at least 3 pets in each branch and we have 3 babies in the family right now so as soon as they start to crawl and want to go over and see what the furry thing on the floor is we teach them they need to be nice. So is what we do is when they start to grab at their fur or tails or ears we hold their wrist and help them pet the cat or dogs back and say "be nice to the ____. pet nice." and eventually they'll get it. It only took a couple weeks with each kid.
3. You cannot teach this (other than by example) at nine months. Kids don't get the concept of compassion that young. Yes, you could constantly encourage loving interaction, but your kiddo won't really understand it yet. Spare the cat the torture and keep them apart. When your child understands language, you can start teaching her how to interact with the cat. If you do not want the cat to be afraid of your daughter, just keep them apart for now. How can you expect your daughter to understand the difference between a cat and a stuffed toy? She cannot. She's just not there cognitively.
4. i would suggest mabye using good girl when she doesnt pull the cats fur, and when she does, i would say no, be nice to mr kitty then take her ahand and stroke the cat with it very softly, this way both baby and mr kitty benefit!
5. I started laughing so hard when I saw this question. Just the visual I got. I would try to just show her by demonstration or maybe take her hand and physically show her. She might get it over time.
6. I had this problem years ago when my kids were small, too. I think it's natural for babies to grab and make a fist... they did that to my hair, also. I used a stuffed animal and the cat -- i showed the baby how to pet the stuffed animal, and every time he did it nicely, i told him, "now pet the kitty".... it worked after a while. wait til she starts trying to hold the cat and drags it around LOL