Cat Discipline The Kind Way

Cat discipline; is there such a thing? Well yes there is, but it's not what you may traditionally think of as a punishment.

I know what it's like when confronted by what we as humans consider bad cat behaviour. With Little Mo our main problem is that she thinks that nighttime is the best time to run madly around the house and get us up to play with her and feed her all through the night, by meowing at us at the top of her voice. At first we did all the usual human responses to this behaviour. We told her to be quiet, we yelled at her to be quiet, we locked her in a separate room, we even used to try squirting water at her. All to no avail, she continued to meow and meow until we got up and gave her what she wanted. Of course this meant that we were forever tired and a good nights sleep was a thing of the past. That is until we discovered the secret to cat discipline, the kind and most effective way, the cats' way.

Positive and negative experiences

To understand how cat discipline works, we have to stop thinking like a human and start thinking like a cat.

In the human world, a punishment is:

• Being shouted at
• Being Hit
• Being sent to our rooms
• Being grounded
• Something taken away from us

All of which means nothing to a cat and can in fact be very detrimental to your relationship with your cat. The last thing you want to do is to frighten your cat and make them fearful of you. In some cases a cat may even decide that he no longer wants to live with you and will run away.

In the cat world a positive reward is:

• Being fed
• Being played with
• Being talked to
• Being noticed
• Petted

So a negative response is the opposite to those positive rewards. The only real way that cat discipline works in the long term is by not using those positive rewards when the cat behaves badly .

We must also realise that a cat can see what we perceive as a negative response as a positive one. For instance being shouted at means that you are paying them attention, this is good, after all they don't know what the words means and you are interacting with them. So the shouting is seen as a good thing to happen and so reinforces the behaviour, well that's how they will get that reaction from you again, isn't it.

Using the negative non reward and the positive rewards correctly

What I found the hardest thing to remember and to carry out was that we must always react exactly the same way every time a certain bad behaviour occurs. It's no good ignoring a cats meow one night, when the next we get up and feed them. All this will do is confuse the cat and make it even harder to stop the behaviour in the future.

So......Always reward good behaviour i.e.

• Make a fuss of them
• Give them a treat (not too often though; you don't want a fat kitty)
• Play with them

Always give a non-reward to bad behaviour i.e.

• Don't make a noise or talk to them (if you do they will see this as positive and not negative)
• Walk away from them
• Ignore them

This way the cat will start to associate each particular behaviour with either a negative or positive reward and they will always want the positive, which means they will eventually avoid the behaviours which gives them the negative response.

Examples of cat discipline

Cat Biting - If your cat decides that it is a good game to bite you (not much fun for you). You must:

• Don't yell out (difficult I know, but a must, as yelling is a positive reaction)
• Walk away from them immediately, if they follow keep walking away.
• Don't look at them.

To associate a positive reaction to a good non-biting game then every time you play with them and they don't bite, give them a little treat. Eventually the cat will soon realise which game is more fun and stop the biting.

Dead animal gifts - Your cat thinks it's good to bring dead animals home to you, you don't. However because this is a cat instinct, the best way to cure the problem is by using cat language.

When they bring you a dead animal - Make a hissing noise at your cat and spray some water at them, this is giving the cat a negative reaction.

To associate the opposite behaviour with a positive reaction, when they come home with out bringing you a squidgy mess:

• Give them lots of fuss and attention as soon as they come in.
• Give them a little food or play a game with them.

Because cats learn through repeated experiences, this is the best way to, lets not say punish but to correct certain cat behaviours, through positive and negative experiences. After all this is how their mother would have taught them by subjecting them to experiences over and over again until they learnt the behaviour (as in hunting etc) I know it can be hard sometimes but stick with it guys, cat discipline can be achieved.

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