{"id":206,"date":"2014-11-02T23:34:33","date_gmt":"2014-11-02T23:34:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ailurophileuk.wordpress.com\/?p=206"},"modified":"2014-11-02T23:34:33","modified_gmt":"2014-11-02T23:34:33","slug":"punishing-cats-for-instinctual-behaviour","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/?p=206","title":{"rendered":"Punishing cats for instinctual behaviour"},"content":{"rendered":"

A lot of the time online, I see posts about people unhappy with a cats behaviour who are seeking out ways to punish them or informing people how well something they\u2019ve tried has worked.<\/p>\n

While I understand cats in our home need to coexist peacefully with us, I\u2019m troubled by behaviours cats are being punished for.<\/p>\n

The main three \u201cmisdemeanours\u201d seem to be scratching, hunting and toileting. (Either within the home, or in a neighbouring garden.)<\/p>\n

When cats scratch items of furniture, it\u2019s often due to three things; they have no actual scratch post available, the post provided is too small for the cat or the posts are in the wrong location. Scratching serves a couple of purposes to cats \u2013 it\u2019s the way they naturally remove their claw sheaths and it\u2019s also a way of marking their territory. The place a cat most often wants to mark is near entrances or exits in a home so that if there are any \u201cfeline intruders\u201d it\u2019s a clear signal they\u2019ve stumbled into a space that\u2019s already taken. A way to ensure your cat doesn\u2019t scratch items of furniture you don\u2019t want them to, is to send clear scent signals. Spraying catnip spray on the areas that it\u2019s desirable they use, and a product called Pet Behave Spray (Citrus spray is known to be commonly effective as a deterrent too) on areas that aren\u2019t means your cat can easily read the signs being given to them.<\/p>\n

Hunting is something that horrifies many cat owners; but is ironically why cats became domesticated to the level they are today. Farmers realised they were a useful asset for vermin control and an alliance was formed. Nowadays, a lot of people have multi pet households which sometimes consist of both feline and rodent family members. There are ways to reduce the stress levels for rodents and make them safer, there are also ways to ensure a cat associates an unpleasant effect from being too interested in the household rodents. The training technique that\u2019s most recommended is a water jet to the cats back end while they are actually \u201ccaught in the moment\u201d; so if they\u2019re actively tapping a cage. A cat will not recognise this behaviour as wrong; indeed, it isn\u2019t. It\u2019s an inherent instinct that has served them well and ensured they became integrated into human society. The purpose to the water jet is to ensure the cat feels less inclined to act on that instinct. However, if your cat has a strong prey drive most deterrents will prove pretty ineffective and you\u2019ll have to resort to safety precautions for your rodent instead of trying to teach the cat to ignore their nature. Hunting outdoor rodents and birds is equally distressing to some cat owners, but it\u2019s something that has to be faced; felines are predators, and will remain as such for some time. It\u2019s not purely about sustenance to them and it\u2019s something we should recognise and accept.<\/p>\n

Toileting is the final issue that is commonly classed as a problem. As with scratching, toileting is another multi-purpose activity to a cat and again, its territory related. \u00a0Urinating is common as a scent marker when cats are outdoors, especially with entire toms. Entire toms are also known to do something called maddening, which is leaving faeces uncovered as a clear signal to any cat wandering through their turf that the area is already occupied, so to speak. When cats are neutered they\u2019re more likely to bury any ablutions outdoors. However, if cats use litter trays and suddenly stop there can be a few reasons. One is the location of the litter tray is in a place the cat feels uncomfortable toileting. Cats can also have a preference to litter type and a change in the litter that is used successfully has been known to cause inappropriate toileting.\u00a0 Another issue can be that cats don\u2019t like doing their \u201cones and twos\u201d in the same tray. A simple solution to that is to get two trays. Finally, and most importantly, inappropriate toileting can be a sign there is something wrong with your cats physical health. Cats with issues such as water infections have been known to start toileting elsewhere as they associate the pain of urinating with the place they usually toilet, so they try toileting elsewhere in an attempt to go to the toilet pain free.\u00a0 An old theory was that \u201crubbing an animal\u2019s nose in their mess\u201d would actually ensure that they never toileted inappropriately again. This is not a method that is advised. Cats are smart, but they don\u2019t have the same thought process as humans. And when they toilet somewhere they shouldn\u2019t, a lot of the time there IS a reason to it that we need to recognise, read and react to accordingly.<\/p>\n

An interesting point; it\u2019s believed that cats process emotion with the same parts of the brain as a human. While that\u2019s true, it doesn\u2019t mean they THINK the same way. Feline behaviour s and instincts are entirely different and we need to recognise that to ensure a happy coexistence can be reached.<\/p>\n

\"Digital<\/a><\/p>\n

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Sage watching some of the rodent residents that shared our home<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A lot of the time online, I see posts about people unhappy with a cats behaviour who are seeking out ways to punish them or informing people how well something they\u2019ve tried has worked. While I understand cats in our…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=206"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/206\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=206"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=206"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ailurophile.co.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=206"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}