Cat Training

Rip! Rip! Riiiip! Oh no, your cat is scratching the sofa again! Do you have this problem – kitty scratching and shredding your sofa, the legs of your expensive dining table, or your wall-to-wall carpet? Many people face this problem, and it frustrates them no end. Too many cat owners resort to scolding and punishment, and are frustrated and puzzled when it fails to do any good. Some owners confine kitty to a part of the house with less expensive furniture, or redecorate their home to remove cat scratching surfaces. A few buy scratching posts, and wonder why kitty still prefers that tattered sofa to the brand new expensive scratching posts. In the end, many people give up their cats, either throwing them out on the street to join the stray cat population, or surrender them to the animal shelter, where they will ultimately be put down.

The key problem is ignorance, not kitty. Too many cat owners are ignorant, and wilfully remain ignorant of why their cats scratch the furniture. They don’t know, don’t care and can’t be bothered to find out. Now, there are 5 reasons why cats scratch furniture:

• Claw maintenance – kitty is scratching to remove the dead outer layers of its claws


• Mark their territory – clawing and scratching your furniture leaves both a visual mark and a scent from the glands in their paws.


• Exercise – the motions involved in scratching stretch and tone their muscles.


• Too much energy


• To get your attention

As you can see from the list above, this is the reason that the usual deterrence measures do not work very well. For this reason, in many parts of the world, cat owners get their precious kitties declawed. Such a simple little word, yet it has such profound implications. Declawing your cat actually means that the vet is going to amputate the last joint of all kitty’s toes. Consider that the Japanese mafia’s infamous punishment for failure is chopping off the last joint of the little finger, and here you are chopping off the last joint of all of kitty’s toes. How horrible is that! Clearly, declawing is very traumatic and disfiguring to your cat. While it does resolve the scratching problem, it will actually cause potentially worse problems – spraying, urination, aggressive biting, etc.

As a cat lover, you need to learn how to use the scratching post correctly. Once again, we turn to animal behavioral science for help. You need to find out what kind of material your cat likes to scratch. The scratching post you buy needs to be of this material. You need to place the scratching post where kitty likes to scratch. And you need to patiently, lovingly and firmly redirect kitty’s scratching to the post. For this, you can use the usual reinforcement techniques. When your cat uses the scratching post, you reward it – praise kitty and give it a kitty treat.

Slowly, you will find this bad behavior of kitty fading away. You will no longer have to replace your sofa every few months. You can have tables with wooden legs again. Isn’t life so much better this way?

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Playtime with your cat can quickly become unpleasant if kitty starts biting you. Although biting and scratching is a normal part of cat behavior, a properly socialized cat knows how to control its strength. It does not usually bite or scratch to the point of drawing blood. There are several reasons why your cat can lack this self-control, and knowing why is the first step to controlling the problem.

When young kittens are taken away from their mothers too early, they fail to learn to control the strength of their biting and scratching. A kitten which spends enough time with its mother and litter mates quickly learns that biting its playmates too hard causes playtime to end. Kittens without this social skill, on the other hand, grow up into cats which bite and scratch too hard. Many owners tend to make this condition worse. When playing with their kitten or cat, they inadvertently do things which further encourage this behavior. These actions encourage and cement this behavior of biting and scratching in their cats.

This, then, is one key to controlling this playtime aggression. When kitty bites or scratches too hard, you should stop playing with it. Just ignore it – do not pay attention and do not punish your cat. Eventually, it will learn that biting and scratching too hard will lead to the end of playtime. Exactly the same as a young kitten with its mother and litter mates.

Now, sometimes it seems that both you and kitty are spending some quality time together. Both of you are having fun playing, when your cat suddenly becomes violent and bites and scratches you. There does not seem to be any reason for this sudden aggression. Some animal behaviorists believe that this happens because you have over-stimulated kitty and it is now channeling that into aggressive behavior. Regardless of the actual cause, there is agreement that there are two steps you need to take to handle this problem:

1. Be aware of your cat’s behavior during playtime. Before it starts to bite and scratch you, there will be a change of behavior – ears flattening, fur standing up, body hunching, etc. This is your window.


2. Stop petting or playing with kitty when you notice the change in behavior. Just stop – ignore your cat and go about your own business. This will usually defuse your cat’s aggression.


3. Note that this is a bit different from a kitten taken away from its mother while too young. An under-socialized kitten always bites and scratches too hard during playtime.

Cats are hunters. This is their natural instinct, and you will often see these characteristics when you play with kitty. You will see them hunched down to their belly, stalking their toy or a mouse or cockroach before pouncing on it. This can be a problem when they decide to ambush you when you are doing your chores, or just as you are going to bed. Your cat biting when under the control of its hunting instinct can be particularly painful. One way of controlling this problem is to have at least two or three regularly scheduled playtimes with kitty. You want to bleed off its excess energy regularly.

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Does your cat attack your other pets? Does it attack the new cat you brought home? Or does it fight with your pet dog? Animal behaviorists have different names for each of these behaviors. When kitty attacks your pet mouse, or the bird in the garden, it’s called predatory aggression. It is just following its natural instinct to hunt for prey. Unfortunately, it is difficult to stop this kind of behavior. The best you can do is put a collar with a bell on your cat. This will keep it from sneaking up on its prey. You should also keep your other smaller pets (like your pet hamster) away from your cat.

Fear aggression is yet another instinctive behavior. How do you recognize when kitty is frightened? It hisses, bares its teeth, and crouches low with its tail and legs tucked under its body. It flattens its ears against the head, the pupils dilate, and the fur stands on end. To the person triggering this reaction, it almost seems as if your cat has doubled in size. Just the same as a puffer fish doubling its size to frighten its enemies away. Push kitty any further and it may attack.

• So, what can you do? For a start, you should not try to pet or console your cat when it displays this frightened yet aggressive behavior. Petting your cat in this situation not only could get you hurt, it reinforces in kitty that this behavior is okay. You do not want this to happen. Even though it seems uncaring, it is better to ignore kitty in this mood.
• Where possible, you want to gradually desensitize kitty towards this trigger. Treat it like a phobia in a human being. Expose kitty to the fear trigger a safe distance away for short periods of time, and reward it with treats when it does not show aggressive behavior. Once it gets used to the trigger at a certain distance, gradually decrease the distance. Eventually, like a human being, your cat will stop being afraid.

The other kind of aggression which causes kitty to attack other animals is called territorial aggression. This mean that kitty will chase or fight with the new cat which you bring home. It is trying to protect its territory. If this happens, you will need to take their introduction to each other slowly.

• First, you need to confine both of them to their own quarters. Let them hear and smell each other, but do not allow any physical contact.
• Once they get used to each other like this, switch their quarters. Let kitty investigate the newcomer’s smell, and let the newcomer investigate kitty’s smell and its new home.
• After this, place them in the same room, but at opposite ends of the room. Let them eat, in order to condition them to associate food with each other’s presence.
• Slowly bring then closer to each other.
• Finally, free them from their carriers and feed them, while making sure they cannot attack each other.
• If they eat their food and remain calm at this stage, then you are successful. Be warned that this could take weeks and even months.

In the end, there is no single way of keeping your cat from attacking another animal. You need to be patient and use a complete process.

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