Way of Cats blog Rotating Header Image

Do cats understand consequences?

Aug 24th, 2010
by WereBear.
4 comments

Cats understand consequences very well indeed. Every action they perform is with a goal in mind, whether they know that ahead of time, or only afterward.

But people who ask me this are not discussing cat cognitive states, or neurophysiology, or non-human philosophy. What they are really asking is:

Why do cats seem to get in trouble on purpose?

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

This question usually comes up in the context of their cat doing something, and the person has tried over and over and over, in many various ways, to make them stop doing that. Only the cat has not stopped doing that. These people want to know why the cat will keep doing that when they know they will get punished, or yelled at, or otherwise reap some unwanted side effect from doing that.

They aren’t thinking about the bad consequences at the time. When a cat is chasing after a bug which has gotten into the house, the bug inevitably goes to a light bulb and circles it. It is not inevitable for the cat to go for the bug through the lampshade; but that is often how it seems.

My cats have learned not to do that because when they are kittens, and not certain what will happen when they stick their heads in the lampshades, I’m right there to tell them this is a Bad Thing. So when the impulse to go after the bug appears, they have a readily available counter-impulse that helps them remember.

But if we think the kitten is cute when they are too small to knock over the lamp, by the time they are big enough to knock over the lamp, it’s not just an impulse; it’s a reflex. They aren’t pausing now.

They don’t understand what we are saying. We think walking in and seeing them playing with our feather portrait of Aunt Helen and yelling and chasing them away should keep them away from that thing. Why doesn’t it?

Well, why should it?

There’s times when they are playing with our feather portrait of Aunt Helen and it’s great! What we might get out of such a strategy is them running away when they hear us coming. But that’s not a very good outcome, either.

They can’t help it. If their litter box isn’t clean or is in a treacherous place, all the yelling in the world can’t over-ride their instincts which tell them, To stay alive, put your byproducts in a new place, or You can’t relax here, someone might get you.

We might have poor communication with our cat, but they shouldn’t be in fear of their life. And their instincts use a fear for their life to motivate them to do what they do. It’s simply no contest.

So what looks like cat defiance or indifference is usually poor training on the part of the human, and puzzlement on the part of the cat. Because when we have both good communication, and a good relationship, the only times our cats do something is when it is on purpose.

There are times when our cats deliberately push the envelope of what is acceptable. We have a foldable bed table for Dear Husband when he’s really tired and needs to eat in bed. When placed on a nearby shelf, it’s a tempting lookout point that we’ve taught the cats to stay away from.

But the other night, we had left a pizza box on it when we put it on that shelf; and we came back to find Olwyn sprawled on the box. And what could we do? She doesn’t get on the bed table; and, in fact, she wasn’t on the bed table. She was on the pizza box.

And she knew it.

    Got here from a Link or Search?
    There’s more ways to understand our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on WHY CATS DO THAT.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in: intelligence.
Tagged: ·

Cats are easy. Honest.

Aug 22nd, 2010
by WereBear.
2 comments

I recently watched an episode of It’s Me or the Dog, a British show about dog training. The parents were neglecting their teenage son in order to dote on two giant, mixed breed, uncontrollable dogs. They had to be driven to a fenced field and “walked” there because the couple could not walk them down the street, and the family had recently moved because the dogs had terrorized their previous neighborhood.

The dreadful irony is that these dogs were not enjoying being spoiled. They were actually fearful and apprehensive all the time; because their people were not the calm “Leaders of the Pack” dogs need. So their frantic and aggressive behavior was from their attempts to control and make sense of their world. Since it wasn’t their world, this attempt was doomed to failure.

The forthright British lady got the whole family back on track, and it was nice to see these former ruffians wagging their tails and acting far more calmly. (Though I confess to helpless laughter early in the episode, when one rowdy dog flung the person who was walking him into the electric fence which kept them contained.) The point being that this family leaned, very hard, towards spoiling their pets.

And so, they should not have gotten dogs. They should have gotten a bunch of cats, instead.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Dogs have a built-in Catch 22 which can surprise, and trap, dog fans. Dogs are so easy to make visibly happy, so quick to fawn over us, so eager to capture our attention and adoration, that many dog people can’t help but respond in kind. There’s the problem.

Some dogs are big puddings of play and cuddles. These kinds of dogs are truly happy on the bottom rung of dominance. When we boss them around, they are eager to comply; when we don’t, they are just as happy. They only want to be everyone’s friend.

But many, many dogs are not like this. In fact, I’d say most dogs are not like this. Big or don’t-know-they’re-small, mixed or purebred, a lot of dogs have strong Will to Power in their blood. It doesn’t mean they have to be the Leader of the Pack; it does mean they are susceptible to being told that they are. Which is what most dog lovers do.

All dogs act loving with subservience, because they need a leader. But if we turn around and love them in the same way, this sends them the wrong signal. We think we are saying I love you. They think we’re saying You are Pack Leader.

Then they try to be one. They boss the rest of the family, they are not amenable to discipline, they are aggressive and stubborn. We get angry, we get assertive, we become Pack Leader… and they obey. Then we melt, and switch our signals.

And the sad cycle starts all over again. Some dogs shrug and live in the moment. But some dogs become confused and insecure. The more confused and insecure the dog was in the first place, the more uncertain and nervous this kind of dog becomes over time.

Sadly, many rescue dogs long for a Strong Leader who will reassure them that bad things won’t happen again, yet get adopted by the kind of marshmallow-hearted folks who, in attempts to reassure, give exactly the opposite signal. Thus, many people won’t adopt “someone else’s problem” from a shelter; and they tell me this while their purebred is barking their head off and lunging at the end of the leash.

This is merely one aspect of dogs people get wrong without even trying. They get one dog when two would keep their sofas safer, they choose a high intensity purebred when a mellow mix would suit their lifestyle better, and last but far from least, there’s housebreaking; the Internet and bookstores are full of ways to help dog fans get this most basic need covered.

People tell me over and over, with a straight face, that they want a dog because dogs are “easier.” What they mean is, it’s easier for them to love a dog, than a cat. They’re not thinking of anything else.

And they should. Because true animal lovers need to know something very Pet Important:

Cats cannot be spoiled by being spoiled.

I know someone who adores her lab mix, and has many family members with dogs. She was astonished when I explained my training procedure for new kittens: Here’s the litter, here’s the food, here you go.

Of course, having other cats would mean introducing them properly, our home might need some kitten-proofing, and we do need to train our kitten as they grow. But when we consider the perfect storm of a new puppy; the pooing and the weeing and the chewing and the barking and the gnawing of hands and the yanking of leashes and the jumping up and the dragging off…

Kittens look pretty darn easy.

    For more on this subject, see all my posts on Cat vs Dog.

    Got here from a Link or Search?
    There’s more ways to get our cat to be affectionate in The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my CAT AFFECTION posts.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in: motivation.
Tagged: · ·

The Paranoid Cat: Support

Aug 20th, 2010
by WereBear.
No comments yet

It doesn’t matter how our cat became paranoid; they have a tendency to be born that way. What matters is what we can do about it.

Lack of support is the real pivot between a cat getting on with their life… or not. Obviously, an upsetting incident where the cat winds up on the street or in a shelter will linger, longer, than an equally upsetting incident where the cat can return to a good home.

But no matter what happened, or when, we can get our cat to trust again.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Unfortunately, our efforts to “make friends” with this kind of cat can be the very thing that is keeping them suspicious. Check to see if we are making these kinds of mistakes:

Asking the cat to conform to our timetable. We can get impatient with this kind of cat; haven’t they observed us long enough to know we are trustworthy?

In a word, no. Obviously, it hasn’t been enough time, or the cat would think so too.

If they don’t have a lot of experience trusting people, they don’t know how much time is enough. So instead of trying to push them into things, speed up their timetable naturally by doing nice things more often, or more slowly, or more verbally.

Cats who haven’t gotten enough input yet need more input. So, give them some.

Asking the cat to accept our criteria. We keep the food and water coming. Isn’t that nice? Won’t the cat think nice things about us?

We have to remember that this cat would have gotten food and water in the past, or they wouldn’t be here at all. If the mere presence of such care is not thrilling the cat, maybe we need to show that providing it to them, thrills us.

RJ had spend weeks in the shelter by the time he got to us, being fed and having his litter cleaned. But the experience of having a whole room, apparently devoted to his bowl of food and his big roomy litterbox, was so exciting he raced around like a happy maniac. We made big fusses about giving these things to him; and he made a big fuss back.

Asking the cat to miss us before they have a reason to. Often, people mistakenly think showing the cat that they are hurting our feelings will reach the cat’s heart. This works great; once we have the relationship.

Before that, all the cat knows is that we throw tantrums unpredictably. Then the cat thinks, Better stay away.

How we show that our feelings are hurt is crucial to the cat understanding it. Big noisy displays of ill temper just make us look deranged; cat feelings are expressed with subtlety, and that is what they are looking for.

Droopy body language, sad tones in our voice, and quiet, slow movements convey sadness to our cat; and if they make any kind of recognition or acknowledgment, a swift transition to happy, soft, tones, and an expression of alertness will convey our interest to such a cat without frightening them.

From across the room, I can provoke James Bond to come and sit in my lap with only facial expressions. I stare at him with sadness, (pouting helps us form our face properly.) Then, if he notices, I brighten up with wide open eyes and a goofy, half-open mouth. Then I relax my face and send him the slow blinks of I love you.

I’m saying the right things.

This is how he hears the right things.

    For cats who have become fear-aggressive, see Curing the Aggressive Cat.

    Got here from a Link or Search?
    There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in: affection moves.
Tagged: ·

The Paranoid Cat: Environment

Aug 19th, 2010
by WereBear.
No comments yet

Most cats have a certain amount of paranoia. Caution and suspicion kept them alive in the wild.

In our homes, cats with more than the usual helping of these traits will need the proper environment so they can relax and be themselves.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

The worst thing we can do for our paranoid cat is give them an environment with a lot of ambiguity. Cats like these have to know where they stand. Here’s what they can’t handle:

Worrying about possible past abuse is a sign this cat has touched the sweet side of our heart. But we can’t let this influence the way we treat our cat.

Many people think their cat’s nervous and insecure reactions came from a hostile environment trigger. They think their cat’s state of mind came from abuse. But that’s not necessarily so.

Reverend Jim was the most severe case of neglect I’ve personally handled, requiring months of mental rehabilitation and still showing a few deficits here and there; but he arrived sweet and trusting and nestled in my lap the first chance he got.

It’s not so much what happened. It’s how the cat reacted to it.

So if we project too much worry and sadness over what we think might have happened to our cat, we are not sending the soothing signals that all is well, now.

An unpredictable schedule will prevent them from latching onto the security of their care arriving at predictable intervals. It doesn’t have to arrive on the dot, but instances of empty bowls or dirty litter make a paranoid cat fret and feel stress far more than the average cat.

This often comes up when a previous cat “didn’t mind it.” Well, this one does.

Often, I get asked about cats who are “fussy” about their food and litter. It can turn out they aren’t fussy as much as their people, aren’t. Changing to be fussy ourselves can often defuse the cat’s reaction.

Then they actually become more accommodating and trusting.

Dealing with constant new input will wear out a cat’s energies. In fact, recent research shows that willpower, or self-control, is like a muscle. It gets stronger with use; and gets more tired, too.

Psychologists have discovered that self-control is an exhaustible resource. And I don’t mean self-control only in the sense of turning down cookies or alcohol, I mean a broader sense of self-supervision—any time you’re paying close attention to your actions, like when you’re having a tough conversation or trying to stay focused on a paper you’re writing. Why Change is So Hard

So when we keep our cats on their toes with a bunch of new things for them to think about, some cats thrive on figuring it out. But paranoid cats don’t like dealing with suspicious items; and for them, all new items are suspicious items.

So, at least at first, we can best care for our paranoid cat by not going to any extremes. Their world needs to be calm and quiet and comforting.

Then we can find refuge there, too.

    If our cat needs help with confidence, see my post, Calming the Scaredy Cat.

    Got here from a Link or Search?
    There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in: socialization.
Tagged: ·

The Paranoid Cat: Disposition

Aug 17th, 2010
by WereBear.
No comments yet

In some ways, a cat’s natural state is paranoia. Cats survived, alone, by being alert, suspicious, and over-sensitive.

This was once a survival trait. Now, it’s the opposite.

funny pictures of cats with captions
see more Lolcats and funny pictures

James Bond illustrates the vital difference a paranoid personality can make in a modern pet situation.

He was one of a litter of four, but he was the only one to react badly to being taken away from their mother, taped into a cardboard box, and left on the doorstep of a pet store. The other three kittens found homes quickly. He remained, plastered into the corner of the cage with his eyes the size of silver dollars, too frightened to cuddle. With very poor prospects.

I took him out and held him while plying him with cat kisses, and he was startled, then reassured, to discover I spoke Cat. Within ten minutes he was relaxed and purring.

While the other kittens had reacted to adversity with curiosity and trust, James Bond had a different sort of personality. He continues to be on a “hair trigger” regarding unusual events, new objects, and his peoples’ disapproval.

Innate suspicion, and a big tender heart, means he’s more than usually anxious about bad things happening. He suffers the most when I leave on trips; he sulks the longest when I get back.

By making sure I alert him to future events, by explaining deviations in his routine, and by reserving times and places to let him know he’s my Special Boy, I keep Mr. Bond happy about his mental, and physical, security.

All cats do better with these kinds of attentions; Mr. Bond has to have it to function at all.

If the scenario I envisioned for this poor little kitten had come to pass; if he had spent a couple more months in that cage not getting cuddles, and then gone to a shelter where he could get no sense of security, I might have encountered him as a shell-shocked adolescent. Then it wouldn’t have been a matter of ten minutes to make him into a happy, trusting, boy; it would have taken months, even years, to get him to his centered, present, self.

So if we have a wary, suspicious, cat, the most important element is this cat’s trust in us. We are the ones who offer support; we are the ones in charge of their environment, we are the ones who might, or might not, show hostility to them.

If we can gain such a cat’s trust, they will still be a bit nervous and prone to over-react.

But they won’t be that way all the time.

    Consider our cat’s resilience with Are Cats Sensitive?.

    Got here from a Link or Search?
    There’s more ways to care for our cat with The Way of Cats than the article you are reading now. See all of my posts on CAT CARE.

  • Share/Bookmark

Posted in: personality.
Tagged: ·

← Earlier Posts
Newer Posts →
Get Adobe Flash playerPlugin by wpburn.com wordpress themes