How to Control Cat Aggression

Cats are notoriously known for their bad moods, self importance and arrogant behavior. However, sometimes cats can be a little too aggressive, especially if they have not been socialized properly. An aggressive cat is a potentially dangerous cat and so it is important to train them to lose part of that aggression whenever possible. So just how do you train a cat to be less aggressive?

Understanding Your Cats Aggression

Most cat aggression problems stem from a traumatic experience that the cat has previously had. For example, perhaps as a kitten your cat was hurt by another person? Or perhaps they were abandoned and that has taught them to be more wary of things around them?

Most of the time the aggression that your cat is showing you, is fear based aggression. So by understanding what your cats fear is, it is then easier to know how to train them and teach them that everything is ok. However, there are other causes of cat aggression and they include over excitement and illness. If your cat is ill for example, if you touch them in a certain place they may feel pain and they will strike out at you. Also, if you stroke your cat for long periods of time, it could become irritable and once again strike out at you.

By understanding what it is that makes your cat aggressive, you can then work on changing that behavior as best as you can.

Changing Aggressive Behavior

Changing a cat’s aggressive behavior can be hard but it is done similar to how you would train a dog not to bite or nip you.

Firstly it is always better to avoid the situation where possible. So if you know that certain things set your cat off, then make sure that you avoid doing it whenever possible. This could include playing with the cat where they become too excited within a certain time limit. If you know that the cat is going to get irritable after a few minutes, stop playing with them before that time and you will have successfully avoided the cat’s aggressive behavior.

Another thing that you can do to train your cat or kitten not to bite you is playing with them gently at first and keeping an eye on their behavior. As long as they are gentle with you, praise them. Eventually start making the game a little more excitable and look out for signs of claws being retracted and any signs of the cat going to bite you. If they do, stop playing and act dead and this should calm them down. If it doesn’t say ‘ouch’ as loud as you can.

Overall avoiding the behavior is always the best way to stop cat aggression, but if that isn’t possible then ignore the cat and do not give them any attention for a while.

All of your cat training secrets and tips at my blog entitled Cat Training.

How Exactly Does Training a Cat Work?

When it comes to our pets, it would be fantastic if we could train them how to do exactly what we want them to do. Training is only usually associated with dogs, but the fact is that all animals can be trained in some way and cats are certainly no exception.

The Basics of Cat Training

Cats can be trained to do a number of things. So, whether you want them to stop bringing mice back to your front door, to use their litter tray correctly, or even to just use the toilet instead, cats can be taught how to behave; you just need to know the basics.

Training a cat is obviously very different to training a dog. With a dog you teach them things such as ‘stay’, ‘fetch’, and ‘heel’. However, with a cat you are generally just training them to change their behavior slightly. You do not want them to do anything spectacular (though some trainers have been able to teach their cats to perform); you mainly just want to teach them how to behave in a more appropriate manner.

Generally you need to understand your cat before you begin to train them and usually you should find that the following applies:

·Cats Will Continue to Misbehave as Long as There is Reward

Firstly you need to understand that your cat does not know right from wrong. They do things because it is a joy for them to do them. An example would be scratching their claws on the sofa. They continue to do it because it feels good when they do it. They will only not do something if it is unpleasant to do.

So this means that if you want to train your cat, you have to make the preferred behavior rewarding and any behavior you want to put a stop to, will need to be a negative experience.

·Knowing When to Reprimand the Cat

A very common mistake which many cat owners make when it comes to disciplining their cat, is reprimanding them once the crime has already been committed. More often than not we are not with our cats when they actual misbehave and so we try to reprimand them by showing them the problem. The trouble with this is that the cat has absolutely no idea what you are reprimanding them for and so the punishment is not doing any good.

Overall training a cat to change its behavior can be hard work but it can be done as long as you have persistence and understanding.

All of your cat training secrets and tips at my blog entitled Cat Training.

3 Cat Training Basics by Julia Camden

Cat training is not always easy, but it is possible. Though your cat may seem too independent and stubborn to change its behavior, you can get the job done if you make a commitment to the right strategies.

There are a few basic tents of successful training about whichever cat owner should be aware. Let us look at three of those cat training fundamentals:

The Need for Immediacy

Cats are incredibly smart animals, but they do not necessarily make the same kind of connections people do with respect to cause and effect. That is why it is essential to take action immediately when you observe inappropriate behavior. If your response is delayed by even a few seconds, it will lose a great deal of its effectiveness.

Never assume that your cat will remember what it did earlier in a day or that the cat will make any connection between your discipline and past behavior. Rarely, if ever, will that happen. If you correct your pet for something it did earlier, it will have no idea of why it is being corrected and may incorrectly link your actions to the behavior displayed immediately before you took action.

Encouraging Alternative Behaviors

One of the best ways to teach your cat not to engage in an undesirable behavior is to encourage the animal to do something else instead. This strategy works even better when the encouraged behavior is completely incompatible with the undesired action. This technique works because cats, like all animals, are more responsive to positive reinforcement.

You will have greater success encouraging and rewarding what you would like to see than you will by trying to stop what you do not. Instead of discouraging your cat from scratching a table leg, encourage your pet to exercise that instinct on its scratching post!

Avoiding Physical Discipline

Physical punishment will not contribute to successful cat training. Negative reinforcements do not work well for cats and hitting or otherwise physically reprimanding your pet will only make your relationship more difficult while inspiring unnecessary fear in the animal.

If you encounter a situation where you must physically discourage a behavior in progress, like biting, you should merely place your hand's palm on the cat's face and gently push him or her back while verbally reprimanding the animal in a non-aggressive manner.

Cats are not always the easiest animals to train, but if one approaches the project with the right attitude and strategies, it is possible to direct a cat's behavior. The three elements of cat training we've discussed all share features common to all successful techniques--they are all based on the understanding that positive reinforcement offers the greatest chance of success and that cat owners should always use the least aggressive means of correcting behavior.

Those two rules of thumb are at the very core of smart cat training.

About the Author

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