You love your cat: he’s sweet, he’s beautiful, he purrs with pleasure when you pet him and he entertains you with his endless antics and games! Yes, you love your cat, but even so, this little rascal likes to dig up your plants and leave you a nice-smelling gift in the ground. He also likes to play with your cell phone charger, which is the third one you’ve found unusable. Let’s not talk about his nonsense with the toilet roll and curtains… And his favorite thing of all is climbing onto the dining room table, even though he knows it’s forbidden!
Of course he knows it’s forbidden, because when you arrive in the dining room and he’s on the table, he quickly gets down and hides! You’ve tried everything to get this result. You told him no in a curt tone on numerous occasions. Then you sprayed him with water to get him to come down. You grabbed him by the scruff of the neck like his mommy did to punish him. You were also advised to give him a flick on the muzzle or a pat on the bottom to break his bad habit, and you applied this advice. You’ve even locked him in the bathroom once to make him understand that it’s wrong to climb on that table. So he knows not to do it!
And yet he does it again…
Why does punishing your cat solve nothing?
As you may have noticed, despite your best efforts to make your cat understand that some of its behaviors are unsuited to your human expectations, it has trouble integrating your rules. There are, however, learning techniques that can help resolve these misunderstandings and restore harmony between your cat’s needs and the human way of life.
What is punishment?
Punishment is the consequence of a behavior, designed to reduce or even eliminate the likelihood of its recurrence. Punishment is therefore always an unpleasant consequence, and can be of two kinds: positive or negative. These terms do not refer to notions of right or wrong, but to the addition or removal of a stimulus as a consequence of behavior.
We speak of positive punishment when the consequence of the behavior leads to the addition of an inconvenience. For example, when a cat climbs on a table and is sprayed with water to get off.
We speak of negative punishment when the consequence of the behavior leads to the withdrawal of an amenity. For example, when a cat is deprived of its food when it has done something “stupid”, such as cutting the wire of a cell phone charger.
Why can’t your kitten understand what’s “right or wrong”?
How do you define right and wrong? When you catch your child pulling your cat’s tail, you scold him by explaining that it hurts the cat and that he runs the risk of being scratched or bitten. You teach your child that pulling the cat’s tail is bad. Notions of right and wrong are therefore human, cultural and social issues learned through our education. The cat is an animal that responds to its environment according to two criteria: its needs and its desires. It is not cerebrally capable of integrating concepts as evolved as good and evil, or of understanding that something is done or not done. Cats chase birds. When your cat brings home a wounded chickadee and plays with it before killing it, you think to yourself, what a cruel cat! No, it’s not cruel, nor is it good or bad for the cat. It’s natural and instinctive.
Cats can’t feel guilty either, since this feeling is based on the awareness of having done something wrong. You’re going to tell me the opposite, because you can see your cat expressing a “guilty look” when you reprimand him. Is your cat really expressing guilt? Usually, in such circumstances, the cat runs away or looks away, makes itself very small, hides in a corner with its ears flattened and its neck tucked in, its tail pressed against its body. This is the body language of fear in cats, not guilt.
Is punishing your cat without consequences?
As we’ve just seen, following a punishment, the cat expresses fearful body language. They can also anticipate a reprimand and show the same body language when you approach them in displeasure.
Your cat is perfectly capable of making the connection between your emotional state and a possible punishment. On the other hand, he’s not able to make the connection between a “mistake” he may have made hours before you discovered it, and the resulting punishment.
The big risk with punishment is that your cat will start to fear you, because it doesn’t make sense to him. All he knows is that when you have a certain tone of voice, a certain way of walking or moving, it’s a sign of something bad for him, and it can break the bond of trust that exists between you and him.
So, in addition to not working (because if punishment did work, your cat wouldn’t repeat the behaviors that bother you), punishment can profoundly alter the pleasant, positive relationship that exists with your cat.
Reward, the key to cat training
What should you do if your kitten or cat gets into mischief?
As humans, we generally like to live in a tidy, clean environment. Every object or piece of furniture we own has a specific purpose, and we don’t like to see them damaged or soiled by our cats. We don’t like our cats climbing on the table,scratching our furniture or playing with the phone charger. But what we need to understand is that every behavior a cat expresses is the consequence of a desire or need. It’s natural for a cat to climb, scratch surfaces and hunt. It’s important to accept that adopting a cat goes hand in hand with creating an environment adapted to its needs.
When your cat climbs onto the kitchen table or counter, it’s because something motivates him to do so. It may be because there’s often tempting food there, but there may be other explanations. Cats are often very fond of these places, as they are high up and provide perfect observation posts from which they can visually monitor everything that’s going on in the room, or even in the house. Cats are predators, but they are also prey in the wild. They need to be able to climb high up in order to locate prey or take cover. It’s a natural and essential need for cats.
Some cats also climb on these surfaces to attract our attention. They know that when they climb these specific areas, we are interacting with them. Even if the interaction isn’t positive and we chase them away, the cat has gained interest. Sometimes it’s to ask for something specific, like food or petting, and it’s easy to fulfill these needs… sometimes it’s more subtle.
How do you reconcile your cat’s needs with the rules of human life?
It’s very simple: all you have to do is offer a suitable alternative for both parties. In this case, set up a cat tree or table near the forbidden areas and place treats on it. When your cat climbs onto the table, simply lower him to the ground calmly and neutrally, and the next time he approaches the table, encourage him to climb onto the nearby cat tree by offering him a treat. If you do this systematically, your cat will soon realize that it’s more interesting to climb the cat tree, and will stop climbing the table of its own accord. Just remember to offer a cat tree or table of comparable or greater height than the forbidden spot, so that the observation post remains just as good for him. And if it’s food that motivates him, the treats should be enough for him to understand that on the table, he gets nothing, whereas the cat tree is synonymous with a regular feast!
Effective learning methods for correcting behavior
As you’ll have understood, when your cat displays behavior that doesn’t suit you, it’s always more effective to try to understand your cat’s original motivation and divert this need to an alternative that will suit you both. By rewarding behaviors that suit you, your cat will enjoy expressing them and will do so on its own to obtain a treat or a cuddle. This is the principle of positive reinforcement. Cats learn to perform behaviors that bring them something pleasurable, such as a treat, a cuddle or a play session.
This principle can be useful in many situations. In addition to redirecting annoying behaviors to more acceptable ones, you can teach your cat little tricks like the “High Five” (raise your paw and clap your hand) or the sit. This can be fun and allow you to further enrich your cat’s life with playful interactions, but it can also ensure more serene handling, in the event of veterinary care for example. A cat accustomed to lifting its paw on demand will be easier to handle if care needs to be carried out on its paw or if you need to trim its claws.
Positive reinforcement can also be very useful in training cats to enter the carrier on their own. Most cats associate the carrier with an unpleasant experience. Ideally, you should start by desensitizing the cat to the cage, leaving it in the environment at all times and scattering treats around and inside. Once your cat has become accustomed to the cage and will enter it to eat the treats placed inside, it will be possible to teach him to enter it on demand.
We know that it’s sometimes easier to theorize about situations than to apply them in everyday life. Don’t hesitate to call in a professional if your efforts based on these principles don’t work. Our cat coaching service is very useful when adopting a new kitten. It will help you get off to a good start with your new kitten and ensure a harmonious cohabitation.
Some of the behaviors that bother adopters are deeply rooted in their cat, and have been expressed for years. In this case, a consultation will enable you to take stock of the situation and adapt a personalized work plan to restore balance with your cat. Don’t hesitate to contact us, we’ll be delighted to help!
Written by Joana Lagarrigue
Cat behaviorist
Conferences on the use of punishment, consequences and alternatives:
Félinstructives conferences for the general public
Félinstructives conferences for the general public
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