Cat Behaviour Explained
Firstly, it is no surprise that cats are intelligent creatures. They learn and remember things and add them to their list of survival instincts. Remember that a cat is only really half domesticated. They may look cute and fluffy but how many times has your cat walked in with a half dead bird hanging from its slavering chops?
Completely unperturbed by your distress. Cats do whatever they see is in there best interests and just like most other animals, two of these best interests are 1, staying alive and 2, getting fed. So of course, they like to keep learning, taking what information they can from their environment and subsequently profiting from it.
Changing Cat Behaviour
In order to change cat behaviour you need to understand that cats are highly independent creatures and in general do not spend most of their time hanging on their masters every move and gesture, much like a pet dog would do, they have everything they need to pack up and move home any time they feel like, turning up at a front door down the street looking cute is usually more than enough for their prospective new owners to open the door to them. So don’t think you have a great deal of leverage. They don’t take any s##t so you have to play it carefully and cleverly.
Aggressive Cat Behaviour
When a cat is aggressive there are some tactic that can be implemented but you wont have the sort of instant success that will come from applying these sort of techniques to a dog. For instance, try starving your cat, punishing it for aggressive behaviour by taking its meals away. More often than not, it'll just up and go and eat the next door neighbour’s cat’s dinner. It is not recommended to use a pain response to your cat’s behaviour, not just because it is highly unethical but because going back to the early statement of a cat instinct for survival, if it feels that it is coming under serious threat then it could well leave. It is much better to use some sort of mild aversion therapy that will create a certain level of disorder or discomfort without driving it away.
Two good examples of this are the squirt gun and the face push.
The squirt gun is a fairly obvious technique, as the title is self explanatory. When your cat is veering towards to signs of bad behaviour a small squirt on the face or body accompanied with a stern "no", will form a subtle yet powerful tool for future reprimands.
The face push technique, this is another technique that will over a short time, form a useful tool at your disposal when your cat is playing up. The premise is simple, if you are capable of getting close enough to your cat. Give its face a gentle push accompanied by a firm "no", again, this will form a type of aversion therapy.
The key here is the "NO", in time just the vocal aspect of the punishment should be enough for your cat to head warning.
