A problem a friend was having today made me think of a common problem many people have when dealing with behavior problems with any pet, not just felines. The problem of cooperation and blame.
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| Really? You're going to blame me? |
It's easy to blame the cat for the behavior problem. She peed on the carpet. He scratched the couch. She pooped outside the box.
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| He sacrificed the kids to Satan. |
But in almost all cases, the pet does not hold all of the blame. As owners, we also need to cooperate for effective means of changing such behavior. Everyone in the household needs to come up with a plan for modification of bad behavior and stick to it. If everyone isn't on board, those plans won't work.
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| The cat did you a favor. Those kids were monsters. |
The problem for my friend is actually pretty simple to solve. Her cat does what I call "revenge peeing." This means she pees to show her displeasure with whatever situation is going on that she doesn't like.
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| We really need to talk about the color of this room. |
Revenge Peeing isn't always the easiest to solve, but the real problem for my friend isn't that, it's that her other housemates aren't cooperating to solve the problem. Peeing on her items is one problem to solve, but she also pees on her housemate's bed. All they need to do is shut the door when they aren't in the room, but in their minds it's the cat who needs to change, not them.
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| Just be prepared for the nose under the door. |
The cat's problem needs to be solved, no doubt. But part of solving it is to keep a door shut. It'll save the bed from being peed on and a mattress from being ruined. Most times solving behavior problems requires a change on the human's part too. This includes every human in the house, not just the owner.
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| I'm watching you human. |
Part of a behaviorist's job is to come up with a plan for the members of the household to follow to help modify the cat's behavior. Before you give up on solving a problem, it's important to make sure everyone is cooperating to help change bad behavior. If they aren't going to, you might need to consult a human behaviorist.
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| It's called "kicking them out." |
Rebecca is a feline behaviorist with the Finicky Feline in Portland, OR. She can be contacted for all your feline problems at bravemer@gmail.com.
