You and I are standing in a room. You start walking towards me. I tell you no. You stop moving. I tell you no. You move to the right. Again, I tell you no. You are now frustrated because I’ve given you no other information or feedback other than saying no. In my head, I think what I want from you is simple. I wanted you to back up. But to you, all you heard was no. 

This is the same thing that we do to our animals. 

Humans are good at saying what we don’t want from our pets. Don’t go on the counter. Stop knocking my glass off the table. No, you can’t go outside. Stop stealing food from my plate. Don’t scratch the couch...but we tend to forget to tell them when they’ve done the correct behavior. 

We’re notoriously poor at asking the animal what we would rather they do instead. 

Don’t go on the counter. Go to your mat. 

Stop knocking my glass off the table. Go play with toys you are allowed. 

No, you can’t go outside. You can watch the birds on TV or out of the window. 

Stop stealing food from my plate. Leave it.

Don’t scratch the couch. Instead, scratch this post. 

Your cat will respond much faster if they have an alternative behavior to do instead. Teaching your cat what you want from them will give them a clear action to do that is appropriate in a specific scenario. 

For example, my cats love to follow the movement of my snake and try to sit on top of his enclosure. I don’t want the cats to scare him, so I don’t allow them to sit up there. Instead of just yelling at them, I ask them to go on their cat tree instead. The cat tree is positioned next to the enclosure so they can still watch my snake for enrichment, but not harass him. 

When NO is Reinforcing 

For many cats, just hearing your voice is reinforcing to them. Cats will do some of the common behaviors that we associate with being negative just to get us to pay attention to them. Cats look for creative ways to play when they are under stimulated or bored. If they can get your attention, even for a moment, they will usually do it.

 There will be an increase in how often they engage in these undesirable behaviors if attention is paid to them. To the cat, getting attention from their owner, even if it's scolding, is reinforcing to them. We know this because when the cat is reinforced for their behavior, they are more likely to repeat it in the future. This is how positive reinforcement works in cat training. So, instead of your cat training you to give them attention, you can train them that they will get praise and food rewards for offering better behaviors. 

Giving your cat attention, play, and enrichment will reduce their problem behaviors associated with boredom. If your cat has an interesting environment along with sufficient mental and physical exercise, they will be satisfied.

However, if your cat has been practicing these behaviors for a while they can be harder to fix with proper enrichment, attention, and exercise alone. In these cases, you will need to teach your cat an alternative behavior that they can do instead of the one we consider negative. 

A few examples were mentioned above. When your cat is on a surface that you don't want them to be on, you can teach them to spend their time in an alternative location. If you need help figuring out what alternatives would be beneficial to your situation, please reach out to us! We would love to help!