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| 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.
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. |
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| Picture of the Week |
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| Super Fast
Fact |
The
Persian cat
is one of the most beautiful cats with a long, luxurious
coat. Owning a Persian gives one the same gratification as owning a
beautiful work of art.
Wild Cat
Here
are 36 species of wild
cats. |
| Useful Information |
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Domestic
Cat