Content
- 1. Not offering alternatives
- 2. Yelling or physically assaulting
- 3. Force him to sniff his own feces or urine
- 4. Be inconsistent
- 5. Fix late
The process of raising an animal is difficult, so it takes a lot of patience and calm to make it as simple as possible for you and, of course, for your cat. It's natural that after a hard day's work, you'll have less patience when you find something destroyed at home or when you can't sleep thanks to your nocturnal meows.
In this article from PeritoAnimal, we present the 5 most common mistakes when scolding a cat so that you can avoid them and better understand your cat. This type of situation can lead to disproportionate anger and very inappropriate behavior towards the animal that doesn't solve anything because it's completely incomprehensible to the animal (and can lead to the development of long-term behavior problems!).
1. Not offering alternatives
Not understanding the cat's natural behavior is possibly one of the most common causes of conflict in many households. Often there are wrong expectations about how he should behave, as well as a lack of understanding of his essential needs. An example of this is not allowing a cat to scratch or snort at something that bothers them, as cats need to scratch and communicate. On the contrary, a feline that does not develop many of these behaviors typical of its species clearly indicates that something is not right with it.
Trying to stop this supposedly irritating behavior through punishment is like not allowing it to eat or breathe. Consequently, the cat will feel stressed and will try to perform these behaviors inappropriately, scratching furniture, for example. This is why it is necessary re-educate the feline so that it directs these behaviors in a positive way for you and for him. Following the previous example, acquiring a scratcher and redirecting this behavior to this element. See this other article to provide your cat with an environmental enrichment suitable for cats.
Likewise, when there are behaviors such as excessive meowing, excessive marking, excessive aggression, etc., there is a cause behind this that needs to be located to improve your cat's well-being that you will not find by scolding him.
2. Yelling or physically assaulting
The vast majority of cases where a cat is disproportionately reprimanded is completely unjustified, as it is unable to understand the reason for your anger or what he can do to avoid it. This means that the cat becomes confused and associates this negative experience with you. Consequently, such negative experiences clearly damage your relationship, as your cat will begin to have a fearful emotional response every time she sees you, hindering the formation of a mutual bond based on trust and understanding.
If you're wondering how to scold a cat without screaming, you need to be aware that, when educating a cat, it's very important to be subtle and avoid generating negative emotions that she might associate with you. So instead of scolding, you should be discouraging the cat from taking inappropriate actions and redirecting them in the correct way. Keep in mind that positive reinforcement is always preferable to negative reinforcement. That's why choosing negative reinforcement is one of the biggest mistakes when scolding a cat.
3. Force him to sniff his own feces or urine
Following the line above, there is a belief that it is necessary to show the cat your feces and/or urine so that he understands that you do not want him to do this in an inappropriate place. Needless to say, this kind of reprimand is far from forming a learning process to educate you to do the right needs in your sandbox. This action is therefore a unnecessary and cruel intimidation.
Also, figuring out why your cat isn't grooming her properly is also necessary. It's possible that, for example, the urine off the tray is due to stress, or that he hasn't learned correctly where his toilet is. In this article, we show the most common causes of this behavior: why my cat doesn't use the litter box.
4. Be inconsistent
When raising a cat, it is very important that the tutor or guardian is consistent in how they act. What does that mean? By this we mean that you cannot scold your cat for something you sometimes allow him to do. For example, if you don't want him to get on the table, never let him get on. If you are permissive at times, or if someone in your family allows you to come up, your cat will not understand that there is a cause and an effect between your action and your response, which will leave you disoriented and insecure because you won't be able to understand and predict your reactions. This also means being consistent in raising the cat from the moment it is a kitten, so that you don't allow it to do something you don't want it to do as an adult, so you don't confuse it.
5. Fix late
Finally, one of the most common mistakes many owners make when they want to educate their cats is trying to correct them after they've done something that is considered inappropriate. For example, scold your cat when you get home and see he's made a mess. In this type of situation, as much as you understand what this scolding is about, your cat is simply unable to understand the cause of your anger and will start to feel insecure with you.
Once again, providing the right environmental enrichment, being consistent and consistent in raising your cat, and opting for positive reinforcement will be the key to success. However, not all cats learn equally quickly, so you will need to be patient.
If you enjoyed this article, don't miss this video about 15 things you should never do with your cat: