Dealing with long-term feline behavior problems? You may be resigned to the fact that things won’t change. That’s not true.

Don’t give up on correcting problems. With the right behavior modification you can make significant improvements.
 

·          Take a fresh approach. You’ve probably been going at this the same way year after year. The wrong behavior modification technique can actually make problems worse and can damage the cat’s trust in you. Counter-productive behavior modification can result in secondary behavior issues as well. Stop what you’ve been doing and prepare to look at this from another point of view.
 

·          Think like a cat. It sounds silly but it’s effective. Look at the long-term problem from your cat’s point of view. If it’s a litter box issue, look at the box in an objective way. If you were the cat would you feel it was clean enough? In a hostile multicat home would you feel scared to go into a covered litter box where you might get ambushed?
 

Looking at the problem from your cat’s point of view is one of the most effective ways to discover the true cause. Too many times we assume a cat’s motivation is spite, anger, revenge, or stupidity. That kind of thinking creates failure. Your cat isn’t sitting around plotting how to tick you off.

·          Tweak, modify, and rebuild trust. You’re so used to your environment that you may not realize how stressful, boring, or unhealthy it may be for kitty. Set up the environment to help the cat succeed. Perhaps that means more litter boxes, better box cleaning, a more effective scratching post, reintroducing companion cats as if they’ve never met. There’s so much you can do, regardless of how many years you’ve lived with the problem.

For more information refer to the book Starting from Scratch.

© 2009 Cat Behavior Associates, LLC