When cats engage in aggressive behaviors, it can be extremely disconcerting for their owners. Often times, cat aggression has a root cause, that if dealt with while correcting the behavioral problems, can result in a better relationship between owner and cat.
Common Causes of Aggressive Cat Behavior
Sometimes what is seen as aggressive cat behavior, such as hitting, biting, hissing or growling can actually be a means of voicing displeasure, or attempting to get attention by any means necessary. Sudden changes in a routine, such as a move, or an addition to the family of another pet, or a baby can leave a cat feeling confused. This can lead to the cat acting out in aggressive ways.
Other causes of aggressive cats can be illness, personality traits that have been inadvertently encouraged, boredom, and abuse. By trying to uncover the problem, stopping the behavior can be more easily accomplished.
Be sure to rule out illness or pain, if nothing in a cat’s environment has changed, and the cat becomes suddenly aggressive. If no physical causes are found, look to the cat’s history and environment to see if a pattern can be discovered.
Correcting Cat Behavior Problems
Sometimes simply discovering and removing the cause of the problem, such as illness, or a simple environment change, like a new type of food or litter, can solve the problem. If the problem is something that is not going to go away, like a new baby, or a new home, or if the behavior has turned into a habit, more steps will need to be taken to correct it.
Correcting behavior problems is often a multi-step process, both punishing the negative behavior while reinforcing good behaviors, and providing extra attention at other times of day. If the cat is acting out to get attention, this last step will be especially important, as it will remove a portion of the cat’s anxiety and need to misbehave.
Be sure only to punish poor behavior as it is occurring. Do not continue to punish the cat, or ignore it after the behavior has ceased, since it will no longer know what it is being punished for. Punishment should be immediate and something that the cat finds unpleasant, but not harmful. A quick squirt of water, or a loud sound, like a compressed air gun can have an immediate effect; the cat will come to associate the negative behavior with something they find unpleasant and they will begin to find other behaviors to engage in.
Never hit, or otherwise, physically abuse the animal. This can be taken too far, even inadvertently, injuring the animal, or can make aggression worse, by causing the cat to attempt to fight back.
Be Consistent
Always correct negative behavior in the same way, while rewarding positive behaviors each time they are demonstrated. If the cat is only punished sometimes, the behavior will continue, since the correlation between action and punishment will be unclear. Spend lots of time engaging in positive attention giving, to reinforce what type of behavior is desired.
In the case of animals dealing with past abuse, or with certain types of anxiety problems, talk to the vet about ways to calm the animal down, including supplements, or medications, to be combined with behavior correction techniques. Be patient, since correction of behavior problems may take some time, and know that in many cases it is possible to eradicate poor behavior for good.
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