behavior» being inferior
How should you teach your cat to be inferior?
Unfortunately you need “punishment” for this. This part of the education is the only part in which you directly punish the cat and in which the cat clearly sees that you punish him. So, if the cat behaves aggressively towards you, you should punish him and the punishment should take place in a “catty” way: a firm tap on the nose or on the body, together with a firmly spoken punishment word (for example: no, may not, shame on you!). In many reference books you will read that hitting a cat is fundamentally forbidden. However, the cat psychology provides evidence to the contrary: Observe how many cats punish each other. For example: a mother cat with kittens. Kittens are allowed to play but when it comes to biting and scratching there are limits, if they cross the limits the mother cat hits them with her paw and continues this until the kitten surrenders. If you don’t continue to punish until the cat surrenders, the cat will consider this as a victory and the result will be much worse. You must be consistent: If the cat blows, growls, bites or scratches when you play with him or if the cat manipulates you must react EVERY TIME and you must react CORRECLTY. At a certain moment your cat will understand that you are superior and will not act aggressively towards you anymore. If the cat tries again, saying the punishment word will probably be enough to make him change his mind.
Difficult and easy characters exist; kittens which love people and kittens which don’t.
Character is partly hereditarily (genetically) determined, but the final expression also depends on the environmental factors. These factors can be divided in 3 periods.
1. The imprinting phase (2-4 weeks)
2. The socialization phase (3-6 weeks)
3. The education phase
The imprinting- and socialization phase are extremely important for a normal character development. During these periods the kitten should have been in contact with everything: people, child’s hands, domestic noises, dogs, a transport cage, the car etc. The animal must also get used to all kinds of manipulations: checking the eyes, checking the mouth, checking the skin etc. Everything the cat observes in these periods will be experienced as normal; everything which he hasn’t observed will be experienced as frightening later on.
A kitten which hasn’t (hardly) seen people in this phase will grow up as an unsociable cat, which will react frightened and aggressive towards people. That is why it is so important that you buy a kitten with people who have been extremely active with the kitten during his first weeks: Only such a kitten will become a pleasant housemate.
