Mary Allen
It is incredibly important for cats to play. We explain why this is so and how you can properly use your cat’s playfulness for training.
Cats learn a lot of skills through play: Lilly knows how to turn the bedroom floor lamp on and off, Murky uses his human toilet like it’s the most normal thing in the world, and Peter is about to help himself from the fridge when hunger overcomes him. We will show you how you can use your cat’s playfulness to educate it and use such “abilities” properly.
How Cats Learn Through Play
When cats can open doors, owners are less than happy. But how do cats learn this? Quite simply: It all started harmlessly as child’s play. There was hopping and patting, examining, trying out, and experimenting, some things went wrong, others worked out, through tireless playing and training, skill and speed were increased.
And suddenly the kittens learned while playing what they had observed with their two-legged roommates and were able to use what they “understood” sensibly: the switch, the flush, the handle. While it may not always end with such masterful results, all cats are masters at play. The kittens frolic around for about six hours, teenagers treat themselves to four to five hours of play a day, and even for older semesters the following still applies: a little fun is a must.
A strong motive. “Cats feel a very similar, comparable pleasure to all of this as we do,” explains cat researcher Paul Leyhausen. And the behavioral biologist Konrad Lorenz already emphasized that the execution of instinctive movements is pleasurable.
But nothing else is used when playing: innate movements from the cat’s behavioral repertoire, such as catching prey, fighting, or fleeing. Desire, paired with joie de vivre, is a motor for the cheerful exuberance of young and old children. Otherwise, games would be pretty boring.
Professor Leyhausen has thoroughly studied everything that goes on in cat circles. “Often you can see how cats dance around a killed prey in high leaps or jump over it. They do this especially when they have overpowered a strong prey after a long fight. As already mentioned, cats are always a little afraid of their prey, the more so, the larger and more defensive they are. The resulting inner tension then vents itself in the strangest antics after the win. Paul Leyhausen calls this freaky behavior a “relief game” and compares it to a victory celebration.
Play As An Outlet
Hours of muscle-flexing are used for physical exercise – one of the prerequisites for cats to be able to pursue their vocation as hunters of prey, even if humans have long since relieved them of catching mice.
The viewer is usually happy about the high-spirited contortions when the cat drives an object across the ground with quick paw strikes, throws it in the air, and then jumps immediately after it, grabs it with both paws, and flips over in the process. And hardly anyone is aware that this great game is the expression of a passion for hunting that has been pent up for far too long. But if house tigers don’t have an outlet for their hunting instinct and can’t live out their play behavior, then aggression occurs, not least against the two-legged partner. The only thing that helps is: to play and play again.
Play Is Important For Social Behavior
Field studies by Rosemarie Schär have shown how important a young cat’s play behavior is for later social behavior. The cat expert found out that a cat that grows up without playmates or is repeatedly rejected by adult animals will eventually give up looking for contacts. Unlike the kitten, which grows up with its own kind or in a group “in which the adult cats have frequent positive interactions with one another.” It is positively strengthened in its contact and develops into a sociable being.
Learn And Train While Playing
Playing can’t be a waste of time. But why does it have to be so exaggerated? At least it’s a waste of energy, more dangerous than useful according to some spoilsports. After all, the offspring could also practice seriously what they will later need for life. Because in contrast to “normal behavior”, the individual movement elements are intensified, exaggerated, often only executed in fragments when playing and for that very reason are by no means economical in terms of energy consumption.
The British behavioral researcher Desmond Morris assumes that this is a signal for fellow cats. Accordingly, young animals tirelessly train their muscles, practice important movement sequences for hunting and confronting their rivals, and learn cat manners through play – but at the same time ensure that their behavior is not misunderstood. With their exaggerations, they make it clear to everyone: This is just a rehearsal. And so calm mother, aunts, and playmates. The elders don’t have to intervene protectively at the sight of the scuffles, and the buddies recognize just as sure that the attack is by no means meant seriously. In this way, they can practice with each other in a very friendly manner, alternating between role-playing games, which is actually hostile behavior. So no wasted energy. On the contrary: Katz definitely makes ends meet better by playing.