Mary Allen
In everyday life with your cat, there will always be situations in which it does something you don’t want it to do. A possible reaction to this would be to use punishment to induce them to refrain from this behavior now and in the future. This was a common way for a long time. In modern animal training, however, penalties are avoided for good reason. In this article, you will learn why you should think very carefully about using punishment on your cat.
What is a Penalty Anyway?
According to learning theory, one speaks of “punishment” only when a stimulus reduces the probability of the occurrence of a behavior. In simpler terms, if your reaction to your cat’s behavior causes her to stop or reduce the behavior afterward, then you have punished that behavior. Your cat will stop doing the behavior because it fears the negative consequences. So you don’t punish a living being, but a certain behavior.
There are two different types of consequences of penalties:
- Something unpleasant is added, e.g. a splash from the spray bottle, scolding, bumping, frightening noise, blowing, etc.
- Something pleasant ends, e.g. when you take your cat’s food away, stop playing, leave her alone, etc.
When do Penalties Work?
In fact, in practice, it works much less often than expected to influence a cat’s behavior reliably in the long term by means of punishment. That’s because four criteria must be met for a “successful penalty”:
- The timing has to be right. Your punishment must be immediate and within one second of your cat’s unwanted behavior. If it’s later (or sooner because you assume something specific is about to happen), she has little chance of understanding what you’re trying to tell her.
- You have to get the right measure. On the one hand, a penalty for prolonged effectiveness must actually be impressive. On the other hand, it must not be too harsh, because too strong emotions can also lead to incorrect connections.
- You would need to appropriately punish the unwanted behavior in question each time your cat engages in it. Otherwise, it’s a success.
- Finally, your cat needs to make the connection between her behavior and the punishment. I.e. she must come up with the idea that she triggered the punishment through her behavior.
If these points are not all fulfilled, then one would have to speak of a “punitive attempt”.
What Happens When You Punish?
Your cat will stop an unwanted behavior if she finds your punishment uncomfortable. However, we humans have to realize that of course, this works precisely because a punishment triggers bad feelings. If the punishment is ending something pleasant, your cat will feel frustrated, disappointed, or angry. If she is denied social contact or access to the house or food as punishment, it could lead to insecurity or fear. When something unpleasant is inflicted as punishment, it usually triggers insecurity, fear, shock, frustration, and/or anger.
What Does Not Happen When Punishing?
When your cat does something, there is always a need behind it:
- She is scratching the sofa because she just woke up and wants to stretch.
- Maybe she’s pawing at the new bouquet because a wiggling twig has piqued her curiosity.
- She grabs your foot with her claws because she is full of energy and drive.
- She’s bored to death or she’s dying of starvation, so she meows in a tour.
If you punish her now, she may stop the current behavior – but the need behind the behavior does not go away.
This may prompt your cat to try other ways to meet her needs. Or she gets into a conflict: on the one hand, she feels her need very strongly, on the other hand, she fears the consequences if she tries to take care of herself.
When punishing, the needs behind the behavior remain unnoticed – and thus also the actual cause of the behavior.
Possible Side Effects of Penalties
Conflicts and negative feelings such as frustration, fear, or anger are among the most common triggers of behavioral problems such as urine marking or aggression between cats living together. Often enough, cats use other cats as lightning rods for the frustration they experience with us. If a cat becomes fearful or angry as a result of punishment, at worst it can result in defensive aggressive behavior against us as a backlash.
It might also be bad for you: Your cat can become afraid of you. She sees that you bring her the unpleasant. If you don’t meet the criteria for punishment, the discomfort is completely random from your cat’s point of view. It is also incredibly difficult for us humans to assess how a cat will feel. If your cat is already fearful or shy, punishment should definitely be a no-no if you don’t want to lose their trust.