Dealing with Aggressive animals – cats.

Aggression in any animal is a symptom – the outcome of a problem. What is the problem? What is causing the aggression. Cats are not really any different from dogs when it comes to aggression – there is a reason for it.

I get a kick out of watching Jackson Galaxy working with cats – I say working cause it’s not training. It’s more about convincing, cooperating, making things positive, changing the animals life and outlook on everything around it. You don’t need to live like this, lets change it, lets change the people around you.

It’s important to note that everything is completely calm when working with aggression in cats – with any animal really. And it’s the way things should be when working with any animal that is aggressive for any reason. In the end, you want a completely calm animal – and in order to achieve calm, you need to give calm. The animal in front of you is your mirror – you get what you give. Give a fearful animal fear, you get it back.

Diagnosis again is so important. The cat isn’t aggressive, aggression is NOT a diagnosis. The cat is fearful, might have been abused at some point. It has no trust in people, and people really didn’t work to gain the animals trust – that’s the fail. At the 6:30 mark – “Your best friend in the world dies, you’re stuck in the house with them, you’re then rescued, put in a crate, thrown into a shelter sat there for weeks in a cage. Come into another house, sit in the cage for a few weeks. What would happen to you? Would you swat, and growl and try to kill whoever came near you? That’s what happened to Johnny.” — THIS is the diagnosis and is the reason why taking the time to talk to the animals owner is so important. That’s something that many trainers don’t do – they only focus on the issues – not what caused the issues.

When the foster started showing that she was trustworthy, very calm and not going to hurt the cat – big changes came.

At the 6 minute mark, the foster is showing the changes. The cat is in her lap actively seeking attention. That’s the cat showing “I trust you now, cause you worked to earn it”.

8 minute video, well worth the watch. There is no magic here, this is how behaviour modification should be done.

Robert Hynes Dog Training
Serving Edmonton, Alberta and surrounding areas.
admin@roberthynesdogtraining.com