Is Your Cat Crazy? , livre ebook

Turner Publishing Company - John C. Wright

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100 pages

English

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Irresistible stories of how a leading animal behaviorist diagnoses and treats cat behavior problems

Considered one of the country's leading animal behaviorists, Dr. John Wright has spent the last decade making house calls on problem pets. He diagnoses the cause of the problem behavior and then works with owners to find an appropriate treatment. This book, an engaging account of his work with misbehaving felines, is at once funny, charming, and highly informative. Readers will learn why cats refuse to use their litter boxes, scratch and bite, go through sudden personality changes, react in different ways to different people and other animals, and behave the way they do; and they'll find out what works and what doesn't work when it comes to kitty "discipline". The result is a book no cat lover will want to miss.

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Pets

Cats

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Publié par	Turner Publishing Company
Date de parution	27 mars 1996
Nombre de lectures	0
EAN13	9781620458556
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0698€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Is Your Cat Crazy?
Is Your Cat Crazy?
Solutions from the Casebook of a Cat Therapist

John C. Wright, Ph.D.,
with Judi Wright Lashnits
Macmillan USA
This book is not intended as a substitute for the medical advice of veterinarians. The reader should regularly consult a veterinarian in matters relating to his or her cat s health and particularly in respect of any symptoms which may require diagnosis or medical attention.
Although actual cases are presented in Is Your Cat Crazy?, the names and other personal characteristics of clients and the identities of their cats that appear herein are fictitious. We do not wish to risk invading anyone s right to privacy in sharing these cases with our feline aficionados.
MACMILLAN
A Simon Schuster Macmillan Company
1633 Broadway
New York, NY 10019
Copyright 1994 by John C. Wright and Judi Wright Lashnits
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the Publisher.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Wright, John C.
Is your cat crazy?: solutions from the casebook of a cat therapist / John C. Wright with Judi Wright Lashnits.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN: 978-0-02860838-9
1. Cats-Behavior. 2. Cats-Psychology. 3. Animal behavior therapy. I. Lashnits, Judi Wright. II. Title.
SF446.5.W75 1996
636.8 089689142-dc20 96-2520
CIP
To the families who have entrusted me with the behavioral well-being of their crazy cats.
-J.C.W.
To Sassy.
-J.W.L.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. In Search of the Perfect Cat
2. Secrets of Litter-Box Success
3. The Crime of Punishment
4. Eating Habits Weird and Wonderful
5. Can You Teach a Cat Good Behavior?
6. Beware of the Attack Cat!
7. Top Cat, Bottom Cat: Challenges of the Multiple-Cat Household
8. Inside Cats, Outside Agitators
9. Life-styles of Stressed-Out Felines
10. Don t Blame Me-I Have a Note from the Doctor
11. When Bad Things Happen to Good Cats: Getting Past Traumatic Events
12. Hatred, Revenge, and Inflexible Felines
13. Babies, Kittens, Dogs, and Other Surprises
Suggested Reading
Index
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Peter Borchelt, David Hothersall, Katherine Houpt, Molly Robbins, and Victoria Voith for their openness and collegiality during my formative years in applied animal behavior. Their encouragement and suggestions made my transition from a basic researcher to an applied researcher/clinical animal behaviorist a most gratifying experience. Thanks also go to Judi Wright Lashnits and Carol and Richard Wight for providing impetus for writing Is Your Cat Crazy? We both wish to thank our editor, Natalie Chapman, and agent, Jim Frenkel, for their guidance and suggestions, and Judi s family, Tom, Erin, and John, for their patience and enthusiasm.
Is Your Cat Crazy?
Introduction

In the past few years, the fifty-five million-plus cats in America have snatched away from dogs the distinction of being the most popular household pet and companion animal in the country. Indeed, the domestic feline-in the form of more than one hundred breeds-is kept and enjoyed by countless millions of people throughout the world.
I m certain there are lots of perfect pets who bring nothing but joy to their owners and families. And there are many, many more with one or two annoying habits that people just put up with-because Whiskers is so much fun for the kids, or Midnight is so sweet and cuddly, or Tiger is such a good mouser.
But even though their reputation of being easy keepers -the ideal low-maintenance pet of the frenetic 1990s-has helped boost the species popularity, there is a downside to cat ownership. Like dogs, cats are subject to stubborn, maddening behavior problems. And many once-loved pets regretfully-but often with guilty relief-are given away, abandoned, or put to sleep because their owners cannot deal with the things their cats and kittens kept doing.
The animal shelters are full of beautiful, healthy cats that very likely could have been lifelong pets had their frustrated owners known what to do when problems arose or how to prevent those problems in the first place. More than four million felines are taken in by shelters every year in the United States. Some are the result of a difficult-to-control population explosion among unowned cats, but many others are there because of unsolved behavior problems that were driving their owners crazy.
Many cats obey several commands, but you can t order them to use the litter box instead of the new carpeting. (Obedience training isn t the answer for this species, any more than it is the total answer for some dogs-as anyone knows who has a canine that heels and sits upon command but still bites Johnny at every opportunity.) These are the same cats that are attacking their owners, spraying on all the sofa cushions, or defecating on the mother-in-law s bed. Or maybe they are acting jealous of the baby, scratching the furniture, or picking fights with the dog or other cat in the house.
Until fairly recently, people couldn t help pets with tough behavior problems such as inappropriate elimination or aggression (which make up about 95 percent of my workload) because nobody really knew what to do. Even the so-called experts were just feeling their way along.
The fact is, we are just beginning to get a handle on feline behavior. We still know relatively little about cats, the pets that inhabit at least 20 percent of all households in sixteen countries. Dogs were domesticated several thousand years before cats were, and it s only during the past hundred years or so that cats have been bred in a systematic way.
Many of the dozens of books explaining cat behavior are based on casual observations, educated (or uneducated) guesses, and armchair theories, with a number of old wives tales thrown in; there have been so few scientific studies of domestic cat behavior that much of what is known is actually sheer speculation. As animal behaviorists learn more about typical cat behavior and what makes these fascinating animals tick, we and then the owners will be able to understand and correct behavior problems better.
Only in the past decade have people begun to have access to highly competent and ethical consultants who have devoted many years to learning about the behavior of companion animals. Unfortunately, by the time cat owners turn to professionally certified animal behaviorists-if there s one to be found-they are usually desperate. Our services are often the last resort before they give up on their pets.
They ve read everything and tried everything. They ve taken suggestions from the veterinarian, the breeder, the local psychic, the next-door neighbor, and the mailman-everyone but an animal behaviorist-mainly because they don t know that we exist. And that s not surprising, considering that there are fewer than fifty certified applied animal behaviorists in North America, pioneers in a still-emerging field.
What exactly do these cat therapists do? In my case, I make house calls. I ve found it the best way to help the cat owner help the cat.
This is how I work:
When I receive a phone call, usually upon referral from a veterinarian, I generally spend five or ten minutes talking with the caller about the cat and the problem. About one out of five of these people can be helped with some simple advice over the phone. But if the problem continues, or is not one that can be solved with a quick fix (as most of them aren t), I often make an appointment to visit the caller and the cat in their house or apartment.
I make sure the cat has had a recent checkup (by the referring veterinarian, if there is one) before the house visit, to identify any physical problems that may be contributing to the behavior.
I tell the owner to expect a one- to two-hour session, during which I make a behavioral diagnosis and describe and provide a written treatment program. Usually, clients begin seeing results after one or two weeks of the average six-week program and call me as needed for telephone follow-ups until the situation is resolved to their satisfaction.
Once we discuss in the initial phone call the amount of time and effort required by the owner and I am fairly sure about the nature of the problem, we talk about the outlook regarding resolution or management of the misbehavior. If it s clear that the circumstances make the chances very poor, I tell the pet owner, suggest alternatives, and recommend another certified animal behaviorist for a second opinion.
If the chances for improvement are reasonably good or better, we set up an appointment with the understanding that at least some degree of success can be expected. There s no problem behavior that I ll refuse to deal with in cats, but I always talk about options and the likelihood of resolving or decreasing the problem.
But when the first telephone call is truly a last resort, sometimes it comes too late-not for the pet, for you usually can teach an old cat new tricks, but for the owner. Some people are so emotionally exhausted, their patience worn so thin, that the prospect of spending six to eight weeks working with their companion animal on a behavior-restructuring program is more than they can handle. And if they can t bring themselves to make that commitment up front, my hands are tied-I can t even try to help them.
How do people react when a vet refers them to a Ph.D. psychologist to help their cats? Alot of cat owners are frustrated and fearful. They don t want to be told that they will have to get rid of their cats, and-because they realize they are all emotionally wrapped up with the cats and the problems-some fear I ll somehow try to take advantage of their situation.
So, if they sound worried or anxious when they call or aloof abou