Urine spraying, scratching the furniture, aggression towards people, fighting with other cats, not using the litter tray…These are some of the problems that cat owners call me to ask for help with. They usually ask me two main questions: “Why is my cat doing this?”“How can I stop it happening?”The answer to both these questions can be found by examining the cat’s emotional state, both generally and at the time of the problem behaviour, and understanding the consequence of the behaviour from the cat’s perception.

The subject of animal emotions is a thorny one. While most scientists now agree that mammals have ’feelings’ and that those feelings drive their behaviour, there is still a minority who maintain that animals operate in a machine-like way and that we humans are unique in our capacity to experience emotion. I believe there is plenty of good scientific evidence in support of animal emotions and I make no apology for basing my approach on this premise.
 
But, even for those who accept that animals have emotions, there is the problem of subjectivity—how can we, as humans, ever know what our cats are feeling? They can’t tell us, at least not verbally!

While there is no truly objective way to determine what any animal is feeling, we can gain a great deal of insight by using analogy, or similarity. Many features of cat anatomy and physiology are similar to ours, and function in the same way towards the same end-point, e.g. the respiratory and digestive systems. Using this concept of analogy, we can look at the way animals behave like us in certain situations and draw the very reasonable conclusion that what they are feeling is probably similar to what we would feel—and there is research to back this up which has also measured stress hormones etc. An animal’s body posture, muscle tone, facial expressions and vocalisations are intuitively recognisable as indicators of emotional states to most people. Scientific studies have confirmed that our intuitive interpretations of animal emotions are largely correct because they predict very accurately what the animal will do next. So if your cat looks afraid, then runs away or hides or freezes, he probably is afraid. If the cat looks angry then lashes out, he probably is angry.

But we must remember that mammals are similar, not identical, to humans: I’ve never known a human to spray urine! So how can we possibly have any idea of the emotions involved?

Well, we can go quite some way towards finding out by studying the behaviour in context: if the circumstances are unpleasant, e.g. the animal is in danger or under social stress, then the likelihood that the animal is experiencing a correspondingly unpleasant emotion at the time of the behaviour is high. Again, this can be backed up by measuring hormones and other physiological indicators.

But why is it so important to understand emotion? Because, as I mentioned previously, we need to understand the consequence of problem behaviour to know how to help correct it, and the consequence can be partially or fully emotional.

Animals do what works for them! So, if the result of a cat’s behaviour is pleasing to him, the behaviour is reinforced and he is highly likely to repeat it in the same circumstances to gain the same result. Reinforcement can be physical, e.g. gaining food or attention or making something horrible go away, or it can be emotional, e.g. relieving anxiety or boredom. In practise, most behaviour is reinforced by a combination of physical and emotional factors.

An emotional assessment also includes a measure of how an animal feels generally – the feeling that is left when he is at home after the trials and tribulations of the day. The emotional state normally fluctuates marginally throughout the day.

The way an animal (or a person) reacts to an event will be very different depending on their basic emotional state. A cat’s general emotional state is determined by whether the needs of his species, breed and individual personality are met – otherwise known as the hedonic budget. If the hedonic budget is unbalanced and the cat has, e.g. too little or too much stimulation, he is likely to become depressed or chronically stressed

If a cat is happy and content, his reaction to any unpleasant or scary event will be proportional, and he will usually recover quickly. If the cat is generally anxious, depressed or stressed, the same event could induce explosive anger or extreme fear: in other words, he will overreact and the incident may have long lasting consequences.

An unhappy cat will also try to find his own way to make himself feel better, and his chosen coping method may not be acceptable to his human owner — hence problem behaviour.

So, if behaviour problems can be are understood by examining the cat’s emotional state and determining the consequences, how can behaviour be modified?

It’s simple really:
1) Balance the hedonic budget to improve the cat’s general mood state.
2) Change the cat’s emotional response to the factors that provoke the problem behaviour, e.g. if he’s scared of loud noises, change how he feels about them.
3) Change the consequence so that it is no longer reinforcing the behaviour, e.g. excessive vocalisation can be attention-seeking so, if this is the case, don’t give your cat any attention for yowling!

Although these three procedures are all that is needed — and sometimes only one will suffice — cat owners should never attempt to solve behavioural problems without expert guidance. Detailed assessment is required in order to understand the precise reinforcers as well as the cat’s emotional state. Changing how any animal feels, e.g. from frightened to calm, needs very careful use of scientifically proven techniques. Changing the consequence of a behaviour can have unexpected results that can themselves present new problems. Getting it wrong, however well-meaning the attempt, can prove disastrous so, if you feel your cat’s behaviour is a problem and you’d like to change things for the better, please ask your vet to refer you to me or another CAPBT behaviourist in your area who will help in the kindest and most effective way possible.

If you would me to help you and your cat, please go to Consultations for more information.