Keeping Cats Away

[Dollythehun]

Spinrah, I read your last post and I wanted to reply thoughtfully. I am a cat lover and have owned cats for many years. I have spent enough money on my cats to buy a nice house. I love them dearly. But they are cats.

I understand your thoughts about negative reinforcement, but animals, like people, are individuals. What works for me and my animals, may not work for another person, as the original poster described. I believe it's important that we not be judgmental about how people care for their animals, unless they're clearly being abused. I think that this post is starting to slide into that area, and that troubles me.

[spinrah]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

Spinrah, I read your last post and I wanted to reply thoughtfully. I am a cat lover and have owned cats for many years. I have spent enough money on my cats to buy a nice house. I love them dearly. But they are cats.

I understand your thoughts about negative reinforcement, but animals, like people, are individuals. What works for me and my animals, may not work for another person, as the original poster described. I believe it's important that we not be judgmental about how people care for their animals, unless they're clearly being abused. I think that this post is starting to slide into that area, and that troubles me.

Maybe I should clarify - I’m not trying to imply that anyone is abusing their cats. In my opinion, punishment doesn’t work as a form of long term training with cats. In operant conditioning, negative reinforcement is when a negative stimulus is removed, and punishment is when a negative stimulus is applied. The water spray example is an example of punishment. Another example of punishment is talking sternly to your dog when they do something wrong. I’m not making a judgment that anyone is engaging in animal abuse. I’m trying to say that positive reinforcement, in my experience, works much better than punishment as a form of conditioning with cats. This is because dogs are pack animals that learn to “respect” hierarchical structures within the pack. Cats are different and so punishment will work differently with them.

[WaterWitchin]

Originally Posted by Dollythehun

Spinrah, I read your last post and I wanted to reply thoughtfully. I am a cat lover and have owned cats for many years. I have spent enough money on my cats to buy a nice house. I love them dearly. But they are cats.

I understand your thoughts about negative reinforcement, but animals, like people, are individuals. What works for me and my animals, may not work for another person, as the original poster described. I believe it's important that we not be judgmental about how people care for their animals, unless they're clearly being abused. I think that this post is starting to slide into that area, and that troubles me.

Thank you for your thoughtful words, Dolly. I was trying to figure out as a moderator how to gently handle this and word it, but my think-time has been limited so far today.

What Dolly says ^^ We don't need to start a cat fight here.

[spinrah]

Originally Posted by WaterWitchin

Thank you for your thoughtful words, Dolly. I was trying to figure out as a moderator how to gently handle this and word it, but my think-time has been limited so far today.

What Dolly says ^^ We don't need to start a cat fight here.

I didn't realize I was starting a fight by discussing my thoughts on different styles of operant conditioning. Apologies - I will leave it alone.

[Dollythehun]

Originally Posted by spinrah

I didn't realize I was starting a fight by discussing my thoughts on different styles of operant conditioning. Apologies - I will leave it alone.

With the deepest respect to you Spinrah, this is a text forum. We can't see your face, nor hear the tone of your voice. And your words in print seemed (to me) overly harsh. I apologize if I'm incorrect.