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hello all!
i've lived with cats all my life, and have developed a certain degree of understanding of the feline mind over 35 years, but 5 years ago i acquired a cute little kitten who grew into my cute little chelsea-monster. i think she is probably 1/8 siamese as her mum was the long, elegant exotic body with a fine wedge shaped head. chelsea is shorter in body, hint of wedge shape to her head and can be quite vocal, with a diverse array of sounds, but not the siamese yowl. she is also the most challenging and aggressive cat i have ever lived with. partly due to her nature, and partly, i suspect, to do with my decision to keep her as an indoor cat, the last 4 years in an apartment downtown. (all my previous kitties had the choice to go outside and most of them did. back then i lived in the suburbs.) she does enjoy the balcony, especially when foolish pigeons decide to land!
we have had battles of will for most of her life. i have had to teach her to suck up for meals, with the cue "be nice" and her rubbing on my hand. this she understands, but not always with enthusiasm.
bed time has often been a challenge, as she often thought i should feed her or entertain her instead of going to bed. ankles were threatened and attacked as i approached my bed, and legs were often at serious risk of being mauled through the duvet. i would sometimes cave in and give her treats before she got nasty, so i could sneak into bed. i would also resort to the threat of a spray bottle, or a glass of water in emergencies, to ward off attacks, and follow through with a good soaking if she attacked. she'd remember this for a week or 2 and behave, sleeping nicely on the bed then the cycle would start over.
typing on the keyboard has been a hazardous occupation at times. dirty looks and if i miss it a sudden death grip on my wrist leaving sometimes nasty toothmarks. this usually resulted in me yelling then shutting her in the bathroom for a timeout session of 2 or 3 minutes. this behaviour has also been through cycles of good and bad.
she occasionally gets a vacation at my parents house in the 'burbs, with lots of space to run around in, birds, squirrels and chipmunks to chase from window to window and walks on the leash in the garden. this was all great, but she has my mum wrapped around her little paw pad, and mum thought as long as she kept feeding the beast, she could tame her. i tried to insist on mum following certain protocols, but chelsea won the battles.
it got really bad this summer when she stayed at mum and dad's for 6 weeks, the last 3 with me present, so i could see how she took control. her terrorist tactics involved threatening and attacking mum and dad's ankles (although dad rarely feeds her, he does have heavy feet) to the point dad was afraid of her and resentful, and mum resorted to luring chelsea into the family room with a handful of food scattered across the floor. so chelsea got what she wanted!
and so we are back home, and last week i suddenly thought to look up cat aggression online, and lo! i find an article about the alpha cat. aha! now why didn't i recognize it before?? been staring me in the face (or glaring at my ankles) for the past 5 years! and this article recommended clicker training, and so i found karen pryor's site, and went out to buy a clicker and a bag of treats, and started bumbling through the initial training steps. picked up her book at the library last weekend, and refined my techniques a bit.
just over a week of training and we are both coming along nicely. i have set up a blog, so if anyone wishes to read more of my rambling, please do check it out. i would appreciate any input!!
http://chelsea-cat.blogspot.com
i do have questions, but i think i will save them for later. if you have read all that, thank you!!
enthusiastic clicker newbie,
fiona
2 comments:
Just wanted to wish you luck and say that I'm glad I've come across your blog! I also have an "aggressive" cat, who I'm certain is alpha in this household. He's ~2 years old, and the only nights I've slept through without being woken by him several times were nights where I slept in a hotel or at someone else's house. I picked up a clicker last week, but haven't started using it. Here's hoping it will be the cure for both of our kitties!
hi erin! thanks so much for stopping by and commenting. means a lot that i can share this with other people who want to do the right thing by their cats! i can tell you that once i turn out the lights, my kitty accepts that i'm not getting up til morning and settles down to keep my feet or legs warm. if yours really doesn't settle down at night, it might be best to shut him out of your bedroom when you go to bed, to avoid the possibility of aggression. (assuming you have a bedroom door!) hopefully you can let him in after clicker training has started and he is showing you more respect. best of luck to you, too!
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