Cats are delightful, but they have a reputation for doing whatever they want. Growing up, I always heard that cats can’t be trained so you just dealt with their behavior. Our knowledge of cats and their behavior has grown since I was young, so is it true that cats’ behavior can’t change?
I wish I had a simple answer, but reality is complicated: Behavior change is possible in cats, but not every behavior can or will change. Let’s talk about realistic expectations and what you might be able to change with your cat.
Things You Can’t Change
There is some truth to the idea that can’t behavior can’t change, but it’s more accurate to say that some of their behaviors won’t change. There are certain species specific behaviors that are very normal for cats. Even if we don’t like them, you likely won’t get them to go away entirely. If you do manage to suppress them (which I don’t recommend trying), there may be fallout from it such as a new behavior that you also don’t like.
Normal Cat Behaviors
Cats have certain behavioral needs that need to be met. If they can’t engage in these behaviors, you’ll start seeing frustration and stress related behaviors. There are individual differences in how important each of them are, but they’re needs of cats. These behaviors include:
- Climbing
- Playing in a way that immitates hunting
- Scratching and marking their territory
- Hiding and feeling safe
Some of these, such as climbing, can result in behaviors that annoy us like cats climbing on our counters. That doesn’t mean you can’t offer your cat more appealing alternative places to climb, but you likely won’t have a cat who never goes on your counter, table, or other elevated surfaces. Some cats may naturally prefer hiding in a cozy nook so they won’t climb a ton, but if your cat is a climber? You’re fighting a losing battle trying to stop it.
Functionally Unchangeable Behaviors
Other behaviors might be changeable, but the amount of effort or time required in order to change them are monumental. The chances of you successfully altering these behavior are slim so I like to call these functionally unchangeable behavior.
A great example of this is if you have a cat that really doesn’t like other cats. They may instantly become highly stressed out at seeing one of your other cats. If you’ve done everything you can to try to help them get along, at a certain point you are unlikely to have them live in harmony. You could keep trying, but you may reach a point where it just won’t work. It may also not work with your schedule, budget, or lifestyle to make it work. While rehoming isn’t an easy choice to make, in these situations it may be the kindest thing to do.
Things That Might Change
Now that we’ve got the doom and gloom out of the way, what about behaviors that you can sometimes change? A lot of common cat behavior concerns fall under this category. House soiling, as an example, can often be resolved or improved. It may not be in the way you want if you are set on your cat using a specific type of litter box or keeping all your litter boxes in one location.
You might be able to change other behaviors such as play aggression by managing it with lots of play while you have a young, playful kitten. Over time, it may reduce as they mature. You can also teach them directly to latch onto a fun kicker toy instead of your leg or chase after a toy instead of your other cat. The thing you might not have the ability to change is your cat’s personality: they may still be rambunctious long term even once they mature.
Change Your Expectations
In both of those examples, there is a commonality: you might not be able to change the behavior, but you can channel it into something acceptable. That doesn’t mean you can’t lead a happy life with your cat, but it does require you to adjust your perspective on their behavior.
Let’s think about a cat that won’t use a covered litter box. If you want to use the covered litter box to control litter box odor, you can still keep your home from becoming stinky with an uncovered litter box. Try adding activated charcoal to the litter, hanging a bag with activated charcoal nearby, using a small air purifier, or upping your cleaning game. A stainless steel litter box can also reduce odor. It’s not what you’d prefer, but you can get pretty dang close.
Medical Conditions
Medical conditions, especially medical conditions that cause pain, can create behavior concerns in cats. If the medical condition is something that can be managed or cured, you may see the behavior change. It might not completely resolve, but you can then work with your cat to address anything that remains.
If it’s not a curable condition, you may still be able to address the behavior by making modifications to the environment for your cat. For a cat peeing on your floor who has arthritis, for example, you can use a very low entry litter box to make getting in and out of the litter box easier. If you can’t find one you like, you can even make your own litter box.
Things You Can Change
Thankfully, there are a lot of cat behaviors you do have the power to change. Cats are very trainable and they respond really well to changes in their environment. You are bringing a living creature into your home so knowing a bit about what that creature likes and needs will go a long way!
Cats respond really well to positive reinforcement based training. Reinforcement means a target behavior happens more frequently so by focusing on what behavior you want your cat to do, you’ll get better results than focusing on what you don’t want them to do. You can encourage them to do something else instead of the unwanted behavior. For counter surfing, it may be as simple as giving them a nearby perch to sit on instead of your counter!
Are You Accidentally Training Your Cat?
If you don’t believe me that you can train cats, you probably already have trained them. Cats are constantly learning and they change their interactions with you based on how you respond to their behavior. If you give your cat attention when they nibble on your plants (even if it’s “bad” attention like yelling at them), they’ll be more likely to start munching on the plant to get your attention.
It’s very common that people will accidentally train their cats to wake them up for food, scratch a couch because they’re bored, bite your feet under a blanket, or get on your counter to get you to notice them. You may not have intended to change their behavior, but you did.
Environmental Problems
While training your cat to do specific behaviors changes a cat’s behavior, it’s not the only way to see changes. Changing their home to encourage wanted behaviors and provide outlets for normal cat behavior has a powerful effect. Common behavior concerns related to the way you set up your home include:
- Litter box problems: Picking a pelleted litter or a litter box is hard for your cat to get into may result in house soiling.
- Tension between cats: Not having enough resources or not spreading them out increases the chances of territoriality.
- Destructive scratching: Do you have enough scratching objects? Where are they placed? Are they actually worthwhile scratchers? Put your scratchers in the wrong place or pick something flimsy and cheap and you’ll end up with a cat that goes right to your couch.
How Do You Change Your Cat’s Behavior?
If you want to change your cat’s behavior (and it is something that can be changed), what to do depends on the specific behavior. Changing the environment, training your cat to do a different behavior instead, reducing your cat’s stress, or other techniques that address the underlying reason for the behavior may help. Focus on encouraging wanted behaviors rather than stopping the behavior.
A few easy things to try that will help most cats’ behavior improve:
- Feed your cat smaller meals multiple times during the day (not twice a day)
- Play with your cat in short bursts 2 or 3 times a day
- Add in more cat stuff, especially climbing space and scratchers, than you think you need
- Stop trying to suppress your cat’s behavior using punishments or discipline
- Make sure your cat is healthy and any medical conditions get addressed by a veterinarian
These won’t help everything, but they’ll make more complicated problems easier to solve. If you really aren’t sure what to do, work with a cat behavior consultant who can quickly figure out what the problem is and come up with a plan to get your cat behaving their best.
