Interactive Play for Your Cat Behavior Modification
Because a cat is first and foremost a hunter, you can use an interactive toy to switch her focus from
something negative to positive. Here’s a common example: your cat hides whenever she hears a
strange noise. You look under the bed and find two eyes staring at you in terror.
Get out one of your moves it around the room. There’s a good chance you’ll get your cat to
focus on it. She may not come out from under the bed right away, but she’ll at least give the toy some
attention. Your casual attitude sends a signal to her that all is okay in the house. The wrong thing to
do after she dives under the bed in terror is to reach down and pull her out so you can hold her. The
last thing she wants is to be clutched in your arms. First of all, she’d feel confined (cats don’t tend to
like that) and second, she’d pick up the message from you that whatever the noise was, it must’ve
been something as bad as she thought. Clutching her would be reinforcing her view that the event
was the end of the world. Casual playtime, on the other hand, allows her to keep the comforting
option of remaining under the bed but helps her to realize she doesn’t need to.
Cats, like children, require two very specific emotional things from us to feel secure. Affection is
one. Humans and animals both benefit from being touched and provided with a reassuring physical
connection. What parent doesn’t enjoy holding her child, and what cat owner doesn’t cherish any
opportunity to hold or pet her cat? The other thing you must provide is a reassurance. For example,
parents (much like cat owners) must allow their children to gain confidence by letting them
accomplish things on their own. If you are a parent, I’m sure you’ve watched your child try to do
something new or maybe even a little scary, such as going down a slide for the first time. Instead of
confirming her fears by clutching her in your arms and agreeing that the slide is a big, scary thing, you
explain to her how much fun it is. You reassure her that you’ll be at the bottom to catch her but that
she’s going to love it. Your reassurance, calm voice, and light manner (maybe you even go down the
slide yourself) calm her fears. When she does finally go down the slide, you’re waiting at the bottom,
and she immediately forgets the fears she had and wants to do it again! Casual interactive playtime
with your troubled cat works the same way. Your impulse may be to hold your cat when she reacts to
something scary, but in many cases that may only convince her that her fear is valid. Refocus her
attention on something positive by triggering her prey-drive. This doesn’t mean you have to engage
her in a rip-roaring, high-intensity play session, but rather, just shift her focus. Maybe she’ll
play—maybe she won’t. What matters is that your casual and calm body language reassures her that
she is safe and secure and offers her a little anxiety-relieving distraction.
You can use toys to counteract many negative situations. Play sessions can help two cats who
don’t get along by distracting them from focusing so intensely on each other. As soon as you see the
tension building, pull out a couple of toys. The cats become distracted by the toys. As they play
toys so they don’t have to compete), they begin to associate fun playtime with
being together. They get used to being in the same room without having tension.
Interactive toys can also be used to help combat emotional problems; they could possibly reignite a
depressed cat’s spark for life. Interactive sessions can also help a cat become more comfortable in a
new home. And cats who tend to be aggressive benefit from this sort of play because they can take
their aggression out on the toy instead of their owners or other pets.
If your cat hates your new spouse or significant other, have that person engage in most of the
interactive play sessions. This will help build trust at a safe distance from the cat’s point of view.
Through play, the cat will begin to associate the spouse with positive experiences.
If your cat is spraying in a certain area, conduct an interactive play session in that spot to help
change his association with that section of the room. By playing there, it becomes a positive, fun area.
For more on spraying behavior, refer to Chapter 8.
If you’re expecting a new baby, interactive playtime will help the cat adjust to the frightening
changes. Play a tape of baby sounds at a low volume while conducting interactive play sessions.
during playtime. For
example, if you’re playing in a wide open room with all the furniture close to the walls, the timid cat
might be too nervous to step out into the open and expose herself. Cats in an outdoor setting prefer
not to hunt in wide open fields. They depend on tall grasses, trees, bushes, stumps, and other objects
to allow them to make full use of their stealth. When you’re playing with your timid indoor cat, place
boxes, bags, cushions, pillows, or whatever objects are handy in the middle of the room to create
hiding places and thus more security for her. Once she ventures out and eventually starts playing,
she’ll become more at ease. If you’d prefer, you can purchase several soft-side cat tunnels that can
be connected to one another. Several of these placed around a room can be sufficient to help make a
timid cat feel invisible enough to attempt to hunt. You can also make tunnels by cutting the bottoms
out of several paper bags.
Interactive play sessions appeal to a cat’s natural instincts and that can help change her focus and
behavior. As you go through this book, you’ll find I’ve indicated many situations in which play
sessions would be beneficial. That’s how important playtime is to your cat.
