Short-tempered Cats Use Physical Violence on People to Assert Their Position. True or False?

Cat attack (fun picture)
Cat attack (fun picture) – not a real one but a nice picture.
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Is it true that some short-tempered domestic cats assert their dominance over their caretaker by using violence against them? Perhaps they do but I believe that we must be very careful when we assess it because there is a fine difference between playing and deliberately using violence to assert dominance.

You’ll probably find that under certain circumstances within a home, perhaps more often in multi-cat homes, that some partly unsocialised cats may attack their owner as a means to dominate. However, I’d have thought it was rarely encountered.

We know that cats within a colony will have a hierarchy and dominant cats will assert their dominance through body language and behaviour. We also know, or I believe that this is the case, that domestic cats see their human caretaker as a cat and therefore, on the face of it and logically, it is possible for a domestic cat, despite the huge disparity in size, to try and assert dominance over his human caretaker/guardian.

Dr Bruce Fogle states that his sister’s cat developed a habit of smacking her face when she was asleep and also her ankles when she was awake. Her cat did this when he wanted food. He goes on to say that some cats go further than this and attack the new boyfriend who has just moved into the apartment.

I feel compelled to at least partly disagree with the good doctor because I do not think that when a cat is getting the attention of his owner that they are attacking them in any shape or form. The cat is simply attracting attention and often this takes place when the person is asleep while the cat is fully awake in the early hours of the morning. This is due to the disparity in the internal clock of humans and cats.

In addition, attacking ankles is nearly always associated with play and has nothing to do with hierarchical dominance.

The doctor says that if a cat does attack their caretaker, the person should not let the cat think that he has won. If they do it inevitably leads to more aggression. The person should stand their ground and for the more aggressive cats a cat behaviorist, Vicky Halls, suggests that the owner could wear full biker leathers and a full-face helmet!

The doctor suggests using a soft cushion as a means of protection, or to throw at the cat, when the cat is aggressive. In addition heavy gloves should be worn and as an alternative, if the cat dislikes water a lot, then a water pistol can be used.

I have to say that I disagree with nearly all of this but perhaps I am out on a limb in my thoughts. I have never experienced, however, cat aggression directed at me by any of my cats unless I have provoked it.

None of my cats have ever been anywhere near aggressive towards me but this may be partly because they recognise my dominance over them even though I make no effort to demonstrate it. That said I’m not sure I’m correct in that assessment. However, there may be something in the fact that some people have a more submissive nature and if you combine this with a cat who is naturally dominant, the circumstances may invite a problem.

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8 thoughts on “Short-tempered Cats Use Physical Violence on People to Assert Their Position. True or False?”

  1. Nice points Eva. In general, I agree with what you say. However, I am not sure that the circumstances you describe (insecurity about the human’s intentions and insecure environment) result in aggressively dominant behavior. It may result in an insecure cat which leads to defensive aggressiveness – precautionary aggression https://www.youtube.com/

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  2. Since watching a few episodes of “My Cat From Hell”, I saw behaviors I’d never seen before, and most of the time it was aggression toward the guardians, who didn’t seem to know much about cat behaviors.

    Many times the solution was to make the house more cat friendly with a couple of high places.

    Sometimes the man in a male/female couple relationship didn’t like cats, and tried to keep the cat apart from the woman guardian. This brought out some agressive behaviors from the cat.

    It’s an interesting show, but I didn’t actually like watching angry, frightened cats, and thought about how some people must view that to support their abuse of cats. Maybe just my imagination…

    Mitzy has scratched me a couple of times when we were playing, and I didn’t get the signal that she’d had enough, or whatever was going on with her. Mostly I let her bite the feathered bird, which is her favorite toy. I play with her in the early morning and the late afternoon when she’s most receptive.

    I try to make her environment cat friendly as much as I can. She has many favorite spots, and sleeps in different places every night. I wonder if that’s from being a feral. My other cats seemed to have more regular sleeping spots, and I’d had them since kittens.

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  3. For me, aggression is often an emotional response to how they are feeling.

    Sometimes fear is the cause. I know whenever Sophie was spooked, re-directed aggression would kick-in and I was the target many a time. A fearful cat who feels “cornered” is also likely to lash out in self defence.

    Frustration and boredom can trigger predatory aggression, whereby the humans in the home become the focus of their attention. This is especially true for indoor only cats with little to do. It’s why regular hunting style games are important because they enable them to burn off excess energy and vent any frustrations “killing” the toy.

    Of course every cat is different and some individuals are more assertive than others. Sophie certainly was with my other cats and even myself on a couple of occasions. There was never an issue of trust here. I know little of her background other than she was rescued as a street kitten. Apparently she’d been trying to fight her way into the small group of strays, but they kept rejecting her. I always wondered whether her assertive peronality was due to nuture or nature

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    • For me, aggression is often an emotional response to how they are feeling.

      I fully agree with that. I am that 90% of cat aggression in the home is because the cat is feeling threatened or anxious due to environmental factors and circumstance. But some cats might demonstrate assertive aggression. I am sure it is rare. Perhaps I am simplifying it but the fact that we are so large in comparison to a domestic cat makes us so intimidating from the standpoint of dominance that a cat is very unlikely to try and impose his/her will on a human through aggression.

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  4. I tend to agree with what Eva wrote here about fear and pain where cats can become “aggressive”. I agree that this is not “dominance” but self-protection in nature.

    I also agree with Dee in that “translating” aggressive behavior from a human perspective is generally simply projection.

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  5. Ofcourse, they do.
    Aggression is their only recourse when humans barge into their space, force their will on them, or assign them un-cat expectations.
    Any assumptions that we make, from a human standpoint, are wrong.

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  6. Hello again_ My opinion is that cats do not display dominance towards their pet [ meaning you ] unless they feel insecure about your intentions towards them or are unhappy with their environment and or the attention they are receiving from you. Quality time is very important for them; just as it is with our human children.

    Cats show this Dominance on other like kind, to defend territory , food Or their offspring and even you. Is there a bond of TRUST in the relationship?

    One exception would be Fear and or Pain. Is your cat afraid of you or someone else? Has your cat been injured? Is your cat very ill? Do you know how to find out these things for the welfare of him or her? GOOD QUESTIONs to research and find out. Love is a Two way Exchange.
    Eva say’s_______

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    • Nice points Eva. In general, I agree with what you say. However, I am not sure that the circumstances you describe (insecurity about the human’s intentions and insecure environment) result in aggressively dominant behavior. It may result in an insecure cat which leads to defensive aggressiveness – precautionary aggression – rather than dominance.

      Reply

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