Neither positive reinforcement nor punishment, there is an “intermediate space” between the two in dog/cat training

Neither positive reinforcement nor punishment, there is an "intermediate space" between the two in dog/cat training

The mantra for so many years has been that the only way to train your dog or cat is through positive reinforcement. This is reward-based. The concept of punishment to get a dog or cat to do what you want them to do has been quite rightly outlawed. It doesn’t work. It just makes …

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Do you sometimes yell at your cat or dog?

Never shout or yell at your cat or dog

If you have sometimes yelled at your cat or dog I wouldn’t blame you. Perhaps you are very stressed. It is very easy to be stressed nowadays. The world is very stressful! There’s all kinds of things which stress people including, in the UK, scammers. The UK is drowning in scammers. Scammers on the …

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Why a robotic vacuum cleaner might be better than a standard one for a cat owner

Cat rides on a vacuum cleaner

This point has not been discussed as far as I am aware. The potential problem came to me this morning. We know that nearly all domestic cats are frightened of vacuum cleaners because of the noise they make. To a domestic cat they can look like a hostile, noisy predator. And pushing the vacuum …

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Are spray bottles effective on cats?

Don't punish your cat with water spray

This is a pretty old question and one that pops up frequently. I think it’s still relevant because when you search on the Internet and read about it in books it is apparent that it remains a popular way to alter the behaviour of cats. Jackson Galaxy (who’s visited many homes with cat problems) …

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The difference between cat punishment and negative reinforcement

Say nothing they'll blame the dog

The difference between punishing a cat and negative reinforcement, both of which should be avoided, is that the former requires the cat to be able to measure his/her behaviour against norms as decided by humans which is something that is beyond them while the later is simply associating a certain behaviour with something painful …

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Best selling author agrees with PoC on cat punishment

Temple Grandin, in association with Catherine Johnson, in their book “Animals Make Us Human” agrees with me and other PoC supporters and regulars (who are very important to this website in getting the message across) that.. “…you can’t train a cat using punishment and negative reinforcement….” Click on this link if you’d like to …

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