This is silly. Cat ‘owners’ should never squirt water on their cat to make them move away from an area which the person considers out of bounds. As the video shows it does not always work but it may work in another way: weaken the friendship between person and their cat companion. It is just not sensible to do something to your cat which upsets your cat as he or she will connect being upset or emotionally hurt with the person. Your cat may forget the incident but it may cause the cat to become a little anxious around his owner which is the last thing that an owner wants to happen.
Cat guardians want a close bond between themselves and their feline companion. The closer the better because both parties will benefit more in terms of enjoying each other’s company when their relationship is very close. Spraying water on your cat can distance the owner from this goal.
I would suggest that no really good cat caretaker would do this. There are better ways such as positive reinforcement (clicker training). Spraying water is a form of negative reinforcement, better known as punishment. Although I feel there is a difference between negative reinforcement and out and out punishment. The better advice is to never punish your cat. I know sometimes we can lose our rag. We can become frayed and take out our frustrations and anger on our cat but, once again, this is clearly a failure.
This video is considered entertainment. It’s on the internet as a fun video. I don’t want to be overly serious but it is no entertainment for the cat in question. In short it is unethical. You wouldn’t squirt water over a 3 year old toddler and laugh and put the subsequent video on the internet. Use the same standards for our cats.
What an ass! The only way to make the cat leave the table is to teach the cat not to get up there. Every time mine does, I tell her to get down and then I gently put her on the floor of chair. (Cleo is the only one who does it.) She understands that she is not allowed there and will get down when I tell her to. (Although she does make a lovely grey statue sitting there! 😸)
I do have a water bottle with her name on it. It is only used when she tries to climb my legs while I’m cooking. The best part is: I only had to use it once or twice before she understood the meaning. Now all I have to do is shake the bottle and make a verbal sound like water squirting. She squints her eyes and changes her mind.
Yes, indeed. Happy Christmas.
Thank you, Michael. Happy Christmas to you also.
Cats have no understanding of punishment. They can’t relate their “crime” to consequences. It’s a waste of time and effort for humans to even assert that. My opinion is that what works around 80% of the time is to create a diversion, ie. to distract them from what we deem undesirable behavior.
I dont adhere to cats being sprayed,all it does is teach it to fear ye.
The person is a cruel moron. Deliberately antagonising any being is wrong, for shits, giggles, power thrills or any other reason, it is unforgivable.
Punishment is nothing to do with negative reinforcement. The latter is more about absence of reward, the former is about teaching fear.
Punishment of any kind has no part in any kind of training of humans or other species.
If you want to see how rubbish punishment is, see the er, ‘work’ of Cesar Milan. If you want to see positive/negative reinforcement, aka humane training, see the excellent work of Victoria Stilwell.
The cat won’t forget that cruelty.