Do You Have Problems With Your Cat's Behaviour? Let's Talk To A Feline Expert

You’ve probably heard the very English expression “It’s raining cats and dogs,” but New Yorker Sharon Mear altered it slightly when she founded her company,  “Training Cats and Dogs” (www.trainingcatsandogs.com) in 2001. This was a career change because she had previously worked in the entertainment industry.

home  improvement 

Mear’s philosophy with animals – and with humans – is “respect and compassion.” She is also an advocate of animal rights and a vegetarian. When training animals she uses methods that reinforce good behaviour and ignore bad. When a cat does something wrong and gets pleasure from it, like ruining furniture or clothes, it will do it again. Sharon tries to modify an animal’s behaviour through attention, praise, treats and play. Physical affection is essential. It’s difficult to solve bad or aggressive behaviour, if you don’t give your cat plenty of attention.

And what was the most unusual cat she had ever had to deal with? “Some years back,” Sharon says, “I had a lady who was a masseuse and every time her clients lay down on the mat and took off their shoes, her cat ran in and bit their toes!” The solution was relatively simple: “If the cat really has to be in your working environment, then at least wait until your client walks out before letting your cat into the room!” 

Sharon usually holds sessions in the apartments where the cat and its owner live. This is because the best results are usually obtained on territory that is familiar to the animal.

Even more importantly, Sharon says that potential owners should think carefully before getting a cat. They should ask themselves questions like: “Will I be able to spend enough time with a cat? What kind of temperament and personality will suit my family? Do any family members have allergies?

personality 

And what about the division between “cat lovers” and “dog lovers”: does it really exist? “Yes,” say Sharon Mear, “it used to be that men preferred dogs and women preferred cats. I think that’s a stereotype, but I am seeing more and more single men get cats,” although she isn’t entirely sure why: “It could be because it’s less work and less responsibility.” 

(play the audio)

INTERVIEW: out of the blue

If you live in New York and your cat is behaving strangely, who do you call? The answer is Sharon Mear, a “certified behaviour counselor, trainer and instructor.” Sharon also works with difficult dogs, but we asked her specifically about cats. What, for example, was the most typical problem?

Sharon Mear (Standard American accent): The number one issue, I’d say, that I get called about is elimination problems, and the owners often say, “Out of the blue my cat stopped using the litter box.” Well, what’s so is no behaviour happens out of the blue: you always need a stimulus in the environment because behaviour doesn’t happen in a vacuum; it needs the stimulus and the environment. People aren’t aware of what the cat is actually communicating before it acts out, when you notice. Obviously, when a cat takes its paw and whacks you, that didn’t happen out of the blue: it probably was flicking its tail, it probably was shrugging and moving its body around, saying, “Ah, I don’t really like what you’re doing,” but since humans aren’t adept at reading the language  of another species, they go, “Ah, out of the blue, he just whacked me!”

cats can get lonely! 

And, as she explains, she doesn’t really train the cats so much as their owners:

Sharon Mear: In general, I think the misconception is that cats don’t need that much attention or discipline. What’s so is they need a lot of attention. They don’t need attention the way that a dog does: you’re not taking the cat out for a walk, the cat doesn’t necessarily need to learn to “sit” and “stay” before a meal, but a cat needs affection, it needs attention, it needs a source of comfort. So people that go away for weekends and just say, “You know, it’s OK, I’ll just leave food out for my cat,” don’t really understand that cats get lonely, and they need human contact, unless they’re from a feral community, which is a whole other, you know, topic. So that’s a misconception with humans. So I try to teach people to understand and show them how to help their cat integrate, especially if the cat is not a, quote, “friendly” cat, is sort of more aloof, and cats certainly are more aloof than dogs, but there are some who absolutely love attention and will sit and play and do what's ever (whatever’s) necessary, like a dog...generally, the domestic short hairs, which is what most people have in the city.