Is Your Cat the Boss of You?

Today I'd like to talk about a form of feline owner-directed aggression: the bossy cat.

Cat Hierarchies

Some experts believe cats organize socially in a "despotic hierarchy," where one cat calls the shots for the others, who assume roles as subordinates.

Another social structure adopted by house cats involves less rigidity and more sharing. For example, if the highest level of the cat tree is favored by all the cats in the household, the bossier cat will get first dibs on it and then relinquish it later in the day to another cat.

Both these social arrangements seem to point to the existence of higher status cats in multi-cat environments. If this is the case, it's conceivable the owner of a "boss cat" could be -- in the eyes of the cat -- another employee in his organization.

Kitty Kingpins

Petting-induced aggression may be "instrumental" in nature, meaning it is a means to an end.

When a kitty gets aggressive while being petted, the usual response of the owner is to stop petting him or touching him, which is what the cat hoped would happen. He used aggression to get a desired result. As it turns out, many cats who display petting-related aggression also get hostile around food, when disturbed while resting, if stared at, picked up or held, and when reprimanded.

These bossy felines display controlling personalities. They bite their owners on a specific body part (the nose and toes are particular favorites) to get them moving in the morning or when their meal doesn't arrive fast enough. They are also known to plop down right in the middle of newspapers being read and use biting to get their owners to interact with them.

Experts who've observed this type of kitty behavior agree it isn't related to fear. In fact, these cats seem quite confident and bossy by nature. And "conflict aggression" doesn't describe the behavior either. Most domineering cats belong to compliant, affectionate owners.

Some cats are pushy but stop short of aggression. Bossy cats seem to stop at nothing to get what they want.

Restoring Harmony to Your Household

If you share your life with a kitty control freak, help is available. Depending on the severity of the problem, you can try tackling it yourself, or you can consult a certified animal behavior specialist who has experience with feline aggression.

The first step is to learn to avoid incidents in which your cat may become aggressive with you.
It's also important to learn the signs of impending kitty aggression, including:

• Narrowed eyes
• Furtive glances at the obstacle or irritant (for example, your hand)
• Ears swiveled sideways and flattened against the head
• Twitching tail

If you happen to be holding your cat when any of these signs appear, stop what you're doing, stand up if you're seated, and let the cat drop gently to the ground. If you're standing, bend forward from the waist and release kitty either to the floor or onto a piece of furniture.

Increasing your grip on a cat about to show aggression -- even when your only intent is to lower her from your lap or arms to the floor -- can exacerbate the situation.

If your cat is aggressive at feeding time, you'll need to prepare her meals while she's out of the room. Place her food bowl in its usual spot and then let kitty into the area to eat. If your cat bites you to wake you up in the morning, he'll need to be kept out of the bedroom at night.

Cats who aggressively respond when picked up should not be picked up, except when absolutely necessary. Physical punishment is a bad choice with any cat, and with aggressive felines it serves only to increase aggression.

The next phase is to train your pet to obey commands to receive things she values, like food. Believe it or not, with the proper incentive (food), cats can be clicker-trained fairly easily to perform certain behaviors, like sit.

If You Need Additional Help

There are homeopathic and herbal remedies available that can help reduce inappropriate emotional responses in kitties. I recommend you consult with your holistic vet about supplements that might benefit your cat, including L-theanine, 5-HTP and passionflower.

There are also medications that act on serotonin levels, but as always, I only recommend drugs for worst case scenarios, when all other attempts to modify a pet's behavior have proved ineffective or for very short periods in conjunction with behavior modification.

If your domestic house cat seems more like an African wild cat, don't despair. You just need a plan to deal with your bossy cat. And don't be reluctant to ask for help from your vet and/or a certified animal behavior specialist.

Dr. Karen Becker is a proactive and integrative wellness veterinarian. You can visit her site at: MercolaHealthyPets.com.

Her goal is to help you create wellness in order to prevent illness in the lives of your pets. This proactive approach seeks to save you and your pet from unnecessary stress and suffering by identifying and removing health obstacles even before disease occurs. Unfortunately, most veterinarians in the United States are trained to be reactive. They wait for symptoms to occur, and often treat those symptoms without addressing the root cause.

By reading Dr. Becker's information, you'll learn how to make impactful, consistent lifestyle choices to improve your pet's quality of life.

For more by Dr. Karen Becker, click here.

For more on pet health, click here.

 

Comments

[simplyburgenland]

02:50 AM on 08/26/2012

Hi, what a "spot on " article. We moved last year to a house in the farmlands of Austria. The house had been empty for 4 years, except for Tigger, our new feral cat. The locals call her a lucky cat, as she has four colors. We don't get to touch her, but we have been feeding her from the start. She has this place, where she sits, so we can see her, and you can set your watch by her ! Any days where we, golly gosh, are late in filling her bowl, she actually parades a bit nearer to our front door. She is so smart, as we do feel guilty and give her a few more delectables...
We try to be home in time to feed her, which is a bit pathetic, as she is feral and knows how to hunt...But she has definitely enriched our life.
Biggi
http://www.simplyburgenland.blogspot.com/2012/05/our-lodger-tigger.html

[TexiCali]

11:42 PM on 08/22/2012

My husband's Maine Coon is the acknowledged "boss" of the household. He isn't aggressive toward humans, but he is demanding. When my husband comes home, his cat demands to be held and petted right away. He spends the evening on hubby's lap, next to his laptop. My cat is larger, but is subservient to him. Last fall, I received a German Shepherd service dog. The Maine Coon even bullies my hundred pound dog!
The three of them seem to have worked out their relationships quite well, and they all seem to be happy, so we don't try to change them.

[FaunaAndFlora]

01:08 AM on 07/26/2012

I have six housecats, one being a "bossy cat" that's fond of biting the hand that feeds him. He is not, however, one of the "alpha cats". In fact, the other cats don't give him much respect. They'd even chase him away from his dish if I fed him in the same room.

[Tara Tiara NY]

02:05 PM on 07/25/2012

I don't understand why so many people (mostly women) will live with a bully, whether it is a man, child or pet! I discovered the main problem is how women difine the word "dominant". Unfortunetely, too many women define the word as "abusive". Dominant should be defined as "leader". Every animal society has a leader and "subserveants" (again, a missinterpreted word- it doesn't mean "slave" or "stifling ones personality". As the human who feeds and pays for the vet, and as a way to keep the other kitties from being scratched and bite by the bully cat, the human needs to be the leader and not put up with any bullying tactics. Your cat (or dog) is not "cute" when biting your nose to wake you up! My home is peaceful because my cats know I am the dominant one, I am the leader and I won't allow one cat to bully the other or myself! And no I don't hit, I simply dominate with my voical tones and stopping any signs of aggression by doing what their mothers do, hold them by the back of their necks until they are compliant (again, not a "bad" word, it means, "won't be a bully to me or anyone else!) Bullying is not cute!

[Heywood Merton]

04:13 PM on 07/25/2012

"Every animal society has a leader and 'subserveants'"

Housecats? Not really. You're just describing classical negative conditioning. And it doesn't seem to be working that well if you're scruffing them; really, the whole thing appears to be somewhat disturbing psychological projection.

[Tara Tiara NY]

05:26 PM on 07/25/2012

Yes Housecats, and dogs, and sheep and cows and every other animal society. There must be a leader, kinda like we have a President and not just a group of people running into each other because "we should be free to do whatever we want". When a cat scratches or bites you it is the same as if he punched you. Would you punch your mother in the face because she didn't serve dinner on time? No, so why do you allow your cat to punch you? I raised my cats from kittens and when they bullied I did what their mothers do, hold the back of their necks until they calm down and realize their BAD behavior is not acceptable. It's called teaching them how to live with others. (All mother cats teach their kittens proper behavior, which is why kittens taken from their mothers too early have lots of problems.) If you don't teach proper behavior you will have an adult cat that scratches, hisses and bites, kinda like a spoiled child whose parents think its "cute" when little Johnny throw hissy fits or punches them because he didn't get the candy. (I've seen children hit their mothers, maybe yours?) You must be one of those people who think discipline is a bad word.

[Tara Tiara NY]

05:26 PM on 07/25/2012

Also, cats are not human, they do not reason out what you are trying saying to them (they don't understand English), they are instictual and reactive, and most of all CATS - honor their being cats, stop pretending you honor their catness by ignoring how their mothers train them and talking to them like human children. Also, you missed the part where I said I live in a peaceful home, no one gets scratched or bit and everyone is happy, not just the bully cat.

[novelist2000]

11:14 PM on 07/24/2012

My late Rocco even determined my working hours, as I worked at home we were sharing.

Come 5 pm, he'd jump on my desk. If I didn't get the message it was feeding time NOW, his furry black paws went after the pens. One by one, everything was gently pushed over the edge and landed on the floor. Little tyrants they are, but he caught the mice much better than I could have, and with his semi long fur he was so elegant. My fault, if I miss it's 5 pm.

[Chipper1]

10:04 PM on 08/20/2012

That's my Ollie. He's never mean or aggressive, just gets what he wants by annoying the heck out of you. Walks across the computer keyboard, knocks down objects, jumps on your lap scattering books, papers, etc. And like Rocco, he's a bwana mouser so I allow him to "bully" me.

[karen lyons kalmenson]

06:14 AM on 07/24/2012

my cats ruled me with an
iron paw.
now my bird wears the
crown,
with an iron claw;-{D>