Behaviourist Sarah Whitehead outlines a case of feline determination and human training!

CATS ARE AN education! Living with cats and being lucky enough to work with people and their cats on a regular basis leads me to think that they are among the best trainers in the world! Even the average moggie has mastered enough training skills to impress Pavlov — demanding food, attention and the best places to sleep without any trouble at all. Indeed, the vast majority of cats that I know go one step beyond this — and have even trained their owners to go to the supermarket, on cue! All it takes is to refuse the old brand of cat food for a clay or two, and off the owner will go, money in hand, to buy something different that the cat may prefer!

While it takes years of patience and expertise for a human to learn how to train other species positively and effectively, within weeks of being in our homes, cats work out what humans will work for, and just how to get what they want.

Boris is a good example. Rehomed at the age of three from a rescue centre, he was regarded as simply ‘unwanted' by his previous owners. His new owners gave him the best of everything, and in return, Boris rewarded them with affection, love and play. However, after a year, the vet decreed that Boris was getting rather portly, and decided that he should go on a strict diet. His owners agreed with this and immediately returned home armed with a low-calorie cat food and good intentions! Within three weeks, Boris's owners had been referred to me by their vet for an increasingly difficult behavioural problem -Boris was reported to be attacking his owners, and they were increasingly worried for their safety. In the first week of his diet, Boris had seemed reluctant to eat his new food. He had nibbled at the low-calorie diet but had lurked by the fridge door and cried long and loud each and every time his owners had gone into the kitchen. After one or two ‘weak' moments, where his owners had relented and sneaked him a small piece of ‘forbidden food', Boris seemed to go off the special diet altogether and had placed himself on ‘hunger strike'! This lasted until his owners could bear it no longer - Boris's pleading eyes and desperate meowing had won - and they began to put extra ‘titbits' on top of his diet in the hope of tempting him to eat! Of course, like all self-respecting cats, Boris ate the titbits, ignored the special food, and continued to pester his owners for more meals. This began to be insistent. Boris ‘shouted' at his owners morning, noon and night, jumping onto their laps while they ate their meals and attempting to pull pieces of food from their plates! He would stand in front of the television, and cry, attempt to trip them up as they came down the stairs, and stood at the foot of the bed in the middle of the night and yeowled! Indeed, the only times that Boris seemed to be quiet was when he was eating! In order to get some respite, his owners attempted to give him more frequent, smaller meals, but this only seemed to make matters worse. Three weeks on, and Boris was starting to bite his owners' ankles as they headed towards the kitchen! The only way they could stop him was to carry a small piece of food and throw it in the opposite direction as they went to put the kettle on. Help was clearly needed!

Just like us, cats are subject to the laws of learning. Behaviour that is rewarded is likely to be repeated. Behaviour which goes unrewarded is likely to cease. However, one of the most important facets of such learning is the number of times that the animal is rewarded — or in technical terms, the schedule of reinforcement. This means that behaviours which are rewarded randomly are much more likely to reoccur than behaviours which are rewarded consistently! This is a well-known phenomenon in the gambling world — and is even the basis of success for the national lottery. For example, putting money into a vending machine results in a consistent schedule of reward — each time you put money in, you will receive a can of drink out. This is useful — but not exciting. Putting money into a slot machine, however, is a gamble. Will you win 10 pence, 10 pounds, or nothing at all? This ‘risk' creates frustration, which drives many people to try again, and a small number of people to become addicted. Boris was on a winning streak! Having discovered that his pitiful cries won him an occasional ‘feast' from the fridge, he developed his tactics to see if more wins could be achieved by different means. Noise seemed to work well, and was randomly rewarded. Refusing food also got him what he wanted, but biting ankles gave him the ‘ jackpot' win he had been looking for!

Resolution of this case took patience, determination and the wearing of wellington boots in the house for a period of time! All of Boris's attempts to solicit food had to be completely unrewarded in order to extinguish the behaviour. Attaching clear signals of reward and non-reward, when Boris was to be fed and when he wasn't, also helped. Six months on, Boris is now back to his normal, affectionate self. He also has the advantage of having a brand new waistline!