3. Reinforced behavior
This might sound quite weird to you, but believe us when we say that your cat might be knocking everything down because you reinforce that behavior. You might be wondering: How could I encourage my cat to do this? Well, the answer is simple.
Your cat is a quick learner, and she can easily figure out the law of action and reaction. When your cat knocks things over and you go immediately and pick her up and speak to her, she will associate what she just did with her favorite human giving her attention.
Obviously, you don’t want that to happen, and this is why you need to learn how to handle a situation like this. First, what you can do is avoid leaving things in places where you know they are easy to push over. So, clearly, not on the edge of the table.
Another thing that might help is to let your cat meow for a while and not go to pick up that object or clean up the mess as soon as the event has happened. We know it is tempting to go and clean up immediately, but waiting a little bit may discourage the cat from doing it again.
One Response
LOL, my Tuxedo knocks things over when I am late in feeding her or wants my attention. I have lived with many cats over the years and cats are extremely intelligent. People who say they are not have never lived with one or have NO idea about the one that lives with them. I brought a young Pitfall into the household to live with my two cats. The younger one took the time to get to know him, the older Maine Coon is still getting comfy sniffs him on occasion and caught him sleeping with the Pit on the couch once lol. The Pit? is a social butterfly and loves everyone and everything. Each animal is different with different personalities. It is up to us to get to know them and to make them welcome them into our homes and to teach them as we do our children how they must behave in this world. Animals are just another species and we must learn how to teach them how to live in our world.