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Learn behaviour - Conditioning

Do you have the problem that your cat is not housetrained?

Do you have the problem that your tom-cat sprays too much and everywhere?

PUNISHMENT WILL NOT CHANGE YOUR CAT'S BEHAVIOUR! ONLY REWARDING WILL DO THAT!

These are MacDonald and Maxximillion, my two Exotic boys,
who mate their soft toy-cat.
Notice the colour of the soft toy-cats, which fits exactly to each boy.

Both Exotic-boys are very active, but, however, I have trained them (=conditioned), when they have their libido to mate and spray those soft toy-cats (The colour of the soft toy-cats is irrelevant, the colour, which fits so nicely, is only a gag of mine.).

Cats can be trained certain behaviours, it is not so easy and fast done as in dogs, but after some time it works. Thus one can train his cats to refrain from unwanted behaviours, such as spraying upon everything, and can divert their spraying to certain subjects.
These two boys do not spray upon anything else, do not leave their odor-marks somewhere, except on their soft toy-cats, which I wash from time to time.
Important is:

What is conditioning?

Before we discuss the details, how tom-cats may learn not to spray upon furniture, sofas, curtains, etc., we should get some theoretical knowledge, what conditioning is.
There are many intelligent books about learning through conditioning, but don't worry, we will deal with those theories and literature, which are difficult to understand, only from a practical point of view.

There are Classic Conditioning (after Ivan Petrowitsch Pawlow) and Operant (also called instrumental) conditioning (after Edward Lee Thorndike).

Classical conditioning

Well known are the dogs of Pawlow.
Dogs secrete saliva before being fed. That was noticed by Pawlow. Each time, when the dogs were fed, a bell was rang. Already a few days later the dogs had learned to connect the bell (=stimulus) with their food.
Each time, the bell was rang, the dogs secreted saliva, they did even though they did not get food.
That is called "conditional reflex".

For example:

You want to train your cat to get her food at a certain time.
First think, which food your cat likes best. Then you feed the cat every day at the same time, and make noise with the food bag or the tins - which ever food you feed. After a while the cat will connect the noise with the imagination that she will get her favorite food.  Start to change her favorite food to ordinary food gradually, so that the reaction will also work with the food she normally gets.
Thus, if you make noise with the food bag or the tins, the cat will come, because she expects her food.

Operant (instrumental) conditioning

Well known is the problem box of Thorndike. He constructed a cage for cats, which had several handles, but only one handle did open the door to freedom. In front of the cage the food was presented.
First the cats got quite upset, screamed and scratched, and tried to escape from the cage without having any coordinated plan. On random they pressed the handle, which opened the door to freedom and led to the food.
After each trial the cats learned faster and faster to press the correct handle to open the door, and at least they had learned the correct behaviour.
The behaviour (to open the door to freedom) was amplified due to the food presented in front of the cage.

Principles of operant conditioning

Well known is also the Skinner-Box of Skinner. Skinner locked rats into a cage equipped with a bowl, which could be filled with food from outside. Inside the cage was also a handle, which caused various effects, depending on the experiment made.
Rat no. 1 received food, when it pushed the handle.
Rat no. 2 could switch off electricity by pushing the handle, which was induced into the cage's floor.
Rat no. 3 turned on electricity induced into the cage's floor, when it pushed the handle.

After several trials rat no. 1 and 2 had learned to push the handle, because it lead to positive consequences for them.
Rat no. 3 had learned not to push the handle any more, because it lead to negative consequences.

The rats were also conditioned to a second condition, to push the handle only, when light was switched on.

Differences between classical and operant conditioning

How can cats be trained to a certain behaviour?
How can unwanted behaviour be diverted?
Shortly: How can cats be conditioned to a certain behaviour?

How did I condition my two Exotic-boys that I diverted their spraying to soft toy-cats?

To make the soft toy-cats more attractive you may use a few drops of valerian (VERY few drops!) put on the toy-cats, or cat mint rubbed on the toy-cats.
Then I placed the boys once or twice a day on the toy-cats, when I saw them spraying; afterwards they were rewarded with their favorite food (even though the boys did not remain seated on the toy-cats in the beginning!). The rewarding with food was celebrated specially, with many kind words, crawling them, doing things, which made the boys feeling comfortable.
I repeated this procedure every day once or twice during many weeks, when I say the boys spraying around. If the boys mated and sprayed the toy-cats, rewarding was more and special.
You will notice that the males will start one day to remain seated on the toy-cats and will start to mate and mark them. This behaviour will happen irregularly in the beginning. But, after a while the males learned due to the rewarding with their favorite food, and they will produce the behaviour regularly.
Now I also may drop the rewarding, because the males get their satisfaction (libido) due to the fact that they mate their toy-cats.
At the same time spraying upon furniture, sofas, etc. decreased, and now it has disappeared.

BUT: Cats are stubborn and have a strong will, and each cat has its own character. Exercising with the toy-cats may take a different number of weeks for each cat, and in general it will take several weeks, until the males will have learned that it is very comfortable to mate their toy-cats. It took me between 8-12 weeks to train my boys.

How can a cat, which is not housetrained and does not want to use its litter box, be conditioned that it loves to use the litter box?

I have a cat, which is very low in the hierarchy and which was not housetrained, i.e. which made its business just where she stood.
You will go to the rest room in the morning, when you get up. Therefore I placed a litter box in my rest room, which only belonged to this cat. When I got up and went to the rest room, I took the cat with me and placed her several times in the litter box (3 to 4 times). And afterwards she was rewarded with her favorite food. In the beginning, when I placed the cat into the litter box, for several weeks the cat did not pee anything into the litter box. But, despite she did not do anything,  she was rewarded. You will notice also here that the cat will start one day to pee into the litter box, in the beginning it will be irregularly, but later on this behaviour will be produced regularly.
I repeated that procedure also in the evening, when I came home from work. I repeated the procedure for several weeks, every day. It took 8 weeks, until the cat had learned to use the litter box regularly in the morning and in the evening.
Now the cat already waits in the morning, when I get up, and comes, when I call her, to make her business in the litter box. And now she pees into the litter box without being rewarded.

PATIENCE - PATIENCE - PATIENCE

Cats may not be conditioned as fast as dogs. It will not work immediately after 2 weeks. Veery often it will also not work very after 4 weeks.
Many cat owners loose their patience and give up too early and too fast.
Each cat may learn that, what I have described above!