BEHAVIOR BASICS LEARNING AND COMMUNICATION: SPEAKING DOG & CAT WHY IT’S SO IMPORTANT

As veterinarians, we are tasked with having to communicate – on a daily basis – with individuals that don’t speak our language. Our patients are talking to us – it’s up to us to learn what they’re saying! Dogs and cats learn using the same basics we do – classical conditioning [learning by association] and operant conditioning [goal-directed learning]. It’s important that we know how to implement the learning techniques that our patients actually understand and use to get the resultant behaviors that we’re all looking for.

Cats ARE social animals and exhibit this sociality towards their conspecifics. However, feline societies are insular and strangers are not accepted readily. This fact needs to be taken into account when introducing cats to one another – especially as adults. Many people adopt single cats and keep them as single cats for most of their lives. This form of living doesn’t allow the cat to hone any of its feline social skills, so it may have limited ability to get along with a newcomer. Treatment for inter-cat aggression typically involves environmental and behavioral modification, and may require the use of anxiolytic medication – especially for the “victim”. Actual cases will be discussed to illustrate. […]