Miscellaneous
This episode will be an in-depth look at a book written by the late Dr. Sophia Yin called low-stress handling, restraint and behavior modification of dogs and cats. But I’ll only be looking at each section as it relates to cats. Dr. Yin was a veterinarian, animal behaviorist, author and lecturer. Her book is a training guide for veterinary staff with a large part focused on handling pets for medical treatment. But, as cat sitters, the proper handling of sometimes very frightened cats, is a big cause of stress for both the cat and the sitter. So, the need to work on building trust and developing a bond with the cats in our care is essential. Let me start with a story that happened to me many years ago when I first opened my business. I knew that giving a cat lots of space to get to know you on their own terms was important for creating a good first impression. But I mistakenly believed that all cat people knew that. I had a arranged a meeting with a new client to set up visits for her cat who required medications twice a day. The client was afraid that no one would be able to medicate her cat. But I had given many cats their medications and assured her it would be fine. Well, I was stunned when I walked in the front door. The owner ushered me in then suddenly spun around, reached into the hallway closet, and began dragging out a terrified grey cat as he clawed at the coats, trying to get away. Before I could say anything, she swung back around and thrust her horrified cat towards me. “take him and see if he likes you,” she said. The poor cat’s eyes were huge, and he was kicking with his back legs struggling to dislodge himself from the death grip that held him. Trying not to be rude I said, “oh, maybe we should just set him down and let him…” I didn’t get a chance to finish my sentence because that cat had reached the limit of his tolerance. With a yowl, he leaped from her arms and raced down into the dark safety of the basement. We both stood silent, our mouths open, listening to him crashing through basement junk as he made his escape. “Wow, I can’t believe how badly he reacted!” she said, clearly having no idea of what she had done. She’d put her cat into the worst possible position. Dragging him from his hiding place and thrusting him at a stranger who had just walked in the door. I knew it would take time to undo the damage that she’d done to any future relationship. All in less than 30 seconds. As it turned out, I never got a chance to undo it anyway. We finished the meeting after touring the rest of the house and filling out my cat profile and forms. But she phoned me later to say she wasn’t going on vacation after all because she was afraid her cat would never let me give him his medications. She thought the cat’s reaction was to me, but we’d never had the chance to be properly introduced. Again, there was no insight into what she had done. Because of that incident, I took steps to ensure it wouldn’t happen again. I discuss proper cat introductions with my clients so that they let their cat approach me on their own. I’ve not had a problem like that since. Current research concerning cat behavior shows the power of reducing stress through small adjustments to their environment and the way they’re handled. I’ve studied a lot of this research over the years and a great book on the subject is Dr. Yin’s book on low-stress handling of cats and dogs. As Veterinarian Dr. Bonnie Beaver put it in the forward “this book is a pictorial guide into the world of what to do and, as importantly, what not to do, to reduce dogs and cats fear of encounters with humans.” Some of you have been in business for a long time and have developed your own methods of low-stress handling and greeting cats. I think that learning from each other and sharing our experiences with cats is the best way to improve their lives in general. It also increases our own satisfaction with our work. We have a lonely job sometimes, and this podcast is a way for me to reach out and share with other cat care specialists. As a cat sitter and volunteer at my local cat shelter for two decades I’ve learned a lot about handling cats. I took training to become a cat behaviorist because I know that learning is never done. There are always things we can do to make ourselves better cat sitters. Dr. Yin’s book was written back in 2009 and it was revolutionary in the sense that it called into question how many in the veterinary and animal training world were handling cats and dogs. Her advocacy for low-stress handling has helped to change that treatment of animals. From a strong-armed dominance view to one of reducing the stress of animals that were otherwise terrified to enter clinics and training facilities. Our situation is a little different in that we’re in the cat’s territory, so the stress is already less intense than if the cat was being brought to our home or to the vet clinic. But as we all know, when it comes to giving a pill or eye drops to a cat, especially one who may not know you very well, we can be in for a challenge. When you’re standing there with a drool-soaked pill on the floor, a bleeding gash on your hand and a terrified cat staring at you from under the couch. You know you’re in for a bad day. Trying to strong-arm a cat into taking her medication only escalates her fear. which leaves a negative association with you and any future handling. There are many things we can do to avoid this catastrophe and make this part of our service easier and more efficient. Practicing safe, low-stress handling techniques greatly improves the quality of our service. And, as I said before, it increases our professional satisfaction as well. There’s also a great need to improve how cats are approached and handled when it comes to veterinary visits. One of the greatest barriers to cats getting their necessary vet check-ups is the fear people have of transporting their cats there. So, I’m going to be looking at the book as it applies to cat sitters and breaking it down into a series of 3 or 4 parts. I’m not sure of the number yet because I want to make certain I cover everything in the book that’s relevant to our business. This book is big and comprehensive so chunking it down will give me a chance to talk about it in greater detail than the other books I’ve reviewed. I think everyone who works with cats should own this book. It includes a DVD with videos that give you an expanded view of the techniques Dr. Sophia has written about. Her hope was that people would read the text, study the photos and then watch the videos to get the clearest picture of these concepts. Her research is meticulously detailed. She took thousands of photos and some of them give good depictions of the cat’s perspective when humans approach them. We think we look normal, towering over and smiling down at them. But from the pet’s point of view we’re a dangerous monster. Sophia Yin was one of the greatest promoters of force-free training and low-stress handling of pets. She was an extraordinary woman who died under tragic circumstances in 2014. I’ll talk more about that in a moment. She was very honest about her early years with dog handling. As a teenager, she was eager to train her beloved Boxer, Max. Regrettably, she was taught in the old school model of dominance training. Which, she discovered, only made things worse. Sophia refers to these years, which occurred 2 decades before she wrote this book, as her “caveman days”. Max’s behavior was so out of control she was told she might have to put him down by the veterinarians she worked for. But none of them had any solutions for her. She diligently followed the instructions of her trainer which included yanking on Max’s choke chain abruptly when he ignored her. “By the sixth yank”, Sophia wrote, “Max was aggressively growling and climbing up the leash after me to prevent the impending punishment.” She went through 10 trainers who all held this same philosophy. As she describes “like the alpha wolf, I had to remind max of his lower rank by frequently standing over him and bullying him.” The escalation of force was always progressive no matter what the cause of the behavior. She eventually recognized that these fear-based training methods only increased Max’s aggressive behavior. It was years before she finally found trainers who understood the science of behavior and the power of positive training. But as she lamented in the book, “max and I never reached our full potential – in the obedience ring or at home.” At that time, no one knew how to deal with Max’s learned aggression. Everyone still saw force as a last resort for bad behavior they couldn’t control. A 2012 documentary in which she was interviewed called, “Tough love: a meditation on dominance and dogs, reveals the profound sadness she felt when discussing these early mistakes she made with Max. The documentary is an interesting exploration of the motivating events that led to Sophia’s fight for change in the training of animals to more humane methods. I’ll link to that in the show notes. https://youtu.be/OIjMBfhyNDE It was her deep sorrow about what had happened with Max that pushed her forward. And her research into resolving problem behavior by replacing it with good behavior in a systematic way became a driving force for change. She also realized that behavior problems were the leading cause of euthanasia of cats and dogs. When it came to felines she said, “punishment and force were a puny arsenal for dealing with difficult cats.” Add to that a huge number of veterinary staff and pet owners were getting bitten and scratched due to poor training and handling. And it was all completely unnecessary. She saw a huge need for improvement. She dove full time into educating herself about the problem and its solution. This steered her into working with a variety of animals including horses and livestock. She volunteered every spare moment she could. Her dedication and work ethic were unstoppable. All this fieldwork was combined with a master’s degree in animal science at the University of California Davis, with a focus on animal behavior. Sophia embraced the scientific method which she implemented to create behavior modification protocols. She knew that if you want to learn why behavior happens you must devise experiments to test hypotheses. She could see her colleagues succeeding using positive reinforcement with a variety of species. Just as important, she began to see the adverse effects of force and punishment. These revelations breathed new life into her work, she could now clearly see that improper handling and training was the cause of so-called bad behavior and how dominance theory, which called for the use of force to show an animal whose boss, only made things worse. Punishment generates fear of being handled and all the associations that go with it. But the saddest part of all is how these intense behavior problems lead to needless animal surrenders and euthanasia. Sophia went on to teach veterinary staff and animal trainers how to use positive reinforcement and counterconditioning techniques. And when implemented, they saw dramatic changes in behavior. Some of the benefits of these techniques are outlined in her book. I’ve modified them here to suit cat sitters. increased efficiency in getting the medications and treatments done increase in our personal safety increased client satisfaction with our service better relationships with our clients and the cats in our care During her research, Sophia observed even the most devoted cat lovers and experienced cat handlers making mistakes that led to increased stress in cats. And she emphasized the importance of being mindful of how our own behavior and actions affect cats. For instance, I’ve noticed that many cats hate the sound that my Nylon raincoat makes when I put it on or take it off. I’ve had cats happily running to the door to greet me then tearing off again as I removed my Nylon coat. Sometimes, it took a few minutes for them to come back. But they didn’t react the same way to coats made with other materials. I assume it’s the distinctive hissing-like sound of rubbing nylon that’s the problem. Come to think of it, I don’t like the sound either! So, if I have to wear a nylon raincoat to a cat’s house I simply avoid taking it off in front of them. This book is intended to help those who work with animals professionally to better understand how the environment and handling impact their behavior. We have an even greater challenge as cat sitters. Because cats know every inch of their own homes including all the best hiding spots. And they can sit there for hours, waiting for you to leave. The first section of the book, and what I’m going to be looking at in this segment is all about recognizing signs of early problems and fear. The book is enhanced with some very interesting and creative photos that demonstrate how we can inadvertently scare the cats in our care. Cats in fear are stressed cats. And this stress negatively affects their health and emotional state which can lead to serious aggressive behavior. Preventing fear and stress and implementing counterconditioning techniques, which I’ll cover in the next episode, leads to safe and pleasant cat visits. But as Sophia makes clear, in order to prevent fear, one must first recognize it. She discusses early developmental stages of animals, and how they are more resilient to scary things when young. This is crucial during that all-important socialization period of kittens. As kittens age, they become more and more afraid of new people and objects. I read somewhere else that Sophia taught kittens to accept getting pills by first training them to get tasty treats from pill poppers. This promoted early positive associations with being handled and medicated. Speaking of kittens. Just a little interjection, here. If you want to get your hands on a fantastic kitten guide, Hannah Shaw’s book Tiny But Mighty: Kitten Lady’s Guide to Saving The Most Vulnerable Felines is a must-read. This is my affiliate link to that book as well. From the example that I gave in my introduction, it’s clear that a lot of cat owners, as much as they love their cats, don’t always recognize how their own actions affect the behavior of their cats. We’ve all seen videos of cats charging strangers at the front door. Or, sometimes, disappearing seemingly without a trace. They can even freeze on the spot when they realize someone has just walked in. Fight, flight or freeze are the three natural responses to fear. Sometimes we think that we are clearly communicating our friendly intentions. But we’re giving the opposite message when we continue to walk toward a cat who believes he’s distinctly telling you to back off. Even when a loving hand is holding a toy or treat. The cat may only see danger. It’s our responsibility to ensure we are communicating clearly and building the cat’s trust. It important to be a keen observer. Moving slowly. Not hovering over the cat. Try the famous slow eye blink to communicate your non-threatening intent and see if she responds in kind. The important thing is to leave lots of space and a route of escape if the cat needs it. Assume the cat is feeling stress and go from there. Because if the greeting goes badly as it did in my introduction, the cat can easily become aggressive and difficult to handle. While cats are not as thoroughly domesticated as dogs. They’re not independent untrainable loners either. Far from it. Their behavior is often just misunderstood. Thanks to science we know a lot more about why cats behave the way they do and how to modify problem behavior. We must keep in mind, too, that what we call problem behavior is normal behavior to a cat. The only reason we want to eliminate behavior we find undesirable is so we can all live together peacefully. The idea of low-stress handling and training needs to be spread far and wide to cat owners. Because there are people out there, maybe some of your own clients, that are on the verge of rehoming or euthanizing their cat because of outdated beliefs. Or maybe you are thinking of dropping a client or dread entering a house with a cat that has become unmanageably aggressive. This is where you and I can work together to confront these problems and improve the lives of our feline clients. There was a time when I was unsure what to do with a cat that hissed and swatted as soon as I came near. Changing the way I work with cats has changed how I approach cats and my relationship with them. Not only does it increase the chances of our cat clients being able to stay in their homes and enjoy a long happy life, it also gives us a chance to maintain a client we might have lost. Achieving a lasting bond with a once misunderstood feline is the greatest joy a cat sitter can have! What are the consequences when you use punishment to modify a cat’s behavior? Punishment can easily cause a negative association with objects, people or sounds. Let’s say a cat guardian slams a book down on the table when the cat jumps up. The cat will jump down again. But is the behavior eliminated or is it just suppressed until the guardian is not around? What has the cat learned? To be afraid of the guardian, not jumping on the table. Punishment can also cause aggression. Say a person uses her hand to forcefully push a cat away who has cornered another cat. The stimulus that evoked the aggressive behavior might then be transferred to the person in a very painful way. Finally, Punishment must occur at the same time as the behavior. For punishment to work, it must be immediate and delivered with enough intensity to override the stimulus that caused the behavior in the first place. Spraying a cat with a small water bottle to keep him away from the fish tank would have to be done as soon as he committed the deed. But some cats become accustomed to being sprayed. The punishment loses the power it once had, especially if the evocative stimulus is extremely strong. To the cat, the reward is worth a little spray. So, you end up with that old escalation effect again. You’ll need more and more water to stop the behavior. Eventually, both the cat and your living room are now drenched? This continuous escalating battle can get out of control over time. Furthermore, cats whose behavior is reinforced even occasionally, such as sneaking a piece of pizza from the counter, are more likely to do it again in the future. Just like putting money into a slot machine. Yeah, you lose most of the time but every once in awhile, JACKPOT! It’s that occasional jackpot that compels us to carry on putting our money into the machine. Science shows that positive reinforcement is a much more enduring method for managing behavior. It also won’t leave you with an unhappy cat, a wet house and a tainted relationship. Once that distrust has been established, it’s much harder to walk it back and rebuild it. We can do many things as cat sitters to help our clients with unwanted feline behaviors. And to spread the word that we can avoid aversive methods entirely with a little planning and effort. Because we know that punishment doesn’t even begin to show the cat how he should behave. Teach him a replacement behavior and reinforce that instead. And more good news, the proper use of positive training absolutely does not mean we must give an endless supply of treats to keep it up. In fact, long-lasting behavior change requires a variable schedule of reinforcement, to become well established. This means that once the desired behavior is reliably performed, we can start reducing the reinforcer until it is only given occasionally. Remember the slot machine example I just talked about. The behavior is reinforced even when the jackpots are few and far between. To wrap up, I’m going to read another quote from Dr. Yin’s book, “humans can choose to try to influence behavior through force, like a dictator or a bully. Or we can choose to gain leadership by rewarding desirable behavior…. now, rather than complying out of fear, pets can choose to follow human direction” Our reward for this effort? A close relationship with our cats and less unwanted behaviors. And all without the nerve-racking battle of wills. Sadly, Dr. Sophia Yin committed suicide in 2014 at the age of 48. Her death shocked the veterinary and animal behavior world. While I can’t know the reasons why she made that choice, it has become well known over the past few years that suicide among veterinarians is the highest of any other profession. She was a relentless advocate for low-stress handling of pets in the pet care industry. Her legacy lives on in books such as this one and a growing community of supporters who continue her work. You can find a copy of this book at my amazon affiliate page here: LOW-STRESS HANDLING Well, that’s it for this episode. Next week I continue my mini-series with an analysis of sections 2 and 3 of Dr. Yin’s book. And I’ll be combining more of my own experiences with the concepts presented. Section 2 deals with “how (cats) learn to behave and misbehave.” And section 3 is all about planning for a visit to the vet clinic. So there’s lots of good stuff that you can bring to your clients to make everyone’s life easier. Please note that the information in this podcast is presented for educational purposes only and listeners should seek professional advice for specific cases. If you have any questions for me about this podcast or any other topics about cat care and the cat care business, reach out to me at Procatsitter.com or my Facebook page, @cathyhamm. I’m also on Instagram @procatsittercathy Until next time Thanks for listening And I hope you have a puuurfect day!