Hit Kitten-appropriate form of punishment?

Question

As a teaching lesson I slapped my kitten on her nose as a "NO" reinforcement. I felt terribly guilty. It works-but I would not like it if someone slapped me. I am going to cease this action going forward-right? I have done this four times within the last 3 months. Afterward she just curled up and ran away and looked scared. I am wondering-DOES KITTY REMEMBER if slap her? Is it really bad? Obviously it's an age-old child reinforcement - is this a terrible thing I've done? Please advise me. I love Kitty but am a new owner.

Answer 1

how often you slappe your kitty?

Animal has emotion too, the difference between cat and dog is cat has superiority image, like im the master attitude. Dog is servanthood, domestic instict, men's best friend!

I dont have a cat but I have a dog, she is well trained, i can read her emotion if shes happy and sad, lonely or something wrong or sick maybe. Try to observe you kitten just like human they have also facial expression that is very visible!

Animal has emotion! just observe!

Your kitty remembers it, you have to trained your kitten to disguish good and bad. You have to measure the intelligence your kitten some are good but some are stupid!

Answer 2

Hitting can be misinterpreted. If you mean truly hitting, that is not good.

If a kitten misbehaves, the mama will do a few things to reprimand.

For rough playing, I recommend this order:

1) Ignore the kitty (This is usually the first approach.)
2) Make a stance. (Mama arches her back and stares at kitty as if to say, "I'm warning you!" You can do the same. Look the kitten in the eye and give a stern look! Cats *do* understands this communication! To say "stop it", give a wide-eyed constant gaze. Alternatively, for other situations soften your face and give the cat a slow blink -- this tells cats "all is well."
3) Push kitty away. (Remember, you are about 15 times bigger than mama kitty! I'd rather see you push her away than slap at her.) OR Pull her close and trap her. Either hold her tightly or kneel over her so that you envelope her. The message -- "I'm bigger and you will do what I say!")

If you catch kitty in a place you don't want her to be or scratching your furniture, or behaving badly and she is far away from you, that is when you use the spray bottle. Yes, the water hitting kitty surprises her, but the real reason the spray bottle technique woks is because is sounds like a big cat hissing! It should stop her in her tracks. Follow up with a stern look and words. If you don't have a spray bottle handy, make a single loud clap or other loud noise.

As soon as kitty begins the appropriate behavior, be sure to say "good kitty", soften your face, and give her the slow blink. That is how she will learn what is good and bad behavior in your home!

So, stop feeling bad for what you did. All you can do is do it better in the future!

Enjoy your kitty and she will enjoy you!

Answer 3

It is not a good idea to slap a kitten and am glad you are going to stop.
I know it has long been thought of as a good way to 'teach' good behavior but unless you catch the kitten in the act of doing something bad there will be no way the kitten ( or puupy) can understand why the slap has come. It will just make the cat scared. She cannot understand any words you may say about why she has received this cruel treatment.
A better thing to do is when she does something inappropriate ( again - you have to see her doing it so she knows what you are referring to) a good strong loud NO!!! and removing her from that area if appropriate will teach her what is not allowed.. Cats respond to your tone and not the actual words
I had a cat once who learned that sitting on the table when I was working on it was ok but when there was a tablecloth on it it was not ok. This was taught with the strong No and removal from the table

Answer 4

I had to raise a kitty that was "hell on paws." He was soooo bad, sometimes I thought I would go crazy. In the beginning, I tried using this form of reinforcement, but I soon realized that I couldn't always be right next to him when he was doing something bad, and doing it after the fact is just confusing. So instead, I trained him to recognize that when I clapped my hands loudly and said "down!" or "no!" in a low and loud voice, that meant business. Now, he responds just as well to my voice as he would to a physical signal, and it's much more effective because I can do it from anywhere. The first few times, if she doesn't respond right away, you may have to follow up after the vocal signal with a tap (I usually do it on the haunches, not the sensitive nose), but usually the voice or scary sound is enough. I don't even use the spray bottle anymore, because he can see it coming. Cats are wicked smart!

The trick with training animals is *timing.* You can't give them the punishment 3 or 5 seconds after the fact. It has to happen right at the same time, or even when you can tell your cat is "thinking" about jumping up on something or being bad. You'll start to be a mind reader after a few years, trust me!

Answer 5

Cats tend to hit and retaliate when they are at odds with one another. Hitting seems to be a deterent for them, but if a human does the hitting, they tend to run away and hide and avoid the pet owner. They usually don't understand punishment from a human. The experience of being slapped, kicked, sometimes tossed by owners almost always means owners hate them or dislike them and punishment conditions them to be scared of humans. My experience with my own cats has taught me to punish any wrongdoing with a resounding, STOP, NO, GO and by the sound of my loud voice, they shy away, but not necessarily becoming scared of me. It is more difficult training cats compared to dogs, because cats are very independent and will do as they please, whereas dogs, are trained through example, conditioning and reward systems.

Answer 6

Hitting a cat or a kitten, no. A gentle tap on the nose and a firm "No" is best. A mother cat uses a firm tap on the nose when her kitten is misbehaving as a form of discipline. All I have to do is raise my finger and get a certain look on my face for my cat to know that Momma is displeased--and she's mostly well behaved.

Answer 7

No, decrease than the regulation that would battery. once you are the guy doing the hitting...get some help or you will finally end up in detention center and your babies taken faraway from you, once you are the only being hit. it particularly is beneficial to tell a responsible person touching directly to the placement. The objective of punishment could desire to be correction. Hitting somebody with a shovel is risky, unlawful and abusive.

Answer 8

Some cats remember because they've been abused.....but since it's a kitten it *may* forgive you. An alternative to slapping on the nose is a spray water bottle...our cat has learned not to do certain things because we use the bottle....she loves us..but all we have to do is hold up the water bottle and she runs ..she knows shes not supposed to do it...she'll even go up to the bottle and rub against it..

Answer 9

Yes Slapping the kitten on the nose (not hard) in a firm way is an appropriate form of dicipline

Answer 10

I don't believe in punishment for cats. It's not as if they can reason things out.

Deterence is another matter. If the cat jumps on the table and you don't want him to, say NO loudly and firmly, and if necessary physically remove the cat. If they're biting, same thing - say NO and remove your hands or whatever they're gnawing on.

There's no need for whacking or screaming or anything that's going to hurt or upset them.

Now, you're not a cruel bad person for having done this. It's not as if you really hauled off and cracked her one. But my opinion is that it's best not to continue. It seems like in her opinion, the punishment didn't fit the crime.