Why the tiger almost killed Roy.

A good dog is one that graduates from an obediance school. A dog
needs to know who is boss, execute commands, and be taught what
behaviors are good (ie, coming when called and "sitting") and which
are bad (ie, jumping on people) .

I definitively never felt the psychological need to exert authority
over any of my pets. What´s so thrilling about this? Hey doggy, come
here! Sit! Role! Gimmy your paw! I bet the dog is thinking, "The
things I have to go through to get approval..."

But take a clue:
when the cat scratches, it's nearly always time to trim the talons.

I don´t trim their claws.

Foolish people adapt to the undesirable behavior. Smart people
retrain the animal.

Maybe smart people don´t have animals if they have to get out of their
way to have them. There´s always another point of view to any
subjective issue.

Spontaneity? LOL Please don't sexualize this, okay! If your cats
and dogs want to hump in the middle of the living room and that's
your amusement... whatever!

Hey, how is spontaneity related to sex? Look at these two situations:
(1) you come home from work and your child comes running, jumps on you
and hugs you and (2) you come home from work and your child walks up
to you, shakes hand and says "good evening." I´ll take the first one
any time. You can picture the exact same thing with a cat or dog. You
come home from work and the cat comes running to greet you. You come
home from work and the cat doesn´t even look at you. How are these
behaviors related to sex?

So .... what are you waiting for? Get with the training program!

No way, thank you.

I got the picture, Liz. From here, you just walked off the end of
the pier. (splash down). BTW, while your out there flailing around
in the water, Orcas (killer whales) usually play with baby seals ...
bouncing them back and forth like a volley ball in the air before
EATING them ... chomp chomp. Wadda ya think of that?

I think they´re dead. ?

I got the picture, Liz. From here, you just walked off the end of
the pier. (splash down). BTW, while your out there flailing around
in the water, Orcas (killer whales) usually play with baby seals ...
bouncing them back and forth like a volley ball in the air before
EATING them ... chomp chomp. Wadda ya think of that?

I think they´re dead. ?

You train them every day. Training is merely the reinforcing of certain
behavior (either through positive or negative reinforcement or by
punishing). If you pet your cats when they come to you, you are training
them to come to you. If you give them treats when they are good, they
will be good more often. The problem with new dog owners is that they
don't realize that by petting Fido when he jumps on them, they are
training him to jump on them. The same thinking applies to cats. If you
play with your cats in a rough manner, you are training them to play
rough.

Communication problem here. I´m thinking of that traditional training
where you repeatedly make the animal do something and whack it if it
doesn´t or give it a biscuit or some praise if it does.

Training: activity leading to skilled behavior;

Conditioning: a learning process in which an organism's behavior
becomes dependent on the occurrence of a stimulus in its environment;

I did condition all of my cats to respond to whistling. I did not
train them to respond to whistling. Every day, when I fill up their
bowl of food, I whistle. After some time, they associated whistle with
food. This is different from *imposing* a wanted behavior through
positive or negative reinforcement.

Of course they don't attack out of nowhere. Few animals attack with no
provocation. S&R had tigers for 20 years before this happened. However,
what provokes an animal can be something as slight as too much eye
contact.

That is true for people too. Some people can´t distinguish between
being admired and being provoked. People who are aware they are good
looking will most likely not take provocation from being stared at. An
emotionally healthy animal can perfectly tell the difference between
being provoked and being admired. It´s all in the body language and
the smell. One who is admiring has their eyelids relaxed, their body
relaxed. One who is provoking has tense eyelids (sometimes wide open),
a ready-to-fight posture, and smells adrenaline. An animal who is
deprived of learning proper body language because of a human who does
not act according to his body signals (comes walking relaxed toward
the animal and kicks him) will most certainly take provocation from
any eye contact. Mentally healthy animals can easily tell if you fear
them or if you admire them or if you want to hurt them. Some people
(myself included) can easily tell what you are feeling, what you feel
towards them, if you are lying or not, if you want to leave or stay,
etc., just by looking at you. It´s all in the body language.

You train them every day. Training is merely the reinforcing of certain
behavior (either through positive or negative reinforcement or by
punishing). If you pet your cats when they come to you, you are training
them to come to you. If you give them treats when they are good, they
will be good more often. The problem with new dog owners is that they
don't realize that by petting Fido when he jumps on them, they are
training him to jump on them. The same thinking applies to cats. If you
play with your cats in a rough manner, you are training them to play
rough.

Communication problem here. I´m thinking of that traditional training
where you repeatedly make the animal do something and whack it if it
doesn´t or give it a biscuit or some praise if it does.

Training: activity leading to skilled behavior;

Conditioning: a learning process in which an organism's behavior
becomes dependent on the occurrence of a stimulus in its environment;

I did condition all of my cats to respond to whistling. I did not
train them to respond to whistling. Every day, when I fill up their
bowl of food, I whistle. After some time, they associated whistle with
food. This is different from *imposing* a wanted behavior through
positive or negative reinforcement.

Of course they don't attack out of nowhere. Few animals attack with no
provocation. S&R had tigers for 20 years before this happened. However,
what provokes an animal can be something as slight as too much eye
contact.

That is true for people too. Some people can´t distinguish between
being admired and being provoked. People who are aware they are good
looking will most likely not take provocation from being stared at. An
emotionally healthy animal can perfectly tell the difference between
being provoked and being admired. It´s all in the body language and
the smell. One who is admiring has their eyelids relaxed, their body
relaxed. One who is provoking has tense eyelids (sometimes wide open),
a ready-to-fight posture, and smells adrenaline. An animal who is
deprived of learning proper body language because of a human who does
not act according to his body signals (comes walking relaxed toward
the animal and kicks him) will most certainly take provocation from
any eye contact. Mentally healthy animals can easily tell if you fear
them or if you admire them or if you want to hurt them. Some people
(myself included) can easily tell what you are feeling, what you feel
towards them, if you are lying or not, if you want to leave or stay,
etc., just by looking at you. It´s all in the body language.

I try not to exert my authority over the cats in my household because I know
I have no real power. Yes, I do have the parental role every once and a
while but that is limited to hugs, baths, playing and the occasional
discipline. However, I am also the servant to them as well where I must
bring back money to the royal treasury, give them their treats, feed and
water, and of course the cleaning of the royal litterbox.

--
Panther TEK: Staying On Top Of All Your Computer Needs!
www.members.cox.net/catprotector/panthertek

Cat Galaxy: All Cats, All The Time!
www.catgalaxymedia.com

"Liz" wrote in message
om...

I definitively never felt the psychological need to exert authority
over any of my pets. What´s so thrilling about this? Hey doggy, come
here! Sit! Role! Gimmy your paw! I bet the dog is thinking, "The
things I have to go through to get approval..."

I try not to exert my authority over the cats in my household because I know
I have no real power. Yes, I do have the parental role every once and a
while but that is limited to hugs, baths, playing and the occasional
discipline. However, I am also the servant to them as well where I must
bring back money to the royal treasury, give them their treats, feed and
water, and of course the cleaning of the royal litterbox.

--
Panther TEK: Staying On Top Of All Your Computer Needs!
www.members.cox.net/catprotector/panthertek

Cat Galaxy: All Cats, All The Time!
www.catgalaxymedia.com

"Liz" wrote in message
om...

I definitively never felt the psychological need to exert authority
over any of my pets. What´s so thrilling about this? Hey doggy, come
here! Sit! Role! Gimmy your paw! I bet the dog is thinking, "The
things I have to go through to get approval..."

"Cat Protector" wrote in message news:1uihb.11570$La.6315@fed1read02...
I try not to exert my authority over the cats in my household because I know
I have no real power. Yes, I do have the parental role every once and a
while but that is limited to hugs, baths, playing and the occasional
discipline. However, I am also the servant to them as well where I must
bring back money to the royal treasury, give them their treats, feed and
water, and of course the cleaning of the royal litterbox.

Don´t they do an awesome job in conditioning us?

"Cat Protector" wrote in message news:1uihb.11570$La.6315@fed1read02...
I try not to exert my authority over the cats in my household because I know
I have no real power. Yes, I do have the parental role every once and a
while but that is limited to hugs, baths, playing and the occasional
discipline. However, I am also the servant to them as well where I must
bring back money to the royal treasury, give them their treats, feed and
water, and of course the cleaning of the royal litterbox.

Don´t they do an awesome job in conditioning us?

They sure do. Cats are definately smarter than us humans.

--
Panther TEK: Staying On Top Of All Your Computer Needs!
www.members.cox.net/catprotector/panthertek

Cat Galaxy: All Cats, All The Time!
www.catgalaxymedia.com
"Liz" wrote in message
om...

Don´t they do an awesome job in conditioning us?