Posted by:
Ravyn11
at Sat Oct 4 11:13:05 2003 [ Report Abuse ] [ Email Message ] [ Show All Posts by Ravyn11 ]
I recently adopted a four and a half month old neutered male tabby from a shelter, and I'm having some issues I need help with.
He's a typical baby...into everything, bouncing everywhere. But he's starting to get behavior problems I want to nip in the bud before they develop.
One: He has to be in my face for everything. I can't eat without him trying to climb up my nose. I can't walk without him grabbing onto my legs or tangling himself between my feet. I sit, he's there. I bend over to clean something, he's there. And he cries constantly, even while getting attention. I have to put him away in order to eat or get anything done, and he yowls the whole time. I do not let him out until he is quiet, because I am trying not to reinforce the yowling, but it still seems to be getting worse.
Two: Biting. He love bites, but he love bites constantly. Ten seconds after I start petting him he bites me. Picking him up he bites my arms and my shoulder. He doesn't do it hard, but I'm worried it will get worse. He seems to do it to get attention. If he wants petted and I don't, he'll jump up and bite me. If I'm petting him and he bites, I stop immediately and ignore him. I've tried the squirt bottle and have gotten him soaked on more than one occasion, but again, it doesn't seem to help.
Now, I have a new dog. After an initial show of display, he decided the dog was a push over (she is) and has now taken to tormenting the dog. He'll jump on her from ambush all over the place, and will even walk up to her and start smacking her in the face. She just backs away from him.
I can easily see these problems getting WAY out of hand as he gets older, and ending up with an extremely aggressive and dominant cat. Anyone have any suggestions on what I should do to help stop this behavior? Again, the points I want to stop are: 1) biting 2) constant crying and nosiness 3) bullying the other animals.
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