Category: Common Problems ¤ Author: M. Shirley Chong ¤ Title: Cat Retraining Protocol v2 ¤ Myra Kotrla wrote: > and I guess cats CAN be different too. males will and do spray even > when neutered young, given appropriate conditions. Stress. oh yeah. > and once they start I never could figure out how to stop it. > Females will as well. Okay, my partner in crime and I figured out how to re-train cats to use the litterbox. I was the inspiration because I introduced her to cat crates and the idea that confinement can be used to re-train a cat. Ursula Delworth was my partner in crime and she figured out the actual protocol. She rescued some huge number of cats (well over 4000) and this protocol was well over 95% effective. IF (<--big if deliberate) the protocol was followed correctly. It isn't a magic cure but if the owner puts in the effort, the vast majority of cats will resume using the litterbox. First of all, the cat should have a thorough physical examination to rule out things like bladder infection. There's no point in trying to train a medical problem. The cat must be confined away from any place they have been spraying. The confinement area should be quite small; a cat crate is easiest but bathrooms and laundry rooms work well, too. There must be room for a litterbox of adequate size for the cat and a place for the cat's food and water bowls that is not right next to the litterbox. In a cat crate, I suggest making a special shelf with cut outs for the food and water bowls or else use coop cups with a holder. Make sure there is someplace snuggly for the cat to sleep and adequate ventilation so that odors don't build up from the litterbox. The litterbox should be scooped at least twice a day, preferably more often than that. Use the cat's favourite litter, this is not the time to try to switch them to something new. The cat is going to be confined to this area for 8+ weeks, so make it a nice place to live. As soon as you start on this program also start cleaning up pee spots. Get or rent a blacklight to find old pee spots (bodily fluids fluoresce under blacklight); apparently there are two types of blacklights and I don't know which one is correct. The ones that antiques people use is the correct one and they can be gotten from various sources for $10-30. The absolute best cleaner I have found was recommended to me by someone who specializes in cleaning up crime scenes. It's called Anti-Icky-Poo. The same company makes injectors to inject the solution into the padding under wall-to-wall carpeting (looks exactly like a syringe with a hefty needle). AIO is a specially bred bacteria that literally eats the stuff that makes urine and other bodily fluids stink. It's interesting in that the bacteria have a coating on them so that if the area gets dried out they can survive for awhile until the area is wetted down again. When there's nothing left to eat, the bacteria die but do not create a smell themselves. The injector is used because anything spilled on a carpet gets absorbed in an upside down cone shape. A spot that is only an inch wide on the surface will be 6-8 inches wide on the subfloor. Treating only the area of the surface spot leaves a lot of untreated urine to create a stink! The cheapest online source I've found is: http://www.catdoctor.com I have never ordered from them but just noticed that their prices are good (assuming average shipping prices). At night, close all the curtains and go over every inch of floor and lower wall surface in the house. Treat as per the directions on the bottle. Check the treated areas daily and keep treating until there is no odor left at all. For at least four weeks, the only time the cat is not in the confined area is when you are interacting with the cat. At all other times the cat must be in the confined area. During this period of confinement the owner needs to provide on a daily basis: *2-4 meals *2-4 active play periods, about 15 minutes each *2-4 short training sessions (may incorporate these with the cat's meals) *1-2 grooming sessions (even for shorthaired cats; grooming is a social need as well as hygeine) *2-4 cuddle or massage sessions, about 15 minutes each This is a lot of activity and interaction for most cats! When they are in their confined area, the cat will probably be sleeping. If the cat is restless or upset when confined, the owner needs to provide more activity, training, grooming and/or cuddle sessions. Every activity session should be held in an area where the cat has never sprayed. After four weeks of this, the cat will be very focused on interaction with the human. The previously sprayed areas should be absolutely scent free to the human nose. Starting the fifth week, the owner holds one activity session in a different area of the house. Don't let the cat go exploring, just take the cat to the area and keep interacting with the cat. Each day one of the activity sessions is held in a different room. It helps to start with the least sprayed area and work towards the most sprayed area but this can sometimes be difficult to determine. The important thing is that the cat is learning to interact with the owner in new areas. Starting the fifth week, the owner holds each activity session in a different area. Don't let the cat go exploring, keep the cat interacting with human. Starting the sixth week, the owner gives the cat an unstructured time period outside the confined area after one activity session per day. It really helps to time these first unstructured sessions for when the cat is going to be sleepy or tired for the owner's peace of mind. The unstructured time should be 15+ minutes with the owner watching the cat constantly. If the cat sprays, don't yell, throw things at the cat or anything punitive like that. Just go to the cat, pick it up and take it back to the confinement area. Get the cat checked for possible bladder problems! If the cat is healthy, repeat the initial confinement period and re-treat the sprayed areas again. Starting the seventh week, the owner gives the cat two unstructured time periods of at least 30 minutes per period. Each feeding should be conducted in the area where the cat will be eating in future. In the eighth week, the owner gives the cat as much unstructured time outside of the confined area as possible. The owner should maintain light observation whenever the cat is out. It is very important to maintain the previous schedule of activity periods! If the owner drops the activity periods at this point, the cat is more likely to revert to spraying again (although many cats do not, why take the chance?). If the cat has made it this far without spraying, the cat can be given free run of the house after the eighth week. It's a good idea to maintain two litterboxes for awhile, one in the confinement area and one in the desired litterbox location. Make sure the cat always has access to both litterboxes! A very common trigger for undesired spraying is when the cat is accidentally blocked away from the litterbox while the owner is gone and is forced to spray somewhere else. For the owner's peace of mind, the cat may continue to be confined when the owner is at work but this is usually not necessary. If the owner knows that there will be some stressful event (street construction, house remodeling, etc), it's best to proactively confine the cat. The owner can gradually reduce the number of activity sessions per day by omitting one session per day per week. Don't plan on cutting out all activity sessions, that's no way for a cat to live. But the number of sessions can be slowly reduced. > The notes here have been good for me though - I have always avoided > male dogs because I do not like marking. I have never yet known an > owner of a male dog, neutered or not, that did not mark in the house. > You all give me a different picture and maybe one day I too will own a > male dog - as I live in hopes that Suza would get along with a male > better than with the females here now. Boys are easy! I've owned three intact males and housetrained umpteen bajillion that came to stay with me the day after they were neutered. I never failed to get them housetrained although I am sure there are dogs out there that I could not housetrain. It's just like housetraining a puppy, the key is constant supervision and the careful, watchful introduction of opportunities to mark inappropriately (followed up with huge amounts of praise and treats for making the correct decision). It is true, in my experience, that a male puppy can be housetrained and then, when they discover this whole new skill, temporarily lose their housetraining. I honestly think most males do not see urination and marking as being the same action. The good news is that it doesn't take long to get them housetrained again--it's just a matter of letting them know that the rules apply to this marvelous new skill as well as the old familiar. In my experience, the smaller the dog the more difficult they are to housetrain. I don't think it's because they are less intelligent than larger dogs or more wilfull or anything like that. I think that it's plain and simple: it's much more difficult to observe a toy sized dog constantly and many owners aren't as motivated as the owners of larger dogs. M. Shirley Chong Grinnell Iowa http://www.shirleychong.com