Status related aggression in cats.

Status is really important in the home with many a cat. Actually cat's are very picky about when they want to interact with you in a friendly way or not. This may or may not be down to the level of physical contact it had as a kitten and thus defines it's level of domestication as an adult. This by the way, is a spectrum and not a clearly drawn line of domestication and not.

Some cat's react quite viciously to interaction which they did not initiate, sometimes with hissing, and in worse cases scratching and biting. You can get this response even just from simple actions like petting. It happens if you initiate this without the permission of your cat.

Another kind of status related aggression is when the cat blocks your path to certain rooms. The cat may give you a direct stare and slightly lowered head. They will also frequently lower their ears and lash their tail. This is when they are focusing their aggression on you, and not other members of the household.

How do we deal with this?

If your cat is aggressive whilst on person, then keep your body and extremities still and then stand up. Your cat should fall to the floor. If the cat continues to seek attention but has not lowered their dominance, then ignore them. You can even squirt them with water until they return to normal behaviour. Other early signs of aggression might include skin twitching, hissing, lashing of the tail and flattened ears. A water pistol could never be more fun!

Obviously, as before, you should try to reward your cat's for positive and good behaviour and this is most important when dealing with status driven aggression. You need to let the person who the cat is targeting with aggression take over the feeding process so that the cat builds a positive association with that person over time. Eventually, letting the person pet them will not initiate any status related aggression.