In this article you’re going to learn is spraying a cat with water abuse
Should you use this technique in trying to stop your cat from doing certain bad behaviors
Or is considered to be abuse to your cat
Does it actually work if you do decide to spray your cat with water?
You’ll find out all in this article so carry on reading
Sound good?
Let’s get started
When our cat misbehaves then it can cause real problems
Especially if it’s something like peeing on the couch
Or jumping on counters
Or maybe your cat has become aggressive in play and has started to bite you
And you’re tried every trick in the book
From shouting a firm “NO”
To picking your kitty up and giving him/her timeout
Or just completely ignoring your cat for a certain time
But nothing seems to work
So you got no choice but to use a spray bottle
The question is
Can this be considered abuse?
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Is Spraying My Cat With Water Abuse?
Some cat parents may say it is abuse
While other cat parents say it’s a way to discipline your cat which is done as a last resort
Look,
I’m not here to say
It’s abuse and stop it
Nor I’m I going to support it
But the question I ask is
Does it actually work?
Will your cat stop jumping on the kitchen counter
Will your cat stop peeing on your carpet
These are questions you need to ask yourself
Yes, your cat may not do it in front of you because they know you’re going to spray water
But what about when you’re not there?
Are you 100% sure your cat won’t continue the same behavior
I get it,
You’re tired and fed up and things are starting to look bad at home
Relationships are starting to get strained
So you’re left with no option and use a bottle to spray your cat in the hope that they stop
Honestly, this is not a good way of dealing with this situation
It’s a short term fix and not long term
Why You Shouldn’t Spray Your Cat With a Squirt Bottle
It’s simple
You’re going to do more harm than good
And that is destroy your relationship with your furbaby
Do you want your cat to be scared of you?
Every time your cat sees you, they’ll remember you squirting them with a bottle
Your cat won’t come near you and may even hate you
You don’t want your cat to run away from you every time she sees you
It’s not worth destroying your cute relationship with your kitty
I know what you’re thinking
[su_quote]How Can I Stop Bad Behavior?[/su_quote]
It’s frustrating right?
You want to stop this bad behavior or bad habits of your cat but then again you don’t want to ruin the relationship
So how can you stop this?
Let’s find out
How To Discipline Stop Bad Behavior In a Cat
Notice how I crossed out discipline
Discipline is a harsh word
And your cat don’t deserve discipline
They don’t even know what that is
Poor cat, he/she’s just being themselve and they’re getting trouble for it
For example,
Your cat is peeing all over the house
Now in our eyes we’re thinking
How do I stop my cat peeing everywhere
So you might try certain things to stop this behavior
But the main thing is
Understanding why your cat is peeing everywhere
What’s causing your cat to pee everywhere
Is your cat trying to tell you something
It’s about getting to the root of the problem and then tackling it from there
So for example with cat peeing everywhere
You can stop this behavior
How?
Not by squirting them with a bottle every time you catch your cat peeing
But by using their senses
What I’m I talking about?
It’s called the T.T.S method
I don’t want to go into too much detail about this as I’ve already talked about it in my article which you can learn more about if it’s something you’re interested in
T.T.S Method For Your Cat To Stop Spraying All Over The House
This is just an example on how you can use your own cats senses to stop certain behaviors
Another example for a common problem is
Jumping on the kitchen counter
Yes, it’s annoying and you’re trying to cook
Or you don’t want cat hair in the delicious dinner you’re cooking
I get it
Spraying your cat with a water bottle to stop this behavior may not stop it when you’re asleep and your cat is in the kitchen
Whenever you’re not around basically
It’s about finding an alternative for your cat to jump on
Can you redirect your cat to jump onto something else?
Maybe fix some cat shelves so your cat can jump from one to another
Things like this can solve the problem
See how you don’t need to make your cat hate you because you’re spraying them with water
You’re basically looking for alternatives
So your cat can still do what they’re doing but in a way where it’s not considered bad behavior
Another behavior that can cause you problems is constant meowing during the night
So you might think spraying your cat with water to stop meowing may work
It might do
But poor your cat
They might be trying to tell you something but they’re getting punished for it
Now if your cat is meowing at night constantly then there could be a reason
I won’t go into detail because I have a article which talks about it
10 Awesome Ways To Stop a Cat From Meowing At Night
Talking To Your Cat – Will My Cat Understand?
You should talk to your cat and instruct your cat to stop bad behavior
Yes, they can understand
But it’s about how you talk to your cat
Cats understand us and what we’re saying to them more than we think
They understand our emotions
[su_box title=”Did You Know..” box_color=”#faeb35″ title_color=”#221313″]The Japanese researchers found that cats understand humans, not just by voice tone but also by identifying certain words including their names, the owner’s name, various commands you’ve used, and many other stunning eavesdropping techniques that you had no idea about… [/su_box]
Communicating with your cat is very important
Want to know how you can talk to your cat in a way they understand?
Check out my article – How To Talk To Your Cat
Wrapping It Up
Spraying a cat with water is not abuse as you’re trying to stop your cat from stopping a certain behavior
But then when you think of it
Your cat may get scared of you because you’re spraying him/her with water
And that can leave a negative impact which then can cause your cat to become stressed
So spraying a cat with water can cause stress which is on the borderline of abuse
I’m not saying it is but it’s heading towards that right because it’s causing harm to your cat
Yes, when they do things that is bad can be frustrating
But there’s different ways to tackle these bad behavior
It all comes down to understanding why your cat is behaving in this manner
Once you figure that out, you can then tackle the problem
That way you’re not scaring your cat or potentially ruin your relationship with your kitty