Trixie’s owners contacted Forrest Animal Behaviour as they were concerned about Trixie’s behaviour towards them. She was only a young kitten 6 months old, however she was being aggressive to the owners and their teenage sons.

During the assessment it was found the aggressive behaviour was due to a very high play drive, with some predatory actions, meaning quite forceful bites and scratches. This was a learnt behaviour as when Trixie was a kitten, she used to play with the sons, with their hands and feet. This meant Trixie was now seeing family members hands and feet, as a target for her play and predatory needs.

We worked with Trixie owners over a few months and Trixie really enjoyed the behaviour modifications we introduced. We taught her a recall command, so she could be called away from doing the unwanted behaviours. We introduced more play enrichment, including self-directed play on her own. Trixie took really well to her training plan and loved the new toys and scheduled play sessions. She has now stopped targeting hands and feet, and if she does, she is easy to redirect. Her family have been a pleasure to work with and placed so much work into training her, meaning she is now becoming a calmer cuddly cat!