Behaviour & training
Redirected aggression
An animal worked up by something it cannot reach turns on whoever is nearest — the classic cat-at-the-window incident.
A cat watching a strange cat through the glass is fully aroused with nowhere to put it. The nearest housemate, or the hand that reaches down to comfort it, receives what the window would have received. It has nothing to do with the target and everything to do with the arousal, which is why the victim is so often the animal with the best relationship.
Recovery can take hours, and reintroducing two cats after an incident is usually slower than owners expect — separate rooms, then scent, then distance, then contact. Blocking the view of the trigger is the part that stops it happening again.
Related
More in Behaviour & training
Positive reinforcementAdding something the animal wants immediately after a behaviour, so the behaviour happens more often — the R+ of training, and a technical term rather than a synonym for kindness.Socialization windowThe early period when a puppy or kitten accepts new things readily, and after which the same things start to be treated as threats.Resource guardingDefending food, a toy, a spot or a person from someone approaching — normal animal behaviour that becomes a problem when it escalates in a living room.Counter-conditioningChanging what something predicts, so the animal's feeling about it changes — the nail clippers stop meaning restraint and start meaning chicken.DesensitisationExposing an animal to a trigger at an intensity low enough to stay calm, then raising it in steps small enough that calm never breaks.Trigger stackingStress that has not been given time to clear adds up, so a small final trigger produces a reaction wildly out of proportion to it.