Dear people of Team Cat Mojo.
This is a public service announcement.
My name is squirt, squirt bottle.
You may use me to remain stains.
You may use me to water your garden.
What you should not use me for, and what
has upset many of my brethren, is to punish your animals.
Welcome to the Cat Cave.
Alright, it's time we talked about squirt gun diplomacy.
If I can't use this, how do I discipline my cat?
No such thing as disciplining your cat.
I'm sorry to say folks, they have no idea
what you're talking about when you use this voice on them.
Squirt guns do not work.
They do not work.
Now let's use an example.
Let's say your cat is counter surfing.
Counter surfing of course means that they're just
walking across the counters, and it's
something that drives you insane.
And you would much rather that your cats aren't counter
surfing.
If you wanted your cat to stop counter surfing,
then every single time, 24/7, that they jump up
on the counter-- if you wanted to be hanging out
with Mr. squirt bottle, and you wanted
make sure that they got off the counter, when then you've
got to camp out there, all day, every day.
Then when you're not around, I promise you
your cat is counter surfing.
I promise that you haven't taught them a thing.
All they know is that when you're around,
they shouldn't do something.
And when you're not around, they will.
So you have succeeded in diminishing
the bond between you and your cat completely.
They are afraid of you, not afraid of the experience
of getting wet when they jump up on the counter.
So it's something that I find really, really important,
because it follows that line of thinking.
Can cats be disciplined?
No, of course they cannot.
What let's say that we were using
an air-compressed canister and an electric eye, that tool.
Put down, cat jumps up, squirt squirt, OK, with air.
And they're gone.
What's the big difference there?
That you didn't do it, the counter did it.
That's an effective no.
What can you do if there's something
that you would rather your cat not do?
Well you've got to make it work for them.
So counter surfing-- first of all, what does it attain?
Are you keeping food on the counter
and then asking your cat not to eat that food?
Is your cat a big fan of running water out of a faucet, and yet
there is no running water in the form of fountains
any place else?
Or is your cat thriving on potentially negative attention?
It doesn't really matter.
If you yell at your cat or praise your cat--
it's attention, right?
So if every time I jump up on the counter,
I get attention, negative or positive,
short of striking or squirting or whatever, then I'll
probably keep doing it.
If absolutely nothing happens when
I jump up on the counter-- no food, no reward, no lovey
dovey, no pick you up and put you
down, no pet on the way down, no yelling your name, no nothing.
Nothing happens.
Then why would I continue to do it?
OK so now we get to the second part of this.
Squirt guns are out.
So now we get to what I call the yes no.
It doesn't matter whether you're parenting someone
with for legs or two.
The yes no is a great way of doing things.
Let's go back to our counter surfer friend
who, every time you're in the kitchen, has to be out there.
We can do something very simple.
For instance, use a placement.
The placemat has double-sided sticky tape on it,
which is a really cool little trick, because you can take it
off, put away somewhere, put it back down, it's sticky.
Every time you cat jumps up on the counter-- sticky, sticky.
Eh, I got to go.
Or you use the compressed air canisters
with the electric eyes that I use, like StayAway or Scat,
any of those guys.
They go.
We just established the no.
Now where's the yes?
Well the yes for a tree-dwelling, inquisitive,
counter surfer is something up in that kitchen that
rises to the height, approximately, of that counter.
Now away from the counter, so we're
not asking them to jump up on the counter, get sticky paws,
get frustrated, go down, and do whatever they do.
But for them to have a sill, a stand, a tree in the kitchen
area so while you're making dinner, they can observe.
Yeah.
I approve, right?
My name is Fluffy and I approve this dinner.
Then we're good.
So the moral of the story here is
that if you want your cat to do something,
you've got to meet them halfway.
Compromise is one of the highest forms
of love in a relationship.
This actually signifies something completely different,
on a deeper level.
This signifies that we believe that we
can bend our animals to our will, right?
And if we step back from the squirt gun for a second,
step away from the squirt gun, we
may realize that that is not a humane operational system.
Squirt gun diplomacy is not actual diplomacy.
In essence, think about the no and yes.
And once you think about no and yes, you'll
probably get somewhere, alright?
So anyhow.
That's all I got for today.
Keep watching.
Guys, thank you so much for subscribing.
We passed 20,000 subscribers on the Cat Mojo channel,
and I could not be more proud and grateful.
And grateful to the folks at the Animalist Network, by the way,
for helping so much and making this a reality.
So check me out here.
Anywhere you are, I am.
I don't care if it's Twitter or Facebook or Instagram
or YouTube or Google.
Or probably in the supermarket.
We're in the same place at the same time.
And I would love to hear from you.
Please leave a comment.
Please keep subscribing.
Don't forget, we just had our second Google Hangout.
We'll be having Mojo Hangouts onward and onward every month,
so you'll find out about that by subscribing as well.
In the meantime, be kind to all.
We all deserve a break.
Until next time.
All light, all love, all mojo to ya, baby.
Ahh, love ya. [MUSIC] You're a bad cat.
I'm not a bad cat.
You're a bad cat.
I'm not a bad cat.
You're a bad cat.
I'm just misunderstood.
Meow.