Your cat yowls
at night because
you taught it
whose scolding only makes it worse
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The full narration of the video.
The more you scold, the more your cat yowls at night. Four a.m., it sits by your pillow and meows. You shout "Stop it!" The next night, it shows up even earlier. Is it doing this to spite you?
No. A cat has no idea of good habits or bad ones. It only keeps one tally: what happened right after I did that? Picture your cat standing in front of a vending machine. Every little thing it does is a button press.
Press, and something good drops out? Noted: press that one more often. Press a few times and nothing comes? It stops bothering. The catch is, what counts as "good" to a cat isn't what you'd think.
Food counts. Petting counts. A glance, a word from you, counts too. Even you yelling at it counts. At night you suddenly sit up and talk to it. To the cat, the machine just paid out.
And this machine has a quirk: it only counts the next few seconds. Cat vets suggest rewarding within about three seconds. You come home to a shredded sofa and scold it. The cat can't link that to the sofa.
It only links it to you: when you walk in, bad things happen. Punish enough, and what it learns is to avoid you. So many bad habits are taught by accident: clawing the table, jumping on the stove, yowling at night. Each time, something happened to drop out.
Good habits come from the same machine. It uses the scratching post, and a treat comes right away. It jumps on the stove, and you lift it down. Nothing else. After a few rounds, it works out for itself which button pays.
This kind of learning has a proper name: operant conditioning. Put simply: an action followed by something good happens more often. The button is the cat's action. What drops out is the good thing right after.
Kittens also have a teacher: their mother. Kittens that watch her press the right button learn much faster. Kittens gently handled between two and seven weeks old grow up friendlier. When a vending machine stops paying, you bang on it harder first. Cats do the same.
When nobody answers the night yowling, it gets louder for a few nights. Get up then, and it learns: louder works. Hold out through those nights, and it slowly gives up. If a quiet cat suddenly starts yowling at night, see a vet first.
Try it tonight: stay silent while it yowls, and pet it once it's quiet. When it calls you at dawn, do you get up, or pull the covers over your head?
What to do first
Next time your cat yowls at dawn, don’t scold and don’t get up. Wait until it’s quiet, then pet it.
Cats don’t sort habits into good and bad. They track one thing: what happened right after they did something. You getting up, talking, even yelling all mean the same to the cat: “Someone paid attention to me.”
What you think
vs. what happens
and it knows it was wrong.
attention.
Put simply: every time you scold, you reward it again.
A cat in front of
a vending machine
Only the next
few seconds count
Feline vets advise giving a reward within a few seconds of the action, about 3. After that, the cat can’t make the link.
If you come home, find the sofa shredded and scold the cat, it has no idea this is about the sofa. It only learns that you’re a bit scary when you get home. Punish often and the cat avoids you, or just scratches while you’re out.
So skip punishment. Give it something it’s allowed to scratch, and reward it right away when it uses it.
Bad habits and good habits
work the same way
Good or bad, it’s the same rule: whatever is followed by a payoff happens more. The fastest way to break a bad habit is to give the cat a good action that earns the same payoff.
Who kittens learn from
speeds it up.
matter most.
Ignore it, and it
gets louder first
When a vending machine stops paying out, people bang on it. Cats do the same: once you start ignoring the yowling, the first few nights are often longer and louder. It’s called an extinction burst, and it means the plan is working.
The worst move: giving in on the loudest night.
Then it learns that yowling hard enough works, and next time it yowls harder. Hold out, and it gets quieter night by night. (The chart is an illustration, not measured data.)
One kind of yowling
you shouldn’t ignore
starts yowling at night,
see a vet first Thyroid problems, pain and age-related cognitive decline can all cause night yowling. Rule out illness before treating it as a habit.
do you get up,
or play dead under the covers?
Quick check
Your cat yowls at dawn and you sit up and scold it. What does the cat get out of that?
Cats track what happens right after an action. Sitting up, talking, even scolding all count as attention, so the yowling increases.
