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Hey, what's up, everybody, welcome again to cat stuff with me.
Now let's get into today's topic.
Fear with what we're going to talk today about is that your cats could be afraid of a lot
of things.
And in the past we've talked about fear of strangers, other cats being afraid of the
person who adopted them.
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Check out this video because that was a really good one.
So there are a lot of triggers.
I mean, a more common one would be the vacuum or the sound of sirens going down the street
or even the cry of a baby.
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I worked with a client one time whose cat was terrified of the ceiling fan in their
bedroom and just that nothing else otherwise really confident cat.
How these things manifest.
You know what?
Not even worth going into.
It doesn't matter.
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The result is your cat is afraid of something.
In my opinion, anyway, fear of Dot Dot Dot becomes the lead domino to a fearful existence,
to a life where fear has an open door to other things, other stimuli.
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So I think it's important that we address not just the thing itself, but how do we get
past this very uncomfortable hump in the road?
How do we get past this?
Well, it's actually something that is used in behavior science all the time.
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It's called the systematic desensitization and counter conditioning, and it's a system
comprised of two components.
one is desensitization and the other one is counter.
Conditioning desensitization is that process where we gradually expose your cat to this
stimulus and in gradually doing it, lessen its impact.
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The counter conditioning is pairing that stimulus with something really positive, therefore
turning something really negative.
Counter conditioning, turning it into something as close to positive or great as we can get
it.
All right, so of course, the first thing to do is to identify the negative.
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And let's just use the siren analogy only because listen, I grew up in New York City.
That was just predictably unpredictable and fairly constant.
And if your cat is afraid of that thing, well, the first thing we want to do is understand
this is a really important concept.
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You guys understand.
Your cat's challenge line.
What is the challenge line?
The challenge line is very simply on one side of the line is safety and security.
On the other end is danger danger.
Will Robinson.
So where that line is and you will probably notice it's a line on one side, your cat will
do things as normal
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on the other side.
Not a chance.
And then we find that line and desensitize slowly.
Get them to accept moving the line one paw at a time, moving that line, you know?
So with sirens, it's all about the sound itself.
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So what you want to do is go to any sound library.
I mean, they're searchable and free.
You'll find a siren, but believe me.
And and then you record that sound and you find that challenge line.
At what point and the volume scale will your cat be fairly non-responsive to the sound?
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And then as you inch it up, at what point do you start noticing those physical responses,
i.e. your cat hunting down or ears going flat, eyes dilating, tail swishing or just retreating,
getting out of the way, going under something once you've found that we know where to start.
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So our goal is to get from point A to point B, the sound of a normal volume siren.
So how we get there is the second part of this, which is counter conditioning as we
pair this negative with something that is intensely positive.
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Next step is what is good, what is what I call the jackpot is the jackpot treat jackpot
toy.
Both of those things combined.
Your job to find it, we found the challenge high.
Now let's find the jackpot.
If it's a certain food, if it's a certain trees, if it's a certain toy.
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first thing is those things get put away.
They're only being broken out in times of challenge, life and work.
I love these tube treats right here, by the way, you can get them on the Jackson Galaxy
Store, a couple of different brands, all different types of flavors, so you rip off the top.
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It comes out and kind of a paste and then your cat starts licking on it and they're
like, Oh, that's something else.
Hmm.
What is that?
You don't even know where that smell is coming from right now.
Oh, there it is.
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Wicked.
I call that jackpot giving you a jackpot, you might get a little closer, you see now
for some reason.
Bramble had a little bit of hesitation coming across the table, but what we've done is let's
see how the body is like, I don't really want to go that far.
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But now we have.
So let's say, just crossing over my laptop was his challenge line.
We're over it for the day.
He's done it now.
He's gotten this tree.
We give him a little bit more.
Here you go.
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And that means that when we put this away tomorrow, it's got even more value to it,
you know?
So don't forget your jackpot now.
Take this away because it smells like sardines, and I'm going to gag.
I am not going to break out this treat any other time, except when I am doing this work
with them so
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that we are pairing jackpot with the siren itself.
We're starting the siren at a low level.
You get that volume to a place where they're just having the beginnings of negative beginnings
of fear.
And the idea is we start before the champs line, work them up to it while getting this.
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And it's really key right here.
Not to rush this process.
Get one pour over the challenge line and you're done.
It's fine because they still end this experience and nothing but positive, and we just snuck
them over the line because we are crafty humans.
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Now we've established what desensitization and counter conditioning are, and I got to
say it works.
Now what we've highlighted right now is a sound So what have we what do we do if it's
an actual place like your cat is afraid of going to the window, even though we know that
once he gets into that window bed
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, he's going to be a happy cat or in.
Let's use my specific example of the ceiling fan because that was a really interesting
experience.
And of course, it worked really well.
So the upshot of this story was the cat was perfectly fine.
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No problem.
But there was a ceiling fan in the couple's bedroom, and they were so sad because their
cat would not come into the bedroom.
He would just sit at, you know, outside the doorway looking up at that thing, frozen with
fear.
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I really enjoy using toys in this case, also because it also employs the jackpot with a
degree of movement.
It's not necessarily about the fan itself that we want to desensitize.
I know that sounds crazy, but it's the doorway that leads into that room.
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The door jam becomes the challenge line for your cat.
So in using toys, especially interactive toys, you're starting to just get movement going.
And so you would get that movement going all the way down the hallway and you get them
playing, get them losing all sense of self because the back here, that little hunter
is kicking in
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. You get them moving.
Now you get them closer to the door and again, not through the door.
That's not where we're going at first.
Your cat, because they are motivated to hunt, are into the hunt and not into the fear.
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So we're just going to go down the hallway, turn back, go around, go back and around down
the hallway again, out to the dining room, back and again, you're creating this sense
of movement around that doorway, but not coming near it, not approaching that challenge line
quite yet.
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Then, as you guys get comfortable doing it?
Yeah, approach that door jamb back out again.
You're not stopping at the door jamb or anywhere near it.
It just becomes a step on the road to fun.
You know, that's it.
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Then sure, you're going to get your cat to go through the door jamb just two inches out
again.
Don't stop.
Use momentum out again.
Make Figure Eights all over the household and we're in the door jamb.
We're out again.
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Eventually, you will get your cat as long as you're observing, right?
Because if you're playing with your cat and you're getting close to the door jamb and
they just put the brakes on and they were just playing a second ago challenge line,
stop it for the day.
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Give some reward a meal.
Treats whatever it is and your your your day on a really high note, you know, and that's
that, you know.
And then the next day you approach it more.
Jackpot Toy does not get utilized at any other time, except when you're doing your desensitization,
counter conditioning work.
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Pretty simple, actually.
And again, if you do it systematically, if you do it while you're respecting the challenge
line but asking them, Bramble, will you take a step past your tip?
Well, he did it.
He's gone.
Hmm, hmm.
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My boy.
I am of the belief that when you get your cat to approach and conquer a challenge line,
no matter what, it is asking to be brave in exchange for a reward.
It just bleeds over into the rest of their life.
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Any cat that can live like Bramble on up?
You know, not under not not being small to any degree is a cat who lives their best life
like us.
If we approach our fear using, by the way, these same techniques, if we approach our
own fear and bust through it.
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Man, do you feel good about yourself and you feel like you can take on other things?
And like I said, the dominoes fall this way instead of towards fear, they move towards
courage.
And and that's pretty much it, you guys.
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Yes, this works for just about any fear now when it comes to things like other cats and
dogs and children.
There's an added component to this because you can't control the target.
We can control the siren sound, we can control the ceiling fan.
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We can't control the movements of a child or the curiosity of a dog or the hatred, maybe
from another cat, those we want to pair with other techniques.
And like I said, there's plenty of videos on the channel that get into all of those
things, as well as in my book Total Cat Mojo, where I lay it
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out for you.
Another thing if it's not a place, not a sound, not another being, but an indication that
you're doing something so that could be your cat afraid of a brush.
It's you operating that brush.
Get the brush in the place where they'll just walk up to it.
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Rub Dun Reward Jackpot.
That's challenge line just coming up to it, you know, and if you have to do it gradually,
then what it is, you have the brush on the floor, as we have seen, and then you get them
through desensitization, encounter conditioning to get them closer to the brush.
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Now you put your hand on the brush challenge line.
Now you put it up to their cheek challenged line.
You know how it goes, right?
Absolutely.
Don't skip a step.
Don't think that you can go challenge line.
Oh, you know, take a big leap over the challenge line.
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Always a at a time.
So anyway, I know that I haven't addressed all of the specific fears that you guys have
been sending in, by the way.
Thank you for doing that and keep doing it because maybe we'll go deeper into it next
time, but thank you for doing it.
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And in the meantime, I think this is probably going to help you guys.
All right, hopefully.
Hey.
And if it doesn't help you, that's what the comments are for.
So, you know, leave a comment.
And don't forget to subscribe to the channel.
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Until next time, you guys.
All right.
All of all, cap mojo to you.