Rescue Tails / Subject to Change!

By Contributed by FKSPCA Staff

Have you ever felt emotionally “conflicted”? You want something, but you don’t; you enjoy one aspect of an activity but not another; you’d love to spend an hour with a friend but not the whole afternoon. Animals can be emotionally conflicted also, which can lead to some pretty confusing and frustrating behaviors for us humans to understand.

Your cat walks up to you and starts rubbing against your leg. You take that as a request for interaction and petting. But after 2-3 pets, she hisses and swats you. WHAT?? How can that be? Is this a schizophrenic cat?

The cat sits at the door to go out. You open the door, she looks outside, pauses then turns and goes back in the house. Ten seconds later, she’s sitting at the door again. UGH! What am I, the butler??

You meet a dog you don’t know. You reach out your hand to him and offer him a treat.  He approaches your hand to sniff or takes the treat, then as you move away he snaps at you. YIKES!! What’s wrong with that dog??

These scenarios are not uncommon and all point to some sort of emotional conflict.

Most likely, the hissing kitty is not crazy but rather conflicted. She wants to interact but is only comfortable with a certain type of interaction or interaction of a shorter duration. Maybe we petted her on a spot that is a bit painful for some reason.

The cat who sits at the door may want to go out but then senses something concerning outside and changes her mind.  Of maybe she just wanted to check out the scene with a look and a sniff, but nothing more.

The dog who snaps or bites after an initial greeting may be feeling a need to investigate an outreached hand and get a treat but also has a need for safety and personal space. Those two competing needs create conflict and the behavior is a reflection of that.

We can never know for sure why an animal engages in any behavior, but by reading their body language and giving them the benefit of the doubt when it comes to their motivations, we do both them and ourselves a favor!

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