Cat Behavior and Training

We heard recently about a cat that was urinating in several rooms of the house in the middle of the floor.  The episodes are reported to be quite random (we don’t have sufficient information from the questioner to know whether this is true or not).  The question put to us was why this was happening.  Someone had read somewhere that cats don’t usually choose the middle of the room unless they are ill or in distress. 

Our answer is that there are many factors that influence the location(s) cats choose to relieve themselves.  These include early and past experience, accessibility, “privacy” or perhaps safety is a better term, odors, textures, and ambient noise, to name just a few.  We are unaware of any correlation between distress, disease, and the location a cat chooses for elimination.

We suggested that perhaps the cat could be marking.  While it is not common for cats to urine mark from a squatting position, rather than spraying, it has been known to happen.  To differentiate a squatting-mark from just a voiding of the bladder, we would want to consider the amount of urine deposited, and the context in which the urination occurred. 

The veterinarian was already involved in the cat’s case, and there is apparently no evidence of urinary tract or other disease process.  If this were our case we would have to conduct a detailed behavior interview session with the owner about the inappropriate elimination, the cat’s overall behavior patterns and routines, details about the litterbox, and relationships among all the cats in the family. 

Trying to decipher what’s motivating this cat’s urination outside the box requires starting with a completely open mind about what might be going on.  Making assumptions, or speculating about causes without sufficient information, can lead to the wrong conclusions.  We warned our questioner that our remark about this possibly being a marking behavior was just that – speculation.  We need more information. 

Sometimes, even with careful questioning and a detailed behavior history, we scratch our heads and say to each other “We don’t have a clue why!”.  In those cases, we have to take a systematic approach to environmental changes and/or behavior modification and change one thing at a time, so if the cat goes back to the box, we know which intervention(s) was successful. 

To learn more about creating a cat friendly litterbox, see our booklet, Cats Come Clean, and our DVD “Helping Kitty Be Good by Creating a Cat Friendly Home”.  If you are a pet professional and want to learn more about resolving these sorts of problems, take our How to Take a Behavior History telecourse, AND join our professional subscription site, the BehaviorEducationNetwork.com.