Feline Behavior Support

Let’s get you and your cat on the same page.

Services

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Services 〰️

Get To Know Your Cat

“Get To Know Your Cat” is a suite of offerings for those who are adopting their first cat, are introducing two cats, or want to build their cat knowledge. We cover things like:

  • How cats think and perceive the world

  • Environment, litter boxes, and how to prepare your home for a cat

  • What to expect during the adjustment period

  • Enrichment and entertaining your cat

  • Clicker training and how it can help you prevent challenging behaviors before they start

Behavioral Support

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Behavioral Support 〰️

Squash your beef with your cat.

For most of us, cat behavior isn’t intuitive.

Litter box issues, nuisance behavior, and aggression can be confusing, destabilizing, and damaging to your relationship with your pet. These challenges can feel deeply personal, as though your cat is trying to spite you. After else, why else would they be peeing on your clothes, or scratching the couch after you’ve repeatedly yelled at them to stop?

Here’s the truth: it’s never spite. Your cat doesn’t hate you. They’re trying to communicate - you just speak different languages.

With education and some problem solving, we can close that communication gap, and many behavior issues can be addressed. Park Slope Paws behavioral support can:

  • Demystify challenging behaviors, so you can understand what your cat is trying to tell you

  • Problem-solve to find a solution to the behavior that works for both you and your cat

  • Adapt and refine strategies to make sure we’re getting it right

A few things I can help with:

  • Litter box issues & house soiling

  • Aggression (toward other cats & humans)

  • Nuisance behaviors

  • Introductions

  • General cat questions!

Frequently Asked Questions

  • Short answer: Yes, please do - any sudden change in behavior could be the result of a medical issue.

    For example: if your cat is urinating outside the litter box, that could be a result of any number of things. It could be due to a medical issue, a problem with the box itself, stress, or something entirely different. While I’m a whiz at helping with the last few things - environment, stress, etc. - I can’t diagnose or treat medical issues. We can problem solve til we’re blue in the face, but if (for example) your cat needs antibiotics, then none of my suggestions are going to help.

    Why go to a vet first? It takes less time for a vet to rule out a medical problem than it does for me to try every possible behavioral intervention & realize that nothing is working because the problem is physical. In the time it takes us to rule out every strategy, a medical issue could progress from minor to significant. (It will also cost you less money in the long run to go to the vet at the beginning than it will to pay me for months to make no progress.)

    I recognize that vets are expensive, and this can be frustrating! But you might end up saving money (not to mention, your cat’s life) by going to the vet before calling me. Any sudden change in behavior could be the result of a medical issue and is cause for a vet visit.

  • Obviously, this varies by issue, but one thing is true in every case - we move at the cat’s pace.

    That means that as we work with your cat, we observe their behavior, respond accordingly, and only move forward with interventions when they’re comfortable. Sometimes this takes a while, sometimes it doesn’t.

    Because we’re prioritizing the cat’s timeline, it’s impossible to put an exact time frame on how long it will take to address an issue. How long it takes will also depend on the resources we have available, including time, space, and energy. You should expect to do work - behavior changes happen slowly, with daily effort, and while we will work together to find a solution that fits into your life and abilities, there’s probably no magic fix.

    However, another thing that’s always true - following the cat’s pace winds up being faster than obsessing over our own schedule. After all, have you ever met a cat who voluntarily plays by someone else’s rules? Yeah, me neither. Putting in the time to learn and follow your cat’s signals will not only help you solve your problem - it’ll deepen your bond.