---start---- behavior 11/11 Feline Territorial aggression: -role of normal patrol behaviors and evolutionarily conserved social system. note that we have not selected for "domestic" behaviors. -primarily involves aggression toward other cats -can involve other species - usually secondary -possible role of social hierarchy - cats will time and space share, but there is a real control of access to space issue involved, too. -may be concomitant with marking as a "flag" (roles for covert and passive aggression) -patterns of normal behavior - eg, patrol perimeter of the room is the first thing a cat will do in an unfamiliar environment -roles for chemical delineation of turf: chin rubbing, bunting (using superciliary and genal vibrissae - this is when they hit you with the top of the head and stuff), mystacial and interdigital secretions, "marking." Treatment for territorial aggression: -realize it isn't uncoupled from social standing -reinforce whichever animal is behaving appropriately -bell inappropriate animal so other animals have warning -address any marking problems -gradually introduce for space sharing - use olfaction - add 3D space in form of empty boxes -time/space sharing -drugs -anxiolytics: benzodiazepines, tricyclics, SSRIs Fearful aggression: -in cats, may have huge genetic component. cats have to be handled by 8 weeks to be outgoing, and being outgoing depends on dad's attitude. genes control the extent to which behavioral environment can modulate phenomenological events -signalling: role in overt vs covert aggression, offensive vs defensive aggression, passive vs active aggression - can sit there and hold ground vs swatting and growling. fearful cat is more covert, defensive, and passive. -role for learning environment - fear is an adaptive response to situation learned to be injurious. phobia is not normal, ever, is inappropriate, and makes things worse. phobia is pathological response, fear is not. if you have two cats and one is the victim of redirected aggression from other cat, it will become fearfully aggressive so consider role of phobic stimuli. tx of fearful aggression: -minimize exposure to stimulus -schedule time in pleasurable activities -reward appropriate behaviors -desensitize and counter-condition through gradual exposures and feeding routines- expose to stimulus at subthreshold level with gradual increase in exposure = desensitization. counter-conditioning is active - reward behavior that opposes or competively interferes with inappropriate behavior. together these methods are very useful. -use of harnesses and rewards for no reaction -cages and flooding? put in cage, force exposure, probably induces phobia. people want quick fixes so they often try this. -anti-anxiety meds: after premed physical and labwork: benzodiazepines, tricyclics, SSRIs. you do not use these instead of behavior modification - you do it in addition to it. veterinary behavioral psychopharmacology is a new field, was developed here mainly. most of our cases are the worst cases, very dramatic cases, that maybe already failed a course of behavioral modification. 14% of dogs have some separation anxiety 50% of cats have some weird behavior only 25 behavior specialists in the world... Redirected aggression - very common. two most common in cats are intercat aggression and redirected aggression. this is underappreciated and often subtle or unwitnessed can be exhibited toward people or pets- most bites to humans from cats involve this type of aggression can be primary or secondary will change social environment scenario: two cats raised together, sitting sleeping in sun. leaning against each other. one sort of notices new cat entering yard and spraying. the one that notices this then freaks out, and beats up his sleeping friend. the sleeping cat who just got beaten up has no idea what is going on. this is traumatic. this can provoke a phobic response in the victim. war is hard to understand because the violence is often so out of context, just like this. be careful for humanitarian action and for small animals - in cats, the brain function is exaggerated at the level of the hypothalamus. if you stimulate it, you get a predatory attack response and cat can stay agitated 8-12 hrs. they recruit all these neurons that acts as a local focus for self stimulus. these cats are pissed, huffing, hissing, piloerect, pacing around, and they are dangerous because if you try to touch them they attack. at that point best thing to do is let it outside, throw a heavy quilt over it, herd it into another area, or whatever, leave it alone for 24 hrs. then care for victim. treatment: address primary stimulus - talk to neighbor, get them to keep their cat out of your yard. blinds, shutters. remodel the house. whatever you have to do, you have to remove the primary stimulus - because when brains are that reactive, they learn very quickly. again, be careful handling these cats - do not be humanitarian. do not interrupt this cat. treat *all* participants. this is a horrible situation for the fearful victim. these cats may never recover even if aggressor is removed. use modified confinement - remember prolonged excitement phase and avoid triggers. bells for aggressor. free range for victim. may have to rehome the cat. but no one will take a cat with redirected aggression because it bites. antianxiety meds - pending premed physical and lab animal medicine - because you do have to consider thromboembolic event in the brain - cats do get thrombi and could have middle cerebral artery infarct and go insane. sudden episodic aggression *could* be from thrombus. if you use these meds - tricyclics, ssris, serotonin agonists. Status related aggression: concept of "leave me alone" bite commonly in context of petting commonly in context of behaviors elicited or controlle dby cat non-homologous version of canine dominance aggression not truly "provoked" initially - these cats are pathological this is when the cat has set you up, cat is in control entire range of agonistic behaviors possible, including marking happens quickly potentially very dangerous usually directed against people with whom they are most comfortable, b/c they pick their victims. once you know triggers, you can provoke behavior. necessary conditions - abnormal, inappropriate, out of context aggression (threat, challenge, or attack) consistently exhibited by cats toward people under any circumstances involving passive or active control of the cat's behavior or the cat's access to the behavior sufficient conditions: intensification of any aggressive response from the cat upon any passive or active correction or interruption of the cat's behavior, or the cat's access to the behavior. flicking cats in the nose is not such a good idea, by the way. also not good to scruff, or blow in the face. if you do, you will probably make it worse, more reactive, and start stalking you. tx: avoid the problem. caution needy clients! bell the cat so client knows where it is. one cat victimized a man who was losing his sight due to diabetes and belling the cat helped him avoid the cat. set a schedule for activity with the cat giving it attention to meet its needs while keeping you safe. learn to recognize the cues of attack. keep cat hungry for attention and withdraw attention before cat is ready to attack. redirect play activities to inanimate objects. do not play with carnivores with human body parts. trim nails and/or use nail caps. try confinement or electronic keyed access. declaw might be an option for human safety - the only humanitarian reason in her opinion. anti-anxiety meds - fluoxetine is the SSRI that is best at helping impulse control. really can help these cats. probably lifelong tx. remember marking association with many of these aggressions. elimination diagnoses most frequently assoc with aggression: spraying (victim or aggressor) non spraying marking (victim or aggressor) spraying: elimination of feline urine in vertical dirction through spp specific postures... more common in males than females more common in intact animals than neutered 10% of neutered males persist in spraying if they sprayed before 5% of neutered females persist in spraying but if you think about it - the response to neutering is the same. % difference is only b/c more males spray before neutering. more common in multicat households. if 10 or more cats at least one will always spray. social situation intruders (human or feline) windows, territory anxiety and aggression are important avg apartment is 10-100 times smaller than average seasonal range of any cat. drugs for spraying, how to choose - don't pick one at random. look at signs, situation, postulate mechanism, etc. what about animals who assume spraying posture without expressing urine? well, that is probably truly social spraying as far as signalling goes. it's signalling, these cats are so confident they do not need to leave the olfactory cue. general behavior and environmental recommendatinos for aggressive disorders associated with elimination - reduce stress (separate when not supervised, provide additional 3d turf, cover windows, odor eliminators), counter condition and desensitize animals, correction, - bell, startle with appropriate timing (not all the time - might make cat more anxious, might cause status aggression. but if you can abort the event that's good.), use banishment as punishment, reward structure. reward incremental change, reward when spontaneously good, quality time for each pet. Dogs: Aggression that we see...we don't have a lot of time to talk about this. But, you should watch this video and hear about this case. this 6 mo old bernese was brought in b/c of aggression to client. this dog was brought in by owner with leather gloves on prong collar with muzzle. owner said he was being mauled and dog wouldn't play. the dog is playing in this video. with a really big ball. they were giving it little squeaky toys. he didn't like those toys. so they gave him a big toy. owner said when he played with dog, dog would get aggressive and would maul him. trainers told him to jerk him around on leash, hang by choke collar, muzzle him, hit him on the head with a whiffle ball bat, do all this weird stuff. guy said the dog wouldn't play. this is a nice dog. came over to student, let her handle it, she can put her fingers in his mouth, he's very playful. she asked owner if he could handle him this way. owner said whenever his hands are near dog's head he gets bitten. now, our staff was able to play with him, move his head around, massage his muzzle, look in his eyes, all kinds of stuff. dog didn't mind at all. so they asked owner to try some of this stuff. they asked owner to hold the dog's muzzle - dog showed obvious fearful reaction and then pushed him away. dog has play aggression. he has learned that he gets hurt when he plays with this guy! this case has done well though. he really improved a lot after one visit. one thing they found out was that the guy was very religious (the answering machine said something about god) so she explained to him about being gentle to the dog and that seemed to work. ---end---