Whenever somebody comes over - friends, relatives, parents....And the cats scratch at furniture, they hiss at them to try to get them to stop. So, I kind of fell into the habit of doing that, but just for a couple of weeks. Then I thought it may be kind of mean to do such a thing. I have heard elsewhere that hissing at a cat is NOT to be used in training, and to do so is like a direct threat to the cat, like ganging up on them or saying you're going to hurt them, or that you hate them, or that you are better than them. But on here, I've heard a couple times that is SHOULD be used for training the cat.
Nowadays, I only do it if they are doing something EXTREMELY bad, or if they are fighting and are hurting each other, which is rare, so I don't do it very much.
So basically my question is, is it okay to make a hissing sound at cats if they just scratch furniture? Or should the hissing sound not be made at all, because it's just a very mean thing to do?
I know there are many opinions and theorys (kind of) on this issue....I guess there may be no clear answer, but any behavior experts or trainers, or people with a strong opinion on this out there?
Nowadays, I only do it if they are doing something EXTREMELY bad, or if they are fighting and are hurting each other, which is rare, so I don't do it very much.
So basically my question is, is it okay to make a hissing sound at cats if they just scratch furniture? Or should the hissing sound not be made at all, because it's just a very mean thing to do?
I know there are many opinions and theorys (kind of) on this issue....I guess there may be no clear answer, but any behavior experts or trainers, or people with a strong opinion on this out there?