Tips and Advice

Dealing with Bad Behaviors

As you might imagine a lot of people call me about behavior problems with animals. The solutions are as varied as the problems and specific to the individual animals. But there is one technique I have developed that is useful in almost every case and I wanted to pass it along to you. I call it "making movies".

Making Movies - The Technique

Here is how it works. Pick a behavior in your animal that you do not like or select one you are working to change. Talk to your animal out loud and explain that you would like the animal to change this behavior. Tell the animal why you want this and what you want instead. Then say, "This is my dream of how things could be instead." Now close your eyes and visualize the animal behaving in the ideal way that you would like. It will be as if you are watching a movie that you are making in the moment. Make this movie as real and detailed as you can and include sensory and emotional aspects, i.e., feel this new reality both physically and emotionally as you are making the move. It is especially important to emotionally feel what it be like to have this new behavior on the part of your animal be your new reality. Then when you are finished, open your eyes and say to your animal, "If you could do this for me it would make me so happy, and I will do everything I can to help you make this shift."

Sample Case - Introducing Phoebe

I used this technique recently to introduce a new kitten, Phoebe, into my household. I told all my animals that I wanted them to get along with the new kitten and that my dream was that they would all play together. Then I closed my eyes and imagined them doing this, as if creating and simultaneously watching a movie of all my animals getting along and playing together. I made this scenario as real as I could by imagining things like patting one of my dogs and the kitten as they lay snuggled up together or hearing one of the adult cats and the kitten chasing each other in play across the house. I also imagined what it would feel like emotionally to have all my animals happy and totally at peace with each other and the new kitty. I did this several times a week. Whenever there was hissing or spats or the dogs got too "big" for the kitty, I reminded them out loud that I wanted them to all get along and play and tolerate each other. Then I would say, "Here is how I want you to act," and close my eyes and imagine the less than perfect encounter that had just happened, but I would revise it to be the ideal - a happy encounter with a good outcome.

I did a few other things as well, like using flower essences, but the making movies technique was the main thing I did and it worked really well. Within two weeks my kitten and my dogs were best friends and one of my adult cats was starting to sort of play with the kitten. At four weeks everyone was playing with the kitten, including my 20 year old cat, and they are now all completely tolerant of the kitty and even seem to be enjoying her somewhat crazed personality.

Copyright ©2012 Marta Williams. All Rights Reserved.