my cat must be petted while he eats

Question
Hi,
I've got a male American shorthair named Cassius (for the black eye he gave me when we first met). He's a tough little guy from the streets of Brooklyn, and we've had him for about two years.

He has developed this habit of demanding to be petted while he eats. Even if he has food in his bowl from last night's dinner that he didn't finish, he will wake us up and lead us to the kitchen for some of what we call PWE, or petting while eating. He purrs and purrs while we do this. He often swats my husbands ankles after he's given him this special service, but never me. After he's done with me petting him while eating, he just runs to the bathroom for a drink from the bathtub.

I've read that this petting while eating behavior could be related to his being an alpha male (only pet in the house). What do you think it means? Why does he do this, and how can we get him to stop thanking my husband with violent clawed swats to the ankles?

Thanks!
Susan

Answer
Susan,

Wow, has he got you folks very well trained.  As to swatting your husbands ankles, this is a sign of play (for whatever reasons). You may be able to get him to stop by having your husband where some kind of ankle guards, so that he cannot get any rise out of him when he swats at him.  Negative reinforcement does not do very well with cats, so you need to find a way for rewarding him if he does not swat your husband's ankles.

It sounds to me as if his behaviors are very ingrained, so it will be difficult to overcome them.  You might also investigate clicker training (see www.clickertraining.com) which is a behavior modification technique with much success amongst cats.

It will be a long frustrating road to overcome these behaviors requiring consistency of your behaviors and persistence.  I will tell you it is not easy outlasting a cat when it has its mind set on a certain behavior.

Best regards... Norm.