Page 5 - IAV Digital Magazine #382

The only true FREE CLASSIFIEDS in the Antelope Valley... Where buyers and sellers meet!
Scientists Explain How You Should Pet Your Cat
By Kate Seamons
If your cat doesn't seem to want to sit still while you pet it, you might be doing it wrong. Yes, it turns out there is a right and wrong way to pet a cat, per a study pub- lished in Applied Animal Behaviour Science in late 2014.
As the researchers from UK's University of Lincoln note in their abstract, "As part of its role as a pet, cats are expected to not only tol- erate but enjoy being touched." They set out to determine how one should best do that via two experiments, which zeroed in on "handler familiarity," the cats' vari- ous body regions, and the order in which they
were touched.
The upshot: Leave the tail alone. That "caudal" region returned the most negative scores regard- less of how familiar the petter was. The Washington Post explains the tail area "is sort of a cat erogenous zone, and petting may overstimulate it." It fur- ther points to a 2002 study that echoes that caudal finding and says that petting in the tem- poral region (between the eyes and ears) was most preferable.
As for whether you start with the ears or the back, the study showed the order of body region touched didn't really matter. One odd finding that needs further inves-
tigating, per the researchers: Negative responses were higher when owners, not strangers, stroked the cats.
University of Lincoln researchers have exam- ined the topic before: In a 2013 study they found that cats who dislike being petted but allow their owners to do so may be stressed out.
(Another recent study found cat owners may be in denial about their darling pets.)
This article originally appeared on Newser: Scientists Determine How You Should Pet Your Cat
4
661-266-4-ADS
ANTELOPE VALLEY FREE CLASSIFIEDS ;