Cats tend to be comfortable wherever, which is why they won’t always take to whatever kind of bed you give them. This can be frustrating for people who pay good money for a high-quality cat pod or cat bed, only for the cat to sleep on the floor or end up on top of a cupboard as they are wont to do. It’s also not super healthy for the cat, as having their bones resting on something soft is better for their joints in the long run. That’s why we wrote this article about how to convince a cat to use the bed you’ve chosen for them.
While we have a background in dog shows and are dog owners ourselves, cats love our beds too. Many of our customers buy the smallest of our pods in the hopes their cats will have a comfy place to rest. The thing is sometimes cats can require just a little bit of convincing to do…just about anything you want them to do. We’re going to explore reverse psychology with cats and learn about why they can be such tricky creatures to convince.
A Brief History of Why Cats Are So Contrary
Unlike the average dog, your everyday cat is not so interested in being a people pleaser. In European history, dogs were trained to do the bidding of their master, and cats were left alone, allowed a warm place to sleep and perhaps a saucer of milk if they could be entrusted to keep rodents at bay in the dark corners of the home. Dogs were out in the fields, and cats were under the house.
As they were less traditionally domesticated, cats now tend to do whatever they feel like, and scorn attempts to domesticate them in the meantime. They have a taste of freedom, retained some of their wildness, and it can take a lot to convince them to do what you want.
Interestingly, this is changing in recent years. Years and years of domestication and lots of feline friends being ‘apartment cats’ in urban centres have passed. Here in Australia, and in many places in the world, cats are (hopefully) encouraged to be kept inside away from killing native wildlife, so often kept inside. This changes the way cats get pleasure in their lives – no longer is it from the thrill of the hunt, but from the thrill of their humans doling out treats. This reward system has meant more people are able to train their cats in a dog-like way, to perform for treats.
But for the most part, cats don’t care what you think. That’s where reverse psychology comes in.
How To Use Reverse Psychology On Your Cat
While this post was originally inspired by to help you get your cats to use their Pods4Pets cat beds, you can use these reverse psychology techniques for all manner of activities a cat would usually snub.
A friend of Pods4Pets and a cat-lover extraordinaire recently told us a way to convince your cat to sleep in their cat pod, and it really says a lot about cats, to be honest. If you pretend you are giving something to the dog, and the cat will want it.
That’s right, not treats, not rewards, not the pure and simple fact that a lush faux fur cushion is a much more comfortable sleeping option than sunlit pavers. You must make your cat believe they are depriving the dog of something in order for them to experience their comfy cat pod, and never want to go back to their bones resting on wooden floorboards again.
Don’t have a dog? Simply pretend the cat cannot have something. This could be a cat pod or a toy, just really pretend that it is completely off-bounds. Then they will usually want it more than anything.
The trick is, you have to make them think it was their idea, not yours. Whether it’s sleeping on their new cat pod or eating food, the cat must believe they are in control of the decision, not you.