Until Midnight (& Sometimes Later)

Naughty No More
by Marilyn Krieger

Trade Paperback 2010 Bow Tie Press ISBN: 978-1-193395893-7 Rating: 4 paws (out of 5)

On the surface, Naughty No More is a book about the problems you can run into when you own a cat, and how to correct them. And it’s a manual on clicker training, and how to use it not only to correct problems but to teach your cat to perform tricks. More than any of these, though, it’s a book about how to bond with your cat, whether you’ve just acquired your first kitten, or added a new adult to a multi-cat household.

What I especially like about Naughty No More is that the emphasis is put on understanding why your cat is behaving in a particular way. Different cats will exhibit the same behavior for wildly divergent reasons, and the first step to changing that behavior is recognizing their motivations. A careful reading will also give you valuable insight into why cats act the way they do.

The book groups problem behaviors by chapter (improper elimination, introducing a new cat into the household, etc.), and breaks each issue down into multiple variations. Each possibility is then subjected to a thorough analysis of cause and effect, followed by multiple suggestions and examples of how to correct the problem.

The prose is very clear and easy to understand, and the layout includes lots of explanatory pictures. Everything is broken up into easy to digest pieces, and the instructions are very encouraging for the novice. Someone already frustrated with a misbehaving cat would be able to find answers here, and the recipe for success always includes directions for how to take a step back (if the cat isn’t responding well) and move ahead more slowly. More difficult concepts and training goals build on simpler ones explained earlier in the text.

By the end of the book you can be teaching your cat to jump through hoops!

This review was published in the TICA Trend, as well as Bengals Illustrated magazine and Savannahs Illustrated magazine