What I learned in school - the psychology of giving attention

I get your drift, JessM

You can lead a horse to water...................
Not everyone wants to join in Jess but I'm right with you!

It would be too hard for me!

I agree with you JessM but find it difficult to remember on occasion!

Yes, Jess, and intermittent reinforcement is most effective, so receivng encouragement just once in a while undoes all the good work to wean off the attention-seeker! We never learn!

A timely comment Jess, , and yes when, intermittent rewarding will perpetuate an on-going cycle ad nauseum.

But should we not encourage sensible posts good actions by rewarding them on the isolated occasions they happen?

this is of course the tricky bit. Spot the child being good and reward it. However if what you are trying to do is drastically reduce the frequency of a behaviour then the only thing to do is go cold turkey.
Imagine a cat who is used to being given a little snack every time a human walks into the kitchen. Cat of course makes a pest of itself, winding itself around ankles and trying to trip up humans whenever ankles appear in the kitchen.
If you want cat to stop it, you throw all the snacks in the bin and don't buy any more. Feed cat, in bowl, in yard. Never give cat any food in kitchen. The begging will stop quite quickly. If you wanted to train cat into another behaviour e.g. sitting sweetly and hopefully in the corner, it would be quite tricky. Not impossible but would probably require one, focussed person behaving in a structured way to pull it off.

There is also the "don't go in the kitchen in the first place" approach with such a cat. Which involves sticking to other rooms in the house. The library, the laundry, the nursery etc

An apt metaphor, Jess.

I hope 'metaphor' is the right word to use.

I think so. I don't have cat. There was a woman on the radio with an obese cat. She sounded as if she was as hooked on giving the cat snacks as the cat was determined to keep on getting them. No accounting for tastes

You might be able to control a cat in that way, but if many people have access to your house there'll always be someone who feels sorry for it and wants to give it a treat! Or someone else who thinks you're being cruel to it...

I prefer Eddie Izzard's account of how Pavlov tried training a cat, before his success with dogs. [Grin] Here:

championdogtrainingeducation.com/2013/02/eddie-izzard-pavlovs-cat/

Thanks for this post Jess, I have been following this plan for some time and have limited myself to entering only certain rooms. It's been quite disheartening at times, but I have persevered - I do hope others will follow suit.

that's the problem ana in a nutshell.
when loved the way he got the accent wrong and then worked it in. Changed name from Evans to Pavlov.
Think maybe entitling most new threads things like yucky gynaecological problems might be the equivalent of putting a sign on the kitchen door that says, in cat writing, nothing in here is going to be interesting to cats, ever. Only dog stuff.

But it would soon become evident that they weren't all about such things, and cats being very curious creatures wouldn't be able to resist having a look...and having a poke around.

not meaning it entirely seriously ana about calling threads after gynaecological conditions but there are patterns in cat behaviour - they are attracted to fish, milk, cosy baskets in front of the fire etc, but not other subjects like leads, walks , jumping in the river to retrieve sticks etc

Just remembered a quote, someone once referred to Houston (a vast urban sprawl) as "the blob that ate East Texas*. Reminded me of the cat that completely dominated the kitchen by doing that 'feed me feed me' routine every time a pair of ankles hoved into view.