Our cat knows that I am the alpha female of the house, but she attacks my 8 year old daughter. What can I do about this?
by 
pookie8
ANSWERS: 2
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The cat is doing this to attain a "higher rank" in the pecking order of your house. What you must do is punish her every time she attacks your daughter. There are two ways I know work to curb unwanted behavior in cats. One, give a hard swat on the hind quarters everytime she attempts this - nothing abusive or anything, but hard enough for her to know you mean business. It must be you, because she recognizes you as the leader. If this sounds cruel to you, another thing you can do punish with a spray of water. Everytime she tries to attack your daughter, squirt her with a water bottle or water pistol. Cats hate water, so this will be plenty distasteful to any cat.
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As mentioned by someone else, a quick squirt of water is usually the best deterrent. Stamping your foot on the floor not too far from where the cat is and saying "no" loudly and forcefully is also a short-term solution you can use when there's no water handy. But you might want to ask yourself if your daughter is doing anything special (maybe completely unintentionally) to set the cat off. I have two younger sisters; our cat attacks the middle one, but not the youngest. We think this is because the middle sister plays more physically with the cat, rather like when kittens will playfully attack each other. Fully domesticated cats often treat their humans like other cats. Your cat may be "attacking," or she may just think she's playing a game. But either way, you want to dissuade her from doing it and the spray bottle of water usually works best.
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