Fearful to Friendly
(F2F)
Constructional Fear Treatment
for Cats
F2F logo designed by Amber Drake Designs
An effective, fast, safe approach to
socializing feral and fearful cats
Nearly, 100% of feral domestic cats that are relinquished to animal shelters are euthanized for behavioral reasons. They do not meet the animal shelter’s adoptability criteria since they emit a myriad of undesirable behaviors in the presence of humans. Until now there has been no effective systematic way to tame feral cats once they were over a few weeks of age. The Fearful to Friendly (F2F): Constructional Fear Treatment for Cats procedure offers animal welfare organizations an alternative to euthanasia for feral and fearful felines.
Jesús Rosales-Ruiz, PhD and Angela D. Rentfro are currently conducting applied animal behavior analytic research at the University of North Texas. Their F2F research resulted in an effective, fast, safe and systematic procedure for taming feral and fearful felines so they meet adoptability requirements. In a matter of hours “unadoptable” feral kittens are behaving in friendly ways, approaching people and soliciting petting.
F2F is designed to set the animal up for success. It promotes the animal’s well being by minimizing stressors in the environment while training the feline that emitting desirable behaviors will get you what you want. This procedure uses shaping with negative & positive reinforcement to increase desirable responding in feral and fearful felines.
The F2F DVD will describe step-by-step how to conduct the procedure and the philosophy behind it. The F2F DVD is appropriate for anyone working with cats in shelter and rescue organizations, as well as those who have fearful cats in their homes that they would like to help.
The F2F procedure is used to train feral and fearful cats and kittens to emit the friendly behaviors necessary to be companion animals. Shelter staff/volunteers can be trained to teach feral and fearful felines the desirable behaviors required to meet adoptability criteria. Potential adopters are more likely to interact with a cat that is behaving friendly, thus increasing the cat’s chances of being adopted. The new behaviors the animal learns become so effective in getting the animal what it wants that the undesirable behaviors are no longer necessary and thus are no longer emitted.
F2F is not limited to socializing feral and fearful cats.
F2F can be modified to help a wide variety of domestic and exotic fearful animals.
In the F2F DVD, Dr. Jesus Rosales-Ruiz and Angela D. Rentfro discuss behavioral techniques that reduce stress on fearful animals and help transform their behavior from fearful to friendly. The behavioral framework provided by the F2F procedure is applicable to domestic and exotic animals that are fearful of people or objects and want those scary things to go away. Our research is geared toward socializing feral & fearful cats and kittens, but the F2F procedure can be adapted to benefit both domestic and exotic fearful animals including birds, cows, dogs, goats, horses, llamas, rabbits, capybaras, etc. The F2F procedure can help animals show better to the public, increase adoptability, and make it easier to provide care to fearful animals. We want to be able to help as many animals as possible, so please help us get the word out to the animal community about this life-saving research.
