Maine Coon tries to climb over a child gate rather than through the hole made for him (video)

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The video shows a Maine Coon (Gizmo) exasperating his owner because he refuses to go through a hole cut into a child gate and prefers to jump over it which he struggles to do. It is an amusing video on TikTok (@gizmos_best_life), which is at the base of the page.

Maine Coon wants to go over a child gate rather than through the hole made for him
Maine Coon wants to go over a child gate rather than
through the hole made for him. Screenshot.


Anyway, that's the technical stuff out of the way but there is another technical question and that is why this Maine Coon does what he does. Why can't he go through the hole that his lady owner has built for him? It must have been quite troublesome to do it. And there is the gaping hole staring him in the face.

"For some reason he tried climbing over the gate instead of going through the hole that we specifically cut out for the cats to use. I had to climb up to show him how to use it." - owner, Kayla.

I have one suggestion and it's this. This cat has been trained to believe that the child gate is impassable. My guess is that the hole was cut into it after the gate had been there for a period of time during which the cat was self-trained to believe that the gate is impassable and to not see the hole. 

Also, the hole is camouflaged by the other smaller holes. This makes it harder to recognise, I'd suggest.

It is the kind of training you see when you keep a cat indoors full-time. If you do that for, say, two years and then suddenly you open the patio doors to the garden the cat will go up to the door frame and not go through it. 

It is almost as if there is an invisible glass panel blocking the way. It's about training and conditioning. It's about indoctrinating a cat to believe something and they cannot adjust quickly into disbelieving it and altering their point of view.

Of course, it depends on the cat. I am referring to a domestic cat. The same does not apply to a pet wild cat. They'd probably race through the open door to freedom.

The point here is that this Maine Coon will learn quite quickly that the hole exists. In fact, I am sure that the lady placed her Maine Coon cat up to the hole and gently pushed him through it. If you do that a few times he will get the message. The spell that the gate is impassable would have been broken.

It is this kind of mental conditioning that takes place all the time with domestic cats and of course with humans. All the rhythms and habits that form between cat and person are underpinned by conditioning. This is simply a specific example of it.

It is not a case of a Maine Coon acting stupid. Any domestic cat might do this. Once again it depends on the individual cat and how confident and independent-minded they are. Intelligence might play a part too.

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