Many feline behavior problems including inappropriate elimination and aggression respond better to environmental modification than to behavior suppression techniques.
Feline behavior problems are almost always environmental mismatches rather than character flaws - cats eliminating outside the box usually have a good reason related to box cleanliness, type, location, or medical issues. Punishment-based approaches worsen anxiety-driven behaviors and damage the human-cat relationship. Welfare-conscious behavior management identifies the environmental or medical root cause and addresses it systematically. The high success rate of environmental modification for feline behavior problems means that most cats with behavior problems can remain in their homes with appropriate intervention.