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Cats Fears & Anxieties Life at Home Veterinary Care

Antibiotics Aren’t Always The Solution To Feline Urinary Woes

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Reading Time: 3 minutes If you’ve ever had a urinary tract infection, you know how distressing the signs can be. It hurts, and you feel the urgency to urinate but can release only a few dribbles. Cats can also have urinary signs, although infections are less common than in humans. The discomfort of LUTS, as veterinarians call lower urinary […]

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Activities & Enrichment Dogs Fears & Anxieties Holidays Life at Home Training & Grooming

6 Tips for Keeping Your Dog Stress-Free on Independence Day

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Independence Day is an exciting holiday for humans, but it can be a stressful one for dogs. The loud noises and bright flashes from fireworks can frighten them so severely that they run away, ending up lost or in shelters. Fortunately, you can take precautions to help your dog be less fearful as well as […]

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Dogs Life at Home Training & Grooming

Why Does My Dog Look Guilty?

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Reading Time: 2 minutes When your dog meets you at the door, head low with ears slicked back and eyes averted, is that a canine apology? Does your dog look guilty? The behaviors certainly mimic what humans associate with feeling shame or apology. Whether or not this accurately reflects the dog’s true feelings is open to debate. Not all […]

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Activities & Enrichment Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Life at Home Training & Grooming

Helping Your Dog or Cat Chill May Add Years to their Lives

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Can fear, anxiety, and stress be stealing precious heartbeats from your beloved pet at home? That’s the theory being studied by Dr. Robert Hamlin, DVM, PhD, Diplomate ACVIM. His work is examining the idea that stress, especially when it triggers the body’s fight or flee “sympathetic storm” mechanism, not only affects the quality of your […]

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Cats Dogs Fears & Anxieties Life at Home Other Training & Grooming

Why Fear Free? Behavior Expert Steve Dale Shares His Thoughts

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Have you ever felt you are about to die? I mean that literally, like you’ve been held up at gunpoint or held out a window by your suspenders 30 stories up? I’ve suggested for years that too many of our pets at the veterinary clinic feel like they are being held up at gunpoint or are […]

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Cats New Pets Veterinary Care

Your Kitten’s First Vet Visit: What To Expect

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Reading Time: 2 minutes Preparing for a veterinary visit—especially a first one—involves more than just calling to make an appointment. We want to share some tips to help ensure that you provide your veterinarian with everything needed to give your kitten the best care and that you get the information you need about caring for her yourself. When does […]

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Dogs Training & Grooming Veterinary Care

This Dog Has No Idea She Is Getting a Vaccine and It’s How Every Veterinary Visit Should Be

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Reading Time: < 1 minutes Dogs and cats aren’t capable of multitasking; they live in the moment. So if pets are busily and happily eating, it’s impossible for them to worry about anything else. In this case, I am certain Ethel had no idea that she was pricked with a syringe containing a vaccine. She never saw the needle. She […]

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Activities & Enrichment Cats Life at Home

Why Does My Cat Conduct “Gravity Experiments?” How Cats Play

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Reading Time: 3 minutes How cats play varies between kitties, but there are some techniques nearly all share. My cat Seren-Kitty played “gravity experiments,” knocking things off tables, until the past few years. At age 21, she’s finally slowed down, but before that Seren never had an off-switch and was a cat-play maniac from the moment she entered my […]

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Activities & Enrichment Cats Life at Home

Beat Feline Boredom With 3 Fun Cat Games

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Reading Time: 3 minutes Is your sofa arm shredded? Is the toilet paper off the roll and sprinkled like confetti on the bathroom floor? Are the items on your coffee table splattered across your living room floor? Ahem, your indoor cat is desperately trying to get your attention…and desperately trying to battle boredom. While studies show that indoor cats […]

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Activities & Enrichment Dogs Training & Grooming

The Nose Knows: Scent Game For Dogs Builds Confidence

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Reading Time: 3 minutes I’ve long thought dog sports were good for dogs’ souls. More than their souls, really — sports help them to face the world with confidence in themselves and their handlers. But never have I found a sport so suited for helping dogs gain confidence as nose work. Founded in 2008 by detection dog handlers Ron […]