Fear Free Happy Homes
Reading Time: 3 minutes Have you ever slipped on a slick floor? The feeling that you’re about to fall, or actually falling and hurting yourself, is a scary one, sending the stomach flip-flopping with anxiety. Dogs might seem to have an advantage with four legs to balance on, but slippery surfaces can be just as frightening to them as […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes There are lots of positive ways to reduce fear, anxiety, and stress in the life of a cat, and many of them involve providing our feline friends with a more normal environment: one that meets their natural needs or is attractive in other ways. We found some favorites here at Global Pet Expo, all of […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes You’ve noticed your dog hates hats. As in people wearing them. What’s going on? Has he become a fashion critic? We take for granted our dogs’ incredibly acute senses of smell and hearing. But dogs also rely on vision to navigate their world. Depending on their breed, age, and the circumstances around the headgear, dogs […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes You’ve had the most wonderful vacation ever, and you can’t wait to get home to the fur kids. But your cat’s vacation angst makes her want nothing to do with you. She even *gasp* pees and poops outside the box to get back at you. It’s obvious Kitty is mad because you abandoned her. Or […]
Reading Time: 4 minutes Why all the lab work before your pet’s spay/neuter surgery or other procedure? He looks healthy, and as far as you know, there’s nothing wrong with him. The key words are “as far as you know.” Pre-operative testing is an important part of pre-surgical prep that can alert your veterinarian to underlying problems that could […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Not long ago, a woman contacted me about her dog. He was an accomplished trash can raider and recently had surgery to remove several foreign objects from his intestinal tract. “I guess it’s time for him to be trained,” she said. This idea that training is something that happens to the dog is not unusual. […]
Reading Time: 2 minutes Scratching. It’s a perfectly normal, natural cat behavior that meets grooming, exercise, and communication needs. But while cats enjoy the sensation of scratching and use their scratch marks to send messages to other cats—“Blinky was here” or “Look how big I am!”—the destructive nature of the habit can put owners and cats at odds with […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes Has your pet come face to face with a coyote recently? Even if you were right there, it probably struck fear not only into your pet’s heart but into yours as well. As urbanization sprawls into canyons, woodlands, and other areas that until recently have been home to animals only, confrontations between wildlife, humans, dogs, […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes How do I know my pet loves me? I get asked this question a lot! I suppose first I need to address whether or not pets can love. They certainly do have emotional capacity, as Temple Grandin, Ph.D., pointed out in her book, “Animals in Translation.” Others have demonstrated the same regarding the similar brain […]
Reading Time: 3 minutes A half-century ago, most cats lived outdoors, rarely visited the veterinary clinic, and lacked any commercial toys designed to encourage them to play with a purpose. The year was 1968, and there was not a single cat-only veterinary practice in the country. Funding for feline behavioral research was essentially nonexistent. You’ve come a long way, […]